Five time US Formula one champ Mike Baldwin rode a Bimota YB4 that season for the factory Bimota team.	The Bimota was powered by a Yamaha FZR750 engine and had a one-piece tail and tank section.
Baldwin had suffered a bad crash in GP and did the Bimota deal after being dropped from the Roberts Yamaha team. He said then that when he faxed his sponsors to tell them he was doing WSC, they all dropped him.	Tom Kipp Jr on the Yamaha Superbike he and his dad built. Kipp, Doug Chandler and Rich Arnaiz were the few AMA riders who raced the first event.
This was back when everyone wasn't concerned about who had the rights to televise the races; the series welcomed anyone with a Beta cam with open arms. Jeff Manhart films the grid.	Merkel wanted badly to win in the US but he could not match the Ducati 851s at Brained. Merkel's RC30 was sponsored by an Italian underwear company and Oscar Rumi.
The RC30 that Merkel rode was incredibly trick for the period. Here Dutchman Suzuki team owner Dave Schlosher and even Dale Quarterly stare at it.	Stephene Mertens was one of the first riders with a shot in GP to leave the series and join WSC. He rode a Honda RC30 sponsored by oil company total for years.
Fabrizio Pirovano had a fast FZR750 Yamaha that he crashed after running off on the outside of Brainerd's infamous turn one. The bike tumbled and sailed for a great distance, tossing parts all the way. Brainerd lore has it that the carbs from his Yamaha are still buried out there in the muck.	The podium from the first ever WSC race in America. Frenchman Raymond Roche won it, with Pirovano second and Mertens third.
Roger Burnett's RC30. What he did before Neil Hodgson, Speedvision, etc.	In those days, you did whatever you had to for money. A replica of Schwantz's GP bike in Superbike? It happened.
Now he runs the Corse team for Ducati, but back then, Davide Tardozzi was a Bimota rider, and almost won the title in 1988.

ENDS