In 2022 the FIM Supersport World Championship will , in a number of ways , have literally grown up compared to the series we first saw become a full FIM World Championship just before the turn of the new millennium . The first ever WorldSSP championship , as we know it now as a full FIM championship at least , began in 1999 . But in reality it actually came into being in 1997 . No , my perception of space and time has not gone haywire , because that is when the World Supersport Series began - a new global production-derived championship running in parallel with the existing FIM Superbike World Championship , which had kicked it all off way back in 1988 . The Supersport World Series was a World Championship in all but name but ultimately the FIM did not make it a full World Championship until 1999 . The 1997 series champion was Paolo Casoli ( Ducati ); the next one the late and much lamented Fabrizio Pirovano ( Suzuki ). But in 1999 the real lift-off in Supersport racing ’ s fortunes with that all important World Championship blessing took the importance and status of the championship to a new level . It was a hit with factories and fans from the start , with Ducati carrying on with its 748cc 90 degree Vee-twin , and all the Japanese piling in with their own proper teams with CBR600s , R6s , ZX-6Rs and GSX-Rs . Yes , we had differential capacity rules from day one , just like we are going to expand into in a bigger , broader way next year . Final tech specs and performance control strategies still to be announced , of course . In 1999 the very track-focused GSXR600 ended up winning from the much more road-oriented Kawasaki ZX-6R , and Stephane Chambon taking the title from Ian Macpherson . Check out some of these names for year one race winners … Macpherson ’ s fellow Briton James Whitham , Jörg Teuchert , Wilco Zeelenberg , Piergiorgio Bontempi and Ruben Xaus … Six different nationalities of rider right there . Not a bad field , you have to say … Cue year two and what built up to be the greatest finish to any motorsport championship in the history of the world , ever . Don ’ t believe me ? Try this series of events on for size . Any one of Casoli , Teuchert , Chambon and Christian Kellner could have won the championship , right up to the final exit of the final corner of the whole season . Iffy conditions at Brands Hatch in October , different tyre brands and
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