Kawasaki rider Andrew Pitt claimed his and the all-new Ninja ZX-RR prototype’s first World Championship points in today’s last GP of the 2002 season, with a steady ride to 12th in a race of attrition, and a reward of four points.

The Australian former World Supersport champion had qualified in 18th, his best-yet grid position since he first rode the new lime-green Kawasaki two races ago. Pitt took over from factory tester Akira Yanagawa, sidelined by injury in a crash in the machine’s debut race at Motegi in Japan.

The race went smoothly for Pitt, who managed to avoid a start-line melee, then circulated steadily to move up into the points by the sixth of 30 laps of the 4.005km Ricardo Tormo circuit at Valencia.

Today’s race brings to close the first phase of development of the new 990cc prototype Ninja – a four-race shake-down program to precede winter testing, to prepare the new Kawasaki for its full-time GP return next year.

Andrew Pitt – 12th: "I’m really happy. We’ve been trying for three races to get some points, and we finally got some, for the hard work everybody has put in. It’s great for me and the team. Half way through the race I saw that I was 14th and in the point rankings, and to gain even a couple of places more in the end was good. My other aim was to be able to fight with the others which was fun also. Only at the beginning it was a bit frustrating at the start because the two guys I was fighting with were going much slower than I felt I could be going. Once I got past, I pulled away a bit. That was good, really. I now know how to ride the bike, and I just need to concentrate on doing it right every lap, and not to fall back into the old habits. Of course I made a few little mistakes in the race, and without these I probably could have gotten Hopkins in the end. But that’s the way it went. The two-strokes I was riding with were a little bit faster in the turns but not as fast as I thought they would be. A couple of times I was almost tripping over them."

Harald Eckl - Team Manager: " It’s good that we took our first world championship points even though it was just twelfth place. I am happy for Andrew, and for Kawasaki, that we reached the chequered flag in all three races with Andrew without any technical problems. That’s the first small success. Andrew has learnt a lot in the past three races, and we have also learnt a lot as far as our motorcycle and the set-up go. The new season starts for us right now, with our tests on Tuesday. It definitely was the right decision to take on the challenge of these first races, rather than test by ourselves secluded from our competitors. It might not have been the appearance people expected from Kawasaki, but we as a team are satisfied and we are looking forward to the next season with confidence."