OFFICIAL PROGRAMME tyre choices and rider frailties all played a part in the final impossibly stressful outcome . Karl Muggeridge would win the race - the first for Honda in WorldSSP - but when Kellner made up for taking his own team-mate Teuchert out at their home round of Oschersleben in the preceding event , Teuchert ’ s tyre strategy worked out perfectly . Just . He won the title from Casoli , Chambon and Kellner himself . But , had Kellner won the race he would have been champion , not Teuchert , given the fact that Chambon has suffered a bike breakdown and no scored . Casoli had his own troubles down in fifth and Teuchert had needed all the help from Kellner he could get in the race , clearing a path for him . Kellner had been told by his Team Manager to help his team-mate no matter what after his double-crashing gaffe in the penultimate round , and hadn ’ t realise he could still win the title himself . That ’ s just one of the permutations that could have come true . Chambon could still have won the title even thought he was in the pitlane , watching the laps count down , in tears . A couple of leaders crashing out or running wide n the desperate last laps and the struggling Casoli would have been champion . If Casoli had crashed or slowed down even more on the drying track Chambon could have still been champion . If the battling James Whitham had got past Teuchert for second Chambon would have been champion . ( Whitham missed his target by a few metres ). Had Kellner realised the situation in the heat of battle , maybe he would have taken his one and only chance to be champion , by winning a race it looked like he could have taken if he so desired ? The greatest , most finely balanced finish to a title in all motorsports history ? Well , tell me a more dramatic deciding race than that ? With Suzuki and Yamaha having provided champions in years 1 and 1 , another one would get its chance in year three . Andrew Pitt ( Kawasaki ) was tenth in that 2000 season but in 2001 he would go on and win the title himself . He did it without winning a race , bizarrely , but his consistency and a no-score from Paolo Casoli in the final race gave Pitt the first of what would be two WorldSSP titles . In 2002 a certain Frenchman called Fabien Foret would take the title for a group of guys who owned a bike shop in the Netherlands and were about to become the biggest legends the class has ever seen . Ten Kate won that title with their home-brewed Honda , and until a certain
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