A look back to 1988 when WorldSBK raced at Oran Park

WorldSBK at Oran Park in 1988

With Phil Aynsley

A bit of a look back at the first year of World Super Bike – 1988. The Oran Park round. I’ve recently been informed about a lot of the behind the scenes machinations by a very well placed, on the spot scrutineer at the event which makes for some interesting background!

F to R: Stéphane Mertens (Bimota YB4R), Fred Merkel (Honda RC30), Fabrizio Pirovano (Yamaha FZ750).

The Marlboro Team bikes of Doohan and Dowson were actually FZR750R ‘U’ models of which five had been sent from the US to Australia. These used an alloy frame as opposed to Pirovano’s steel framed FZ750, with its handlebars mounted above the fork yokes as per homologation and all 200 FZR ‘U’s made were homologated for AMA racing in the US, which is where they all had been sent.

As a result these bikes were not homologated for WSBK as Yamaha had not made the necessary 1000! This put the FIM technical steward Hans Von Der Marwitz and the rest of the officials in a rather difficult position if they were to avoid a riot in the pits by excluding the team’s bikes.

While they were contemplating their response “information” came to hand that Yamaha had not yet supplied Bimota with 200 engines for their YB4! So how could the FIM allow the Bimota team to continue racing with what in effect were un-homologated bikes, in the championship that Davide Tardozzi was leading at that point (it seems that the FIM inspectors had been shown the same 25 bikes numerous times in-between coffee breaks with the build plates being changed while they were relaxing)…

In a case of “two wrongs making a right” both teams were allowed to race with Mick Doohan and Micheal Dowson finishing 1-2 in both legs and the lap record being broken 21 times over the weekend…