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The Superbike World Championship has existed since 1988 and, since then, motorcycle racing experts have been concerned with the question of how this racing series, with its production-based sports bikes, compares to the premier class (initially the 500 cc; since 2002, the four-stroke MotoGP class).
For many years, Maurizio and Paolo Flammini held the commercial rights to the Superbike World Championship, and they made every effort to present this championship as the true “premier class”. The Flammini Group claimed an incredible number of spectators during its events, and not only for those that were often dismal in Spain, even if the TV images gave a completely different impression. Flammini stuck to alternatives facts, as we later learned about in US politics.
However, the 500cc World Championship attracted more spectators and sponsors at all times. It was held on more attractive race tracks, there was more TV coverage, more attention was given to it in newspapers and other media channels and, last but not least, GP racing also featured more popular, more talented, and better riders, also in the two lower categories.
As an attentive and critical observer of the scene, I've always noticed that no top Superbike or Supersport rider has ever made it into GP racing and then managed to make a breakthrough in it. Instead, many top riders who could no longer get a contract in the GP paddock or find a decent team have gone on to achieve fame and glory in the production-based SBK or SSP categories. Some examples include: John Kocinski, Paolo Casoli, Max Biaggi, Sylvain Guintoli, Noriyuki Haga, Chaz Davies, Sandro Cortese, Randy Krummenacher, Domi Aegerter, Nicolò Bulega, and many others.
Álvaro Bautista was 125cc World Champion in 2006. He then became a great Moto2 World Championship rider and finished third on the podium three times in MotoGP with Gresini Honda, Aprilia, and Suzuki. But it was only in the Superbike World Championship with Ducati that he emerged as an exceptional talent, dominating in 2022 and 2023 and becoming World Champion twice.
Other Superbike stars, like Carl Fogarty and Jonathan Rea, never had the guts to compete with the best MotoGP riders at the peak of their talent. SBK world champions, such as Troy Corser and Troy Bayliss, made brief forays into GP racing, but soon returned to SBK with a sense of remorse. Marco Melandri had established himself as one of the best MotoGP riders, winning five MotoGP races, and was celebrated as runner-up in the 2005 World Championship on the Gresini Honda, before seeking his fortune with BMW and Aprilia in SBK, where he came close to winning the title several times. When Aprilia ordered him to return to MotoGP in 2015, he had lost his motivation for GP racing and would've preferred to stay in SBK.
Only a few riders managed to shine with a career in GP racing after collecting notable successes and titles in the SSP or SBK: Chris Vermeulen, Colin Edwards, Cal Crutchlow and Sam Lowes, for example, celebrated GP victories but were never involved in title fights. Even SBK World Champions like James Toseland (never in the top ten of the overall MotoGP standings) or Neil Hodgson (he finished 11th overall in the 500cc World Championship in 1995 on a private Yamaha) made no strong impression in the premier class.
Turkish rider, Kenan Sofuoglu, also failed in GP racing. He won the Supersport World Championship in 2007 and 2010 on a Honda and participated the Moto2 World Championship in 2011 on a Suter from the Swiss Technomag team, but he never manage to finish higher than 17th overall with 59 points. He was then subsequently relegated to SSP and went on to win three more world championships in this series in 2012, 2015, and 2016 on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R. Today, Kenan manages the outstanding Superbike World Championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu, and he has so far kept him wisely away from GP racing.
A burnt child dreads fire
If you look at SSP and SBK from a neutral perspective, it's fair to say that, even though the Flammini Group has always tried to portray SBK as the most attractive global motorcycle racing series, it never was. This was due, for example, to the fact that Ducati was allowed to race against 750cc four-cylinder bikes with 900cc twins in the early years and, contrary to all expectations, the V2 Ducati was superior for years as a result. Even later, when the displacement for the twins was increased to 1000 and 1200 cc, there were phases of agonizing superiority of one brand, for example Aprilia, Ducati or Kawasaki. When Ducati switched to the ingenious V4 Panigale with lots of MotoGP technology, a new supremacy was reached.
Furthermore, SBK races often took place in venues that GP racing ignored due to a lack of safety, inadequate infrastructures, and so on. Not much has changed to this day and circuits like Most and Cremona spring to mind. For years, the Superbike World Championship was regarded as a British Championship with some foreign participation thanks to supremacy of Carl Fogarty and his fellow countrymen, and four events a year in England (Silverstone, Brand Hatch, 2x Donington).
Flammini often boasted that more factories competed in the SBK than in the MotoGP World Championship. But, firstly, these SBK brands were often unsophisticated motorcycle companies, such as Benelli, Bimota or Petronas, which never built the numbers required for homologation, and, secondly, hardly anyone in Germany, for example, took any notice of the BMW title fight with Melandri.
Flammini even used his connections with the FIM to prevent the maximum displacement of 1000 cc in the premier class when switching from the 500cc two-strokes to the four-strokes in 2002. Flammini insisted on his exclusive world championship rights with 1000 cc motorcycles. Dorna, therefore, had to settle for 990 cc and only switched to 1000 cc in 2012, when they had acquired the commercial SBK rights, in addition to the GP rights, and promoted both series of the World Championship.
During the Flammini era, teams and factories were penalized financially and had to pay a heavy price for Pirelli tires, for example. Dorna, however, can now take advantage of many synergies in negotiations with organizers, sponsors, and factories. The “Power of Performance” rules are respected by the manufacturers, even if they don't make all of the technicians happy. With Dorna, the Superbike World Championship has found its place in the highly competitive global sports business. Without Carmelo Ezpeleta, it might have already been buried.
One amateurish detail from the founding days of Superbike, and the evil machinations of FIM official, Jo Zegwaard, has survived to this day. More than 30 years ago, the Dutchman christened the World Championship SBK: acronym of the Dutch term “Superbike Kampioenschap” and means nothing other than "Superbike Championship".
Former MotoGP stars, such as Roberts, Sheene, Stoner, and Rossi were never interested in a late career in the Superbike World Championship. Barry Sheene, 500 cc world champion in 1976 and 1977 on a factory Suzuki, didn't even want to watch. “If I want to see street bikes, I'll go to Trafalgar Square,” he once replied with his British humor when I asked him if he'd be watching the SBK round at Donington.
