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relatively slow-starting James Whitham. With his Belgarda teammate out, Whitham set about the arduous task of catching Pitt to try and relegate the Aussie into the minor placings, thus allowing Casoli to win, even from pitlane. Pitt, on the other hand, had obvious designs on the win, having never scored one in two years of trying. Whitham's inspired runs through the field saw him pass Fabien Foret and Vitto Guareschi in rapid fashion, sitting right on Pitt's tail by the eighth lap, with Foret making it a four-rider fight for the lead shortly afterward. Foret, sitting behind the warring Kawasaki and Yamaha riders, got into the act by passing both, then running wide at the exit of Rivazza 1, chopping the nose off Whitham on the second part and causing him to sit up and then to sit behind for a while. Foret maintained his second place and when Whitham went ahead of Pitt entering the final chicane on lap 10, the Italians went wild with the prospect of their man moving a step closer to victory. Guareschi, the latest lifeline for Casoli's championship hopes as he closed on the leaders, crashed out at just as he had started making real headway. Muggeridge, fading somewhat, dropped to an insecure third on lap 12, but Pitt, knowing his championship position, seemed content to sit behind the rest and wait for things to develop. The pace at the front was such that the top riders were distancing themselves from the previously chasing pack, with eight seconds separating Foret from Riba in fifth on lap 16. Pitt, slipping still further back, was still handsomely ahead of the toiling Riba, Macpherson and Teuchert as the race would up to a close. Whitham, desperate to take just one more win from an up-and-down season, tried to pass Foret at the last gasp and only succeeded in punting "I'm still in a bit of shock at the moment," Pitt said. "I'm sure it will sink in a bit later on. The championship is what I've been fighting for all year and now we can start to celebrate a job well done. Throughout the race it was a little hard to concentrate when) saw Casoli crash, but I just put my head down and went as hard as I could. I would have liked to have won a race this year, because it's a little funny winning the championship without winning a race, but I'm sure we'll break the drought next year." As for Casoli ... the Italian said: "Everyone in World Supersport knows that Karl Muggeridge is dangerous. He is a dirty rider. When we were on the straight approaching the corner where I fell, he moved over on me and when we touched our machines become locked together. When I brake, the bike goes down. I have rubber marks from his tire on my shoulder. I am very angry. Where we touched was not a slow corner, so it was especially dangerous." CN himself over the handlebars, almost crashing out. The final order, Foret (for the second time this season), Muggeridge (still without a Suzuki win) and Whitham made Pitt miss the podium ceremony proper, but as new World Champion - without a win - he alighted the top step to receive his huge trophy for being the champion. His consistency, in being the only top rider to have scored points in every race, made him Champion. The post-race ramifications about the eligibility of Pitt's chassis brought a protest from Yamaha, which was rejected by the FIM, and Pitt's win just became more shrouded in contention. Pitt's manager, Harald Eckl, gave Yamaha a hard time about the protest, but the biggest slaggings came from Casoli, who apologized for his behavior in the Alstare Pit garage, but laid into Muggeridge in a hastily convened press conference to explain his side of the crash story. Supers port, the most unpredictable of all motorsports it seems, strikes again. Check aul Aprilia's Warld Championship inspired machines IIday aid lake adlanlage af incredible year·end salings. Up la 12111 • I~e III 1111 Mille aId Millel. An. up II '81 al lIIe streel sllarlll1 II FalcH. Fir Ihe learesl Aprilia dealer call loll free: (Ill) Aprilia or check out www.ApriliaUSA.com PerIn_IDee • u c I _ IISsil. I •• tee •• 111 n __ S • OCTOBER 10, 2001 27