1988 Superbike World Championship

1988 Superbike World Championship
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The 1988 Superbike World Championship was the inaugural FIM Superbike World Championship season. The season started on 3 April at Donington Park and finished on 3 October at Manfeild Autocourse after 9 rounds.

American Fred Merkel won the riders' championship and Honda won the manufacturers' championship.

Race calendar and results

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The second Le Mans race was not held due to schedule issues.[1]

Round Country Circuit Date Pole position Fastest lap Winning rider Winning team Report
1 R1   Great Britain Donington Park 3 April   Roger Burnett   Marco Lucchinelli   Davide Tardozzi Bimota SpA Report
R2   Bubba Shobert   Marco Lucchinelli Ducati Team Lucky
2 R1   Hungary Hungaroring 30 April   Davide Tardozzi   Fred Merkel   Fred Merkel RCM Report
R2   Marco Lucchinelli   Adrien Morillas Team Kawasaki France
3 R1   West Germany Hockenheimring 8 May   Alex Vieira   Christophe Bouheben   Davide Tardozzi Bimota SpA Report
R2   Virginio Ferrari   Davide Tardozzi Bimota SpA
4 R1   Austria Zeltweg 3 July   Malcolm Campbell   Davide Tardozzi   Marco Lucchinelli Ducati Team Lucky Report
R2   Christophe Bouheben   Davide Tardozzi Bimota SpA
5 R1   Japan Sugo 28 August   Marco Lucchinelli   Gary Goodfellow   Gary Goodfellow Don Knit Sugano Racing Team Report
R2   Kenichiro Iwahashi   Mick Doohan Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team
6 R1   France Le Mans 4 September   Marco Lucchinelli   Fabrizio Pirovano   Fabrizio Pirovano Moto Club Carate Brianza Report
R2 Race cancelled
7 R1   Portugal Estoril 11 September   Stéphane Mertens   Davide Tardozzi   Davide Tardozzi Bimota SpA Report
R2   Raymond Roche   Stéphane Mertens Bimota SpA
8 R1   Australia Oran Park 25 September   Mick Doohan   Fred Merkel   Mick Doohan Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team Report
R2   Mick Doohan   Mick Doohan Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team
9 R1   New Zealand Manfeild 2 October   Davide Tardozzi   Fred Merkel   Fred Merkel RCM Report
R2   Stéphane Mertens   Stéphane Mertens Bimota SpA

Championship standings

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[2] [3]

Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th   11th   12th   13th   14th   15th 
Original 20 17 15 13 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Revised 10 8.5 7.5 6.5 5.5 5 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5

For the first ever Superbike World Championship round at Donington Park, and for the only time in the championship's history, the race results were combined to determine an overall winner.[4] For future weekends, it was decided to award half points for each race instead, although the original system was used again at Le Mans due to only one race being run.[5]

