The Superbike World Championship consists of a series of rounds held on permanent racing facilities.

[4] However, rounds have been held in the United States, Malaysia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Argentina, Australia, Russia, Qatar, Thailand, and South Africa and the series plans on keeping extra-European circuits in rotation.

The Superbike World Championship began in 1988, being open to modified versions of road bike models available to the public.

[citation needed] Held under the FIM, the Formula TT from 1977 to 1989 once constituted the official motorcycle World Cup.

Colin Edwards won his second championship in what was arguably the most impressive comeback in the history of motorcycle racing.

During these years the Superbike World Championship reached the zenith of its popularity, with global fan and full factory support.

Rule changes in MotoGP to allow four-stroke engines meant that the Japanese manufacturers focused their resources there, leaving the Superbike World Championship with limited factory involvement[7] (only Ducati and Suzuki).

[10] Partly as a result of the control tyres, Motorcycle Sports Manufacturer Association (Aprilia, Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha) announced that no MSMA teams would participate in the Superbike World Championship, later modifying their statement allowing Ducati to participate.

Honda-mounted James Toseland and Yamaha's Noriyuki Haga battled for second with the British rider coming out on top.

While superbikes remained two or more seconds per lap slower than MotoGP bikes at most tracks where both raced, they had equal or more power.

Ducati argued that they no longer produced a road-going 1,000 cc V-twin superbike[19] and that the level of tuning now needed to make their 999 competitive on the race track was too expensive.

The weight limit and the intake-restrictor size of twin machines would be updated, if needed, during the Championship, by a system analysing the race points obtained.

Manufacturers took advantage of this by producing 'homologation specials'--highly tuned versions of their road bikes with performance parts designed especially for racing.

[23] The 2008 SBK championship was dominated by Troy Bayliss of Australia, on his Ducati 1098, who concluded his season and his career with a double win at the brand new, 195-million-Euro Portimao circuit in Portugal, after which he retired.

During the offseason, Yamaha lost Noriyuki Haga to Ducati, who signed him to replace the retired Troy Bayliss.

Aprilia took a fourth final place in the championship with Max Biaggi, while BMW finished thirteenth with Troy Corser.

[25] James Toseland returned to the championship after 2 seasons in MotoGP and took Spies place at the Sterilgarda Yamaha World Superbike team, partnered by fellow Brit Cal Crutchlow.

The season saw the number of complete motorcycles in use limited to one per rider; this meant that the rules allowing bike changes during a race (flag-to-flag) were cancelled.

[35] In addition, pit stops with tyre changes were introduced in order to avoid races to be interrupted due to variable weather conditions.

[34][35] Kawasaki rider Tom Sykes was crowned champion after obtaining the third-place finish he needed to secure the title victory at Jerez.

[36] Aprilia's Sylvain Guintoli became the Superbike World Champion at the last race, prevailing over Tom Sykes by six points in the standings.

After changes in the standard weekend timetable, the first race, which was previously run on Sunday along with the second one, was scheduled to be held on Saturday.

[41][42] Jonathan Rea won his third Superbike world title for Kawasaki, by winning the Magny-Cours Race 1.

The season was marred by the death of Honda rider and former MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a pedal-cycling accident near Rimini, Italy, on 22 May.

In a season shortened by the Covid pandemic, Jonathan Rea won his sixth Superbike world title for Kawasaki.

On 1 April 2024, Formula One Owners Liberty Media Bought 86% of Dorna Sport which owns MotoGP and World Superbikes.

In the past, however, manufacturers took advantage of loopholes in the rules to create "homologation specials" — motorcycles with low production numbers made especially for racing.

The FIM Superstock 1,000 Cup was a support class to the Superbike World Championship at the European rounds.

As the World Superbike Championship has grown in popularity over the years, video games have been developed to incorporate its growing fan base.

Originally EA Sports held the licence to produce SBK videos games until 2001 when they discontinued the series.