THE Ducati ridden by Carl Fogarty for his third world title is set to smash the world record for a bike at auction.

The 996cc machine is expected to fetch £130,000 at a sale of exotic motorbikes at Sotheby's in Chicago next month.

The current record stands at £52,000 for a Honda NR750 in 1991.

Also on sale is the Ducati Monster that Fogarty rode in the paddock areas during his third world title success.

That bike, complete with trademark snarling shark, is expected to fetch up to £12,000 and Fogarty's racing leathers are up for grabs at around £4,000.

Fogarty was today aiming to perfect his bike's set-up as his bid to retain the World Superbikes title resumes in Austria tomorrow.

Yesterday's practice and qualifying session were hampered by early morning rain on a track covered in rubber deposits after a recent Formula One meeting - and Fogarty did not even attempt to set a quick time on soft qualifying tyres. He said: "In the afternoon I started getting more confident with the track. "The lines I use only dried out towards the end of the session and I was also concentrating on not ending up on parts of the track that are still slippery.

"I was blocked by a few slower riders and only had the track free for one lap. The bike set-up is good but I need to work on improving the grip."

Fogarty finished fifth fastest while the Casrtol Honda pair of Colin Edwards and Aaron Slight were fastest ahead of Austrian wild card rider Andreas Meklau, who lives just 300m from the track.

Qualifying times: 1 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 1m 31.265s, 2 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 1m 31.472s, 3 Andy Meklau, Austria (Ducati) 1m 31.761s, 4 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 1m 31.794s, 5 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 1m 31.886s, 6 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 1m 31.963s

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.