The History Of Superbike Championships
The History Of Superbike Championships – Here’s a brief history of the Modified Production Motorcycle Championship and the riders who made it great
The Superbike World Championship as we know it today began in the United States in the early 1970s. The first “Superbike Production” race, as it was called back then, was held in 1973 as a side event to the races held at Laguna Seca in California. The new category received national recognition in 1976.
The History Of Superbike Championships
Very little was known about these races at the time outside of a circle of insiders and die-hard fans. Competitors were the maximum of today, such as Honda CB750F and VF750F, Suzuki GS1000 and Kawasaki KZ1000. The bikes were modified to deliver 140 hp but the setup was clearly standard production. They ran without fairings and with big handlebars and they were in great shape.
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Many of the riders had a dirt track background and were used to competing on dirt ovals. The riding position was decidedly different from that practiced in Europe but it was clearly effective, as riders of the caliber of Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey would demonstrate a few years later when American Superbike production raced on the world circuit. joined.
“Superbike Production” left the USA and World Superbike was launched in 1988. The first season was a kind of dress rehearsal: little or nothing was known about the new category. Newspapers didn’t report much about it and photos were few and far between (this was before the days of millions of digital photos). And yet it was a wonderful season, fighting on beautiful bikes until the last daring race. Fred Merkel on the Honda RC30 won, with Fabrizio Pirovano, Yamaha FZR, in second, and Davide Tardozzi, Bimota YB4, third. Ducati, Kawasaki and Suzuki were the rising stars. Major motorcycle manufacturers did not miss this opportunity because it was immediately clear that this new category was something special. The makers understood it and so did the fans.
The Top Category 500 World Championship was exclusively dominated by small displacement two-stroke engines. This is not to say that the 500 2T Grand Prix bikes were less than superbikes. On the contrary, they are still legendary, but there was still no race for motorcycles, based on the modified production model. In the end, they created a roar that had not been heard on the tracks since the days of Augustine.
In those years, the stars of the Top Category 500 World Championship were extraordinary riders whose names would go down in history, such as Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Gardner, Michael Doohan (most of whom came from Superbike. production). But it was a different spectacle and a different atmosphere. The SBK riders battled each other fiercely on the track without a beat but then once they got off the bike they went out to celebrate together.
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Then there were motorcycles. While fans can only watch the GPs in the race, they can buy a superbike from a dealer. Sure, racing bikes have changed a lot but in the early days, they weren’t all that different. It didn’t take long for the SBK championship to fade away and the powerful media push for speed manufacturers to build production racing bikes because the rules required the racing models to be “distinguished” from the models sold to the public.
So in just a few years, motorcyclists were presented with the rare opportunity to go from time-honored sports bikes to real race replicas, ushering in one of the most beautiful eras of motorcycling sports, namely the extraordinary, Beautiful and affordable. Motorcycles
In those days the parking areas outside the circuit where the races were held looked like pits, and in those days some of the most exciting sports motorcycles in history were built. One of them was the Ducati 916, which won six titles (from 1994 to 2001) from the first version to the last, followed by the Japanese Kawasaki ZXR 750, Honda RC 30, VTR1000, Suzuki GSX-R and Yamaha YZF R7.
Closer in time, notable are the three titles of the Aprilia RSV4, two with Massimiliano Baggi and six in a row for the Kawasaki ZX-10R since 2015, with Jonathan Ray, whose dominance was interrupted in 2021 by the Yamaha YZF of Toprak Rizgatlioglu. R1.
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The topic of riders is not simple. If we’re talking about titles, the first is Northern Irishman Jonathan Rea, the man with six consecutive victories with Kawasaki, followed by Englishman Carl Fogarty, a four-time champion with Ducati. If, on the other hand, talking about riders who have left their mark on the hearts of fans, Giancarlo Falappa is one of the ones that comes to mind. He never won a title, but before a serious crash ended his career in 1994, he was at the center of memorable feats, such as the famous 1993 race at Brands Hatch in the rain when he finished 20th in the group. Got seconds. Lap all drivers in the first lap and finish in seventh place.
Another rider we have in our hearts is Troy Bayliss who, apart from his exploits on the track, has ridden three generations of Ducati twin-cylinder bikes with three titles – the 996, 999 and 1098 – for his friendly attitude. He was famous. and sports. He was a fan favorite but it was a daring overtaking move that went down as one of the most spectacular in motorcycling history to earn him legendary status.
The stage was Monza in May 2000. Colin Edwards, Perfrancisco Chili, Akira Yanagawa and Noriyuki Haga were all close at the breaking point at the first checks after the finish. In the slipstream, Troy Bayliss caught Haga, held his position and passed Yanagawa, Chili and Edwards at the same time at the end of the straight break at 300 km/h. The crowd exploded and Superbike had its new hero.
Superbikes have come a long way, not only since the first American modified production bikes, but also since the 1990s. There are two reasons for this. Competition between motorcycle manufacturers has become increasingly fierce with much faster and more powerful motorcycles on the dealerships today than the racing machines of the past and the rules have been updated several times to allow for variations in different seasons. . As a result, the race is impressively fast, often close to MotoGP and the level of riders is very high. And the show goes on. Reg Pridmore was the first AMA Superbike Champion. We won the series in its first three years of existence: 1976, 1977, and 1978. While Pridmore only won 3 AMA Superbike Nationals during his four years on the circuit, it was his exceptional consistency that earned him three titles. received He rarely finished outside the top 5 and often did not get a place on the podium.
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Pridmore will always be remembered for winning the 1976 AMA Superbike Series on a Butler & Smith BMW R90S. Less memorable are the following two years, when he won the Superbike title on Racecrafters and then Vetter-sponsored Kawasaki KZ1000s. Pridmore was the first rider to win an AMA Superbike National on a Japanese-made motorcycle, when he won on August 21, 1977 aboard a Racecrafter KZ1000 at Pocono, PA.
Reginald Charles Pridmore was born on July 15, 1939 in London. He began racing in England in the early 1960s, winning his first race at Silverstone in 1961, in the rain, riding a Triumph 500 Tiger. Tired of the British weather and political climate, Pridmore decided to move to what he had always heard was the land of opportunity, America. 24 At that time, he sold almost all of his possessions and packed what was left into his car and put it on a boat to come to America. “I had a clean change of underwear, $250 and a dream of living in the sunshine,” Pridmore recalls.
Although he came to the East Coast, he was very specific about where he wanted to live. Southern California was the place he had always dreamed of, so he drove across the country, practically broke even, and settled in Santa Barbara.
Pridmore found that Americans persisted in their claim to the reward of labor. He soon returned to motorcycle racing at the Southern California tracks. He loved the four-stroke and was drawn to production-based racing.
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Pridmore did enough club racing to attract Norton’s attention. He rode the Nortons in 1971 and began competing in a few AMA Nationals. By 1972 he had caught the attention of BMW importer Butler & Smith and started riding BMWs. By the time Superbike became a recognized AMA National Championship event in 1976, Reg had a jump on his competitors with a wealth of experience on production-based machinery.
“Superbike became a recognized national