The latest changes have been made to the European World Superbike calendar, and no new ones are expected yet: exactly one month is left before the start of the 34th World Superbike season!
The championship was born in 1988, thanks to the initiative of the Italian promoters Fabio and Matteo Flamini, as well as their partners, who then merged into Infront Motorsport with an office in Rome. The competition format proposed at the very beginning in FIM was rejected. Each national federation had a Superbike championship in its calendar, and the idea of uniting them in a certain world series looked vague due to too serious differences in regulations, and just in the concept of the word “Superbike”. What is a Superbike? The concept of “Superbike” at its core is a production motorcycle of the top class (750 cc for 1988 and 1000 cc from 2000), modified by the dealer (this is a very important point!) – lightweight, tuned and well tuned. Initially, according to Infront’s plan, the World Superbike series was supposed to become a championship of private teams – teams organized by factory dealers, but not by the factories themselves. When the first superbikes appeared, this was the case, moreover, in all national series.
Hockenheim, 1988 – the third race in World Superbike history The AMA Superbike and Australian Road Race Championsip took the lead in this type of motorcycle road racing. It was from Australia that the strongest racers came to the States to show what they are capable of. Also, the Australians set the bar in the Japanese and Pan-Asian series (they were easier to reach than America). In Europe, then the Moto Grand Prix championship ruled the ball, and serial motorcycles were chased exclusively in the tourist trophy races. There were also some championships in Italy, Germany and France, but there everyone was striving for the Grand Prix, and the trends were completely different. Finally, the British Superbike has never been as strong as it has become over the past 30 years. With the emergence of WSBK, everything changed in a couple of years. The idea of creating WorldSBK Flammini proposed to reform the Formula TT class, which implied participation in the Isle of Man TT and other trophy series of pilots on modified production motorcycles with engines of 750 and 1000 cc. The FIM agreed to give the series World Cup status. It was enough to spend the very first season at the circuit of Europe, Japan and Australia. The series was a success; in the second year, many world stars went to the start.