April 3, 1988

The very first World Superbike race in history was held on this weekend in 1988 at Donington Park in the UK. World Superbike took form from the old Euro F1 "world championship" and was loosely based on the AMA Superbike series (in fact the WSC was started by American racer Steve McLaughlin) only with a dual-race format per weekend. The series had a meteoric rise within years of its initial launch—it was the best world championship by 1999—but it definitely came from simple beginnings. The first World Superbike race ever also marked a return of Ducati to world championship racing. Marco Luchinelli led the red brigade on the groundbreaking 851 that season.

Luchinelli was a former 500cc world champion (1981) and legendary party-boy. In little more than ten years time he had won the 500 title, the Daytona Battle of the Twins (BOTT) race on a Pantah-based Ducati, the inaugural WSC event at Donington and landed in an Italian prison cell for possession of cocaine. Nobody ever accused old Lucky of being boring.

Podium images from that first leg of the first Donington World Superbike race are confusing; you won't see the man who won the event on the top step. Bimota's Davide Tardozzi won the first leg while "Lucky" Luchinelli did won the second. So why isn't Tardozzi listed as the first ever winner in WSC series history?

Previously ...
March 21: Mike Hailwood Wins USGP March 11: Eddie Lawson born

Ah, here's the rub: The first WSC race at Donington was the only round in series history to be scored on aggregate finishes—or as we know it here in America, motocross style. Lucky scored a second and a first, while Tardozzi finished first and failed to finish in the second leg.

Separate leg results were ratified before the second round in Hungary that year.

American Fred Merkel finished second that weekend at Donington sixteen years ago. Merkel went on to win the first World Superbike championship for Honda and Pirelli.