From a press release issued by Pirelli:

2003 WORLD SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP IS PIRELLI’S SECOND IN A ROW

(Rome, GA) With so much attention being focused on its being named the spec tire for World Superbike, it can be easy to forget that Pirelli has been winning world championships straight up in multi-brand competition – not to mention its total domination of the last two Isle of Man TT meetings.

The latest example is the 2003 World Supersport Championship, the 600cc component of the World Superbike series for DOT rubber. Pirelli and its Supercorsa radial captured their second championship in a row this year in the series that’s been lauded for its extremely-close, paint-swapping action. (There were those who thought its racing was tighter and more competitive on a regular basis than World Superbike.) Coming off its 2002 championship with Fabian Foret on the Honda Factory Ten Kate team, Pirelli and Ten Kate won again this year with the just-turned 21-year-old Aussie, Chris Vermeulen whose victory made him the youngest-ever World Supersport champion. (Foret, who had moved to Kawasaki for the 2003 season, is coming back to Pirelli in ’04 as a member of the Yamaha Belgarda team with Jurgen van den Goorbergh.) Vermeulen rode extremely hard and well, and in fact his biggest competition late in the season came mostly from teammate and fellow countryman, Karl Muggeridge, also on a Honda CBR600RR.

Gaining more strength as the season wound down, Pirelli racers dominated the last three rounds. They took first and second, with Muggeridge and Vermeulen respectively, at the ninth round in Assen, swept the tenth-round podium at Imola, again with Muggeridge beating Vermeulen (who clinched the championship), and van den Goorbergh on the Belgarda Yamaha R6.

And at the final round in Magny Cours, Pirelli swept the first four positions, with Vermeulen, Muggeridge, van den Goorbergh, and Sebastien Charpentier on the Honda France CBR.

When the last checkered flag had flown, Pirelli Supercorsas claimed not only the 2003 Championship but also third place for van den Goorbergh, and fourth for Muggeridge (thanks to his late-season charge). Vermeulen had won by a huge 64-point margin over Stephane Chambon in second. Van den Goorbergh missed second in the championship by a single point, with Muggeridge only two points back of him a testament to the closeness of the action, and the supremacy of the Supercorsas.