World Superbike races machines you could buy, and Ducati long dominated it
MotoGP builds prototypes; World Superbike races tuned versions of motorcycles sold in showrooms, making it motorcycling's answer to sports car racing. Since 1988 that formula has produced fierce rule fights over engine sizes, a season nicknamed the Ducati Cup, and one of the greatest comebacks in the sport.
The early rules let 1,000 cc V-twins, chiefly from Ducati, take on 750 cc four-cylinder bikes from the Japanese makers. Honda's RC30 won the first few seasons before the twins took over. Carl Fogarty and Ducati ruled from 1993 to 1999, Fogarty collecting a record four titles. Honda eventually built its own V-twin, and Colin Edwards won with it in 2000. His second crown in 2002 was astonishing: Troy Bayliss won the first six races and led by 58 points after the opening race at Laguna Seca, yet Edwards then won all nine remaining races and clinched the title at the Imola finale.
After 2003 rules opened the class to any 1,000 cc engine, the Japanese factories poured their effort into MotoGP instead, and with nearly every bike a Ducati, critics mocked the series as the Ducati Cup. From 2004 all teams had to use Pirelli control tyres, a controversial choice since many considered them inferior to the Dunlops and Michelins teams had used, and the manufacturers' association initially said its members would stay away. Privateer Hondas soon competed, and in 2005 Troy Corser gave Suzuki its first title.
Engine politics resurfaced when Ducati's 1098 arrived with a 1,099 cc twin. Ducati pushed for larger twins, and the 2008 rules allowed 1,200 cc twins provided they weighed 6 kg more than the fours and breathed through a 50 mm restrictor. Minimum production for homologation rose to 1,000 bikes, then 3,000 from 2010. Bayliss won the 2008 title and retired after a double win at the new Portimão circuit in Portugal. Ben Spies then took a record 11 poles in 2009. Ducati withdrew its factory team in 2011 after 23 seasons and 29 championships, and Max Biaggi later won a second title by just half a point over Tom Sykes.
Regulated by the FIM, the series now adds a ten-lap Superpole sprint to each round's two main races, introduced in 2019, and has crowned a teams' champion since 2024.
Source: Superbike World Championship
