The final round of the 2002 World Supersport Championship at Imola was a short-lived affair for the outgoing champion, Andrew Pitt. Second away from the line at the start, the Fuchs Kawasaki rider crashed out of the race on lap three, after being covered in oil by the exploding Yamaha of Italian, Stefano Corradi.

Corradi, riding in front of his home crowd, had just passed Pitt for second when a huge plume of smoke erupted from the rear of his machine. Pitt, already lining up to reclaim second place from the Italian, suddenly found himself, the bike and the track in front of him liberally coated with a thick film of engine oil. With oil on both front and rear tyres, the Australian slid off his Fuchs Kawasaki ZX-6RR uninjured as he attempted to negotiate the next turn.

'One minute I was looking for a way past and the next, I couldn't see a thing,' explained Pitt. 'My visor was completely covered in oil and I couldn't get hold of the tear-off because there was even more oil on my gloves. I slowed right down, but there was obviously oil on both tyres as well, because they just went out from under me as I tipped into the next turn.'

'With the amount of oil that came out of Corradi's bike, I can't believe the race wasn't stopped straight away - especially when you look at how quickly the red flags came out in the Superbike race when Neil Hodgson slid off on oil. I so wanted to end the season with a good result; not so much for me, but for the team, who've all worked so hard this year. It's been a long hard year, but congratulations to Fabien; he's ridden well this season and is a worthy champion,' added Pitt.

Pitt's Fuchs Kawasaki team-mate, James Ellison, rode an impressive race at Imola this afternoon, adding to his championship points tally with a twelfth place finish, after starting from the sixth row of the grid.

'I'm happy enough with twelfth place, as we put together a good race after the disappointment of qualifying,' said Ellison. 'It was frustrating because I was trying as hard as I could; backing it in to the turns, but as a result it was hard to pass anyone on the brakes. What was even more annoying was that I could see Cruciani in ninth, and I’d been promised that if I made the top ten then I could do a burnout - and I love burnouts.'