Andrew Pitt - 2006 Rider Profile

Former supersport world champion Andrew Pitt returns to Yamaha Motor Italia and the Superbike World Championship following an impressive rookie year in 2005.

The 30-year-old from New South Wales in Australia, who is also a qualified accountant, has proved his ability on a variety of machinery: from winning the 2001 Supersport World Championship to competing full-time in MotoGP.

Pitt came to prominence in the Australian superbike and supersport championships in the late Nineties, winning the supersport title and coming second in superbike in 1999, before being snapped up by Kawasaki to race in the Supersport World Championship.

After spending 2000 learning the tracks and his new bike, Pitt took the title with a mightily consistent campaign in 2001. Andrew stayed with Kawasaki in 2002, just missing out on the supersport title but having the honour of scoring the Japanese manufacturer's first points in MotoGP when he took their new ZX-RR prototype to 12th at the end of season Valencia Grand Prix.

That led to a full MotoGP campaign with Kawasaki in 2003, before joining Moriwaki to help develop their V5 MotoGP machine last season. That was until the call came from Yamaha Motor Italia to join their team for the last rounds of the Supersport World Championship. Pitt's class was obvious straight away, putting the R6 on the podium first time out and giving two other fine performances to end the year 12th in the final standings - despite entering just three races.

Just as importantly, Pitt proved what a technically gifted rider he is in those end of season outings and convinced the team to offer him a contract to ride the R1 in the 2005 Superbike World Championship. The Australian didn't disappoint, showing remarkable consistency and providing vital technical feedback in the R1's debut season. Andrew will look to bear the fruits of last year and improve on his eighth place in the 2005 championship.

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