American
Steve McLaughlin had been developing an idea since the 1970s after a
discussion with the late Warren Willing ,the great Australian racer and tuner , after Willing had mentioned about a
similar series that was raced in Australia. Superbike racing in
America started in 1976 with the creation of the AMA Superbike
Championship. McLaughlin himself was the winner of the first event ,
but the Championship went to Reg Pridmore.
The
idea of the Superbike World Championship series developed in the mid 1980s , with the
idea to run the series along the AMA rules with a few changes. Two of
those differences being overbored cylinders and the use of stock
carburettors. World Superbikes would be open to 750 four cylinder four strokes and
1000cc twins.
By
the late 1980s the FIM TT Formula 1 championship had largely become
irrelevant. The Superbike championship was originally going to be the four stroke championship as at that time two strokes ruled World Grand Prix racing.
McLaughlin managed to convince the FIM with help from the NZACU's FIM representative Ken
Duncan that a series was worth it's time . There was a lot of
resistance from the FIM congress , but the proposal was accepted
provided McLaughlin could find enough circuits to sign up .
In
1987 McLaughlin with partners that included Kiwis Keith Jones and
Brian Lawrence formed Sports Marketing Limited. Mclaughlin would
receive 35% of the company's shares.Brian
Lawrence was at the time working for Global Motorsports , a division
of the Global Sports and Promotions company which in turn was a part
of the bigger Madison Corporation who promoted other niche sports
around the globe. Keith Jones was the managing director of Global
Sports and Promotions.
The
search for funding continued in to 1989 , with Keith Jones travelling
the globe in an effort to find a title sponsor at help alleviate the
mounting debts. Just one week before the opening round of the 1989
series , the Madison Group called Jones back to Auckland for a board
meeting. Parent company Madison Corporation had decided that , after
almost a million dollars having been spent on the series and no sign
of return , they would not support the WSBK in 1989. Sports
Marketing cease trading in March 1989 .The NZACU and Manfeild Promotions would together run the New Zealand round in 1989 , so to help secure the future at least till the next year (1990) .
