Cal Crutchlow: World Supersport Champion 2009

Cal Crutchlow became Britain’s first-ever World Supersport champion in a year that has seen him become hot property in the world of racing.

With ten poles and five wins, Crutchlow took the title by seven points after a tactical ride to fourth place at Portimao.

After extensive celebrations the 23-year-old arrived in parc ferme in tears, overwhelmed at his achievement of becoming world champion.

He said: “To come from the back streets of Coventry to World Champion is pretty special.

“Yamaha put a great package behind me and we’ve made it happen. It was a combination of both myself and Yamaha putting in a lot of effort and we got the job done.

“I’m happy because I don’t think that there is another rider on circuit that could have done the same job as I have on the Yamaha.

“We’ve ended Honda¹s dominance and that feels good as well.”