THE mathematics were complicated, the outcome simple.

Carl Fogarty secured his fourth world championship the only way he knows how - by winning.

The title was sealed when Ducati team-mate Troy Corser's rear tyre blew on lap 11 of the first race in Hockenheim.

And there was an element of good fortune when Fogarty went on to win that race by default.

But the crown was not won through good luck in this one race.

It was won at Kyalami, at Monza, at Misano, at Assen and at all the other circuits where Fogarty has proved himself to be in a different class to the best riders in the world.

A ding dong second race emphasised the skill of his rivals and was eventually won through a brilliant piece of aggression by Pierfrancesco Chili, who beat Fogarty on the brakes on the last lap.

And, while a handful of other riders have enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame throughout the series, Fogarty's consistent brilliance has rendered him untouchable in championship terms.

"If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it," he succinctly explained.

The aim going into the race was to protect a lead of 71 points.

But, in a classic illustration of attack being the best form of defence, Fogarty emerged from Germany with an incredible lead of 107 points.

And although Fogarty did not set out to win his 11th race of the campaign, he still ended up at the top of the podium.

For while Aaron Slight was first over the finish line, the red flag that signals a premature end to the race had already been shown after a nasty crash when Peter Goddard's rear tyre blew causing Igor Jerman to come off. He was lucky to escape with superficial injuries. So the race result was taken from the start of the final lap, when Fogarty was just in front of the Castrol Honda man.

The Japanese team launched an official complaint and Slight refused to take up his amended podium position of second.

It was, however, largely immaterial as Corser's premature retirement had already signalled a record fourth World Superbikes title for Blackburn's finest. Fogarty was blissfully unaware of the Australian's demise entering the final lap of an enthralling race in which the lead constantly chopped and changed between Fogarty, Chili, Corser and Slight.

It all proved too much for Chili's Suzuki and his engine blew early on, leaving a two-way battle between Fogarty and his Kiwi arch rival.

He added: "I knew I had an extremely good chance and I just had to keep my head together and ride a good race.

"The pressure was getting to me - I'm only human at the end of the day.

"It was a hard race because I wasn't relaxed and I wasn't that confident. It was hard to get into any kind of rhythm.

"My board said Troy was ninth so I thought 'All I've got to do is bring it home and the title's mine'."

The pressure was off, though, for the second race, one of the best of the series.

Again the lead was constantly contested between the leading pack of seven riders.

And again Fogarty looked to have timed it to perfection when he used the strong slipstream to cruise into the lead on the last lap from third place past Chili and Slight. The Italian, though, was out to prove a point that he could win races in the dry as well as wet conditions and he out-braked Fogarty with just a couple of bends remaining.

He added: "That was the most relaxing race I've had for a long time. It was nice to do a race with no pressure so I was trying to help Troy.

"I put in a final push on the last two or three laps and I thought I had timed it to perfection.

"But I wasn't aggressive enough on the brakes and when you look at the day I had you could understand why."

The party preparations had been made in advance and the Ducati team dug out a crown that Fogarty had been given by a Monte Carlo TV crew for an interview in Misano earlier in the year.

T-shirts detailing his four world titles had also been pre-printed. And that T-shirt company are confident of a repeat order this time next year.

FIRST RACE RESULT: 1 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 26m 19.818s, 2 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 26m 20.045s, 3 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 26m 24.924s, 4 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 26m 25.226s, 5 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 26m 30.016s, 6 Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Kawasaki) 26m 42.721s, 7 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 26m 43.115s, 8 Peter Goddard, Australia (Aprilia) 26m 43.402s, 9 Igor Jerman, Slovenia (Kawasaki) 26m 43.466s, 10 Vittoriano Guareschi, Italy (Yamaha) 26m 46.382s.

SECOND RACE: 1 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Suzuki) 28m 26.624s, 2 Fogarty 28m 26.966s, 3 Slight 28m 27.047s, 4 Yanagawa 28m 27.083s, 5 Edwards 28m 27.786s, 6 Andy Meklau, Austria (Ducati) 28m 32.614s, 7 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 28m 40.449s, 8 Lavilla 28m 43.702s, 9 Haga 28m 43.759s, 10 Fujiwara 28m 44.001s.

MANUFACTURERS STANDINGS: 1 Ducati 538, 2 Honda 438, 3 Kawasaki 304, 4 Suzuki 274, 5 Yamaha 237, 6 Aprilia 84.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.