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the
Japanese bikes produced more horsepower, the European bikes tended to have superior handling. The inaugural series in 1976 was won by rider Reg Pridmore on a BMW R90S owned by Team Butler and Smith. European machines won every race in 1976 and the first half of the 1977 series, but after two seasons of work the Team Racecrafters Kawasaki KZ 1000, again piloted by Reg Pridmore, won the first race for the Japanese. With the advent later that year of the better handling Suzuki GS 1000, the less powerful twin-cylinder European bike's race domination was over.
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incumbent series competition machines. In addition, they would be allowed to increase their capacity to 800cc. The complicated rules allowed "claiming" of the 1000cc stock machines, a technique where competitors can buy the winning machine from the owner for a set amount of money, and intended to keep modifications down in near-stock racing classes. Ultimately this complicated mix of machines and rules was not liked by many of the competitors. In 2006 Ducati withdrew factory support from AMA Superbike racing, and in 2008 Honda followed suit.
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Originally Honda had planned only to make enough to meet the requirement for production racing, but the bike was extremely popular, even at the price which was higher than the older CB-750, and it went into full production. Honda was unsuccessful in winning the championship with the new bike in 1983, as Wayne Rainey riding on Team Muzzy
Kawasaki GPz 750 won the inaugural 750cc Superbike championship, but Honda went on to win the next five years in a row of series championships with the Interceptor.
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machines were reaching on the high-banked tracks were simply too high for safety given the tire technology of the time. In 1985 the race format moved from GP bikes to
Superbikes, and it became part of the AMA Superbikes series. This increased the visibility of Superbikes even further, and cemented in the minds of many Americans that the Superbikes were now the de facto premier motorcycle racers, eclipsing the FIM 500cc series, with their unavailable two-stroke racing machines.
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focused on the
International Grand Prix and in particular its premier 500cc Series, which was run on purpose built 500cc racing motorcycles. By 1980 the 500cc class was completely dominated by two-stroke machines, which at the same time had been phased out for road use in many countries. The American Superbike Series was suddenly more relevant and appealing to manufacturers.
178:
At the inception of the series there was stiff competition between the more experienced teams racing
European twin cylinder bikes, which included the BMW R90S, Ducati and MotoGuzzi motorcycles and the teams racing the more powerful Japanese inline fours from Kawasaki, Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha. While
182:
As the series gained more and more attention in
America the factories took note, and in 1980 Honda entered the series with a factory team and brought a top rider from their stable, Freddie Spencer, to compete on their behalf. Up until this point Honda and the other Japanese manufacturers were more
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The AMA Superbike
Championship was created in 1976 as a new motorcycle road racing series taking advantage of the newest large displacement production road-going motorcycles of up to 1000cc's that were increasingly popular with American riders. The series was initially called "Superbike Production"
217:
In late 2002 AMA Pro Racing, the promoter in charge of the AMA Superbike
Championship at the time decided to open up the series to 1000cc production bikes. Their plan called for allowing near-stock 1000cc machines to compete against the then-current state of the art 750cc Superbikes that were the
208:
motorcycle race, which had begun on a course constructed on the beach in 1935, and had moved to the asphalt auto-racing track in 1961, switched to
Superbikes. The race had been one of the few venues where FIM style Formula 1 500cc machines raced in the United States, but by 1988 the speeds the
200:
was a huge departure from the air-cooled, four valve per cylinder CB-750F launched in 1979. It featured a square tube steel perimeter frame which wrapped around the outside of the engine, rather than the older hidden round-tube frames. It was a water cooled V4 with four valves per-cylinder.
164:
In 1986, the AMA recognized the changing nature of motorcycle racing by making the Grand
National Championship into a dirt-track-only series; road-racing rounds were branched off into a separate championship which was named the AMA Superbike Championship. The fact that the rules were set up to
191:
The speeds that the 1000cc four cylinder bikes producing up to 150 horsepower were able to achieve were overwhelming the stock frames, suspension and tires of the era. Thus for 1983 the AMA, working with the top teams, decided to reduce the maximum capacity of the Superbike class to 750cc.
195:
Honda, which had been competing in the series on their CB 750F was ready with a new bike in 1983, initially planned as a "homologation special" that is, a bike which is built in just enough numbers to satisfy the production rule. (Typically 5,000 units sold worldwide). That bike, the
226:
From 2009 to 2014, the Daytona Motorsports Group was the organizer under supervision of the AMA. The AMA, not pleased with motorcycle counts and participation in their events, stripped the DMG organization of the sanction and awarded it to a new organization led by
165:
compete using the same large displacement production bikes that people saw in the showrooms quickly made the series popular with fans, racers and after several seasons motorcycle manufacturers took a direct interest and began sponsoring teams and riders.