Riders' standings

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Pos. Rider Bike GBR
 
HUN
 
FRG
 
AUT
 
JPN
 
FRA
 
POR
 
AUS
 
NZL
 
Pts
R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2
1   Fred Merkel Honda 4 2 1 5 17 Ret Ret 8 2 11 6 C 4 5 4 3 1 5 99
2   Fabrizio Pirovano Yamaha 8 4 5 6 11 8 2 7 Ret 10 1 C 6 6 6 7 2 13 93.5
3   Davide Tardozzi Bimota 1 Ret 2 3 1 1 5 1 Ret 4 12 C 1 2 11 10 5 DNS 91.5
4   Stéphane Mertens Bimota Ret Ret 3 2 13 2 4 16 3 C 2 1 7 6 6 1 90.5
5   Marco Lucchinelli Ducati 2 1 9 Ret 6 11 1 Ret 12 Ret 10 C 3 4 63
6   Alex Vieira Honda 3 3 4 3 4 C 42
7   Rob Phillis Kawasaki 8 Ret 6 6 3 4 4 3 42
8   Gary Goodfellow Suzuki Ret DNS 1 3 39.5
Honda 8 5 3 6
9   Malcolm Campbell Honda 3 6 17 15 5 8 11 2 33.5
10   Terry Rymer Honda 8 C 5 3 14 11 9 7 32.5
11   Roger Burnett Honda Ret 3 8 4 5 4 Ret DNS 7 C 31.5
12   Mick Doohan Yamaha NC 1 1 1 30
13   Joey Dunlop Honda 3 5 6 Ret 7 5 30
14   Eric Delcamp Kawasaki 11 13 9 6 2 C 29.5
15   Christophe Bouheben Honda 2 Ret Ret 2 5 C 28
16   Adrien Morillas Kawasaki 4 1 19 16 7 5 Ret C 26.5
17   Edwin Weibel Honda 4 Ret 6 4 Ret 5 16 C Ret DNS 23.5
18   Jari Suhonen Yamaha 7 10 14 10 Ret DNS 17 13 16 27 11 C Ret 13 21
19   Andy McGladdery Suzuki 9 7 15 Ret DNQ DNQ 18.5
Honda 19 C 15 12 12 13 14 10
20   Anders Andersson Suzuki 25 12 18 12 20 23 9 12 15 19 13 C 8 9 18.5
21   Robert Scolyer Honda 9 9 8 4 17.5
22   Michael Dowson Yamaha Ret Ret 2 2 17
23   Paul Iddon Bimota Ret DNS 12 8 12 13 32 Ret 9 8 17
24   Virginio Ferrari Honda DNQ DNQ Ret 11 10 9 Ret Ret 10 8 Ret C 16
25   Kenny Irons Honda 6 8 14 7 15.5
26   Ernst Gschwender Suzuki 10 9 18 27 10 10 Ret C 12 Ret 14.5
27   Roger Marshall Suzuki 5 6 20 18 13
28   Marino Fabbri Bimota 28 Ret Ret 9 9 C 16 11 13
29   Robert Dunlop Honda Ret DNS 26 17 29 21 21 23 18 C 10 7 13 14 15 12 12.5
30   Tommy Douglas Yamaha 16 15 17 Ret 7 11 11
31   Yukiya Oshima Suzuki 3 13 9
32   René Rasmussen Suzuki 7 7 21 Ret Ret DNS DNQ C 21 Ret 9
33   Kenichiro Iwahashi Honda Ret 2 8.5
34   Tadaaki Hanamura Honda 8 9 7.5
35   Steve Williams Bimota 11 9 19 16 31 Ret 7
36   Peter Rubatto Bimota Ret Ret 21 14 15 14 16 Ret 23 C 7 17 7
37   Andreas Hofmann Honda 8 10 7
38   Glenn Williams Ducati 10 8 7
39   Mark Farmer Suzuki 14 11 6
40   Mauro Ricci Ducati 15 Ret 21 C 11 10 6
41   Mitsuki Watanabe Yamaha 5 24 5.5
42   Aaron Slight Bimota 7 14 5.5
43   Koichi Kobayashi Honda 9 12 5.5
44   Andrew Stroud Bimota 13 9 5
45   Sean Gallagher Honda 10 12 5
46   Dave Leach Yamaha 15 13 24 18 DNQ DNQ 22 C 5
47   Brian Morrison Honda 26 7 4.5
48   John Lofthouse Suzuki 17 14 3
49   Karl Heinz Riegl Bimota DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ 11 18 25 C 18 19 2.5
50   Paul Ramon Honda Ret 11 DNS C 2.5
51   Toshiharu Kaneko Yamaha 11 25 2.5
52   Dietmar Kemter Honda 12 15 2.5
53   Mike King Ducati 12 15 2.5
54   Udo Mark Bimota 22 17 13 14 27 C 17 16 2.5
55   Anton Gruschka Honda 24 24 Ret C 13 14 2.5
56   Asa Moyce Kawasaki 19 16 DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ 2
57   Bodo Schmidt Bimota Ret 12 Ret Ret 2
58   Jean-Yves Mounier Yamaha 14 C 2
59   Michael Galinski Bimota Ret DNS 13 Ret Ret 15 2
60   Jean-Louis Guignabodet Honda 20 15 25 Ret 18 17 17 C 14 15 2
61   Hisatomo Nakamura Suzuki 13 17 1.5
62   Esko Kuparinen Kawasaki 20 17 25 23 DNQ DNQ 1
63   Dieter Heinen Honda 14 16 DNS C 1
64   Satoshi Endoh Honda 14 22 1
65   Mark Linscott Honda 15 C 1
66   Dale Warren Honda NC 14 1
67   Iain Pero Suzuki 15 Ret 0.5
68   Len Willing Yamaha Ret 15 0.5
Pos. Rider Bike GBR
 
HUN
 
FRG
 
AUT
 
JPN
 
FRA
 
POR
 
AUS
 
NZL
 
Pts
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver Second place
Bronze Third place
Green Points finish
Blue Non-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple Retired (Ret)
Red Did not qualify (DNQ)
Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Withdrew (WD)
Race cancelled (C)
Blank Did not practice (DNP)
Did not arrive (DNA)
Excluded (EX)

Bold – Pole position
Italics – Fastest lap
Source:[3]

Manufacturers' standings

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Pos. Manufacturer GBR
 
HUN
 
FRG
 
AUT
 
JPN
 
FRA
 
POR
 
AUS
 
NZL
 
Pts
R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2
1   Honda 3 2 1 4 2 3 3 2 2 2 4 C 4 3 4 3 1 2 142
2   Bimota 1 9 2 2 1 1 5 1 4 4 3 C 1 1 7 6 5 1 132.5
3   Yamaha 7 4 5 6 11 8 2 7 5 1 1 C 6 6 1 1 2 11 117.5
4   Kawasaki 19 16 4 1 9 6 7 5 6 6 2 C 25 24 3 4 4 3 92
5   Ducati 2 1 9 Ret 6 11 1 21 12 Ret 10 C 3 4 20 19 10 8 70
6   Suzuki 5 6 7 7 18 20 9 10 1 3 13 C 8 9 15 16 16 16 57
Pos. Manufacturer GBR
 
HUN
 
FRG
 
AUT
 
JPN
 
FRA
 
POR
 
AUS
 
NZL
 
Pts

References

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  1. ^ "Championnat du monde de Superbikes – Classements complets – 1988". racingmemo.free.fr (in French). Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  2. ^ "Superbike World Championship Standings 1988". motorsportstats.com. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  3. ^ a b "1988 World Superbike Championship Standings". wsb-archives.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 May 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  4. ^ "Donington Park: Ducati preview". motorsport.com. 29 March 2007. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  5. ^ "History of the World Superbike Championship". 21 June 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
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