153:
Series which required competition in five different formats 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, 1 mile and TT courses, which were all run on dirt ovals, and pavement racing. Europe, under the guidance of the FIM, or
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Television rights are held by MotoAmerica, but can currently be seen on FOX Sports 1 & 2, MAVTV Network, MotoAmerica's Facebook page, MotoAmerica's Youtube Channel, and MotoAmerica's LIVE+ App.
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series that has been run every year beginning in 1976. For most of its existence it has been considered the premier motorcycle road racing series in the United States. It is sanctioned by the AMA
149:
and was initially modeled on a regional series that had been run in California in the previous years. Up until this the most prestigious racing series in the United States was the
249:
MotoAmerica chose to align the multiple racing classes closely with those used by FIM, which simplifies the work that manufacturers must do to compete in both series.
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since its inception, and the promotion of the series has been licensed to several organizations over the years. Since 2015 the series has been run and promoted by
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KRAVE organized multiple championship road racing series for the AMA, which are collectively known as the
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world championship, but it didn't include any American venues in the series.
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572:"AMA hands over control of pro road racing to Wayne Rainey-led MotoAmerica"
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1983 to 2002: The 750cc rule and the age of the Homologation Specials
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As the popularity of the series grew the long established
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2015 to Present: MotoAmerica takes charge, FIM alignment
552:. Road Racing World Publishing Inc. December 9, 2002
353:. American Motorcycle Association. February 17, 2021
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265:Junior Cup (FIM Supersport 300, 300cc to 500cc)
574:. Racer.com. September 4, 2014. Archived from
417:Assoc, American Motorcyclist (February 1986).
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259:Supersport (FIM Supersport, 600cc to 750cc)
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155:Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme
493:"Honda CB750F "Freddie Spencer" Replica"
420:Road Racing gets its own series for 1986
300:, Canadian Miguel Duhamel, and Spaniard
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222:2009 to 2014: Daytona Motorsports Group
213:2003 to 2008: Return of the liter class
157:, had a much more developed motorcycle
100:Fresh 'N Lean Progressive Racing Yamaha
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322:AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike Championship
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463:"Thirty-Nine Years of AMA SuperBike"
269:The most successful riders included
520:"1983 Honda VF750F V45 Interceptor"
253:Superbike (matches FIM regulations)
30:MotoAmerica Superbike Championship
25:
526:. American City Business Journals
406:(January 1984): 27. January 1984.
139:American Motorcyclist Association
256:Stock 1000 (FIM Superstock 1000)
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374:"Origins of American Superbike"
317:List of AMA Superbike champions
1:
1029:Motorcycle road racing series
296:, Australians Mat Mladin and
174:1976 to 1982: The 1000cc era
327:AMA Supersport Championship
262:Twins (800cc, two cylinder)
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1024:AMA Superbike Championship
650:AMA Superbike Championship
131:AMA Superbike Championship
109:http://www.motoamerica.com
400:"AMA: The First 60 Years"
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41:An AMA Superbike race at
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198:Honda Interceptor VF750F
968:AMA Daytona Sportbike
661:AMA Superbike seasons
404:American Motorcyclist
578:on September 6, 2014
1003:MotoGP Championship
998:All Japan Road Race
867:MotoAmerica seasons
610:Superbike Champions
550:RoadRacingWorld.com
246:beginning in 2015.
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993:Canadian Superbike
380:. Octane Media LLC
244:Road Racing Series
151:AMA Grand National
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988:British Superbike
473:on April 21, 2021
135:motorcycle racing
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16:(Redirected from
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956:Related articles
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554:. Retrieved
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654:MotoAmerica
582:October 16,
444:|work=
378:Cycle World
298:Troy Corser
242:MotoAmerica
206:Daytona 200
159:road racing
143:MotoAmerica
1018:Categories
333:References
302:Toni ElĂas
291:Englishman
287:Mat Mladin
81:Jake Gagne
942:Champions
556:April 21,
530:April 21,
503:April 21,
477:April 20,
446:ignored (
436:cite book
426:March 14,
384:April 20,
357:April 20,
279:Ben Spies
947:Circuits
311:See also
51:Category
45:in 2004.
169:History
61:Country
91:Yamaha
935:Lists
925:2024
919:2023
914:2022
909:2021
899:2020
894:2019
889:2018
884:2017
879:2016
874:2015
858:2014
853:2013
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678:1978
673:1977
668:1976
584:2014
558:2021
532:2021
505:2021
479:2021
448:help
428:2022
386:2021
359:2021
285:and
72:1976
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