WSB AT 30

Technically, 2018 is the 30th anniversary of WSB – but 2017 is the 30th season of WSB racing, so let’s celebrate it a bit, eh?

WORDS: BJ KUBAS CRONIN & KEL PICS: KEL EDGE

Hockenheim – 1988

Kel says:Never mind reverse grids, there were six on the front row of the gridin1988! And look at those crowds!

Thirty entire seasons of World Superbikes will have flown by, come the end of 2017. Bonkers, no? With two races per event weekend, that’s one hell of a lot of action (over 700 races) over those three decades, and there have been thrills and spills, as well as plenty of tasty controversy along the way.

Photographer extraordinaire Kel Edge has been there since the start when he ditched Grand Prix duties to go cover Steve McLaughlin’s fledgling production based series. We asked him to supply us with some snaps from past to present, for a gallery of historic superbike loveliness for you to savour, and to give us a word or three on each of them. After all, there’s probably not another man alive that knows WSB as well as Kel!

Steve McLaughlin – 1988

Kel says: Shy, retiring, conservative… words that could never be used about former racer Steve McLaughlin! But the creation of the World Superbike Championship was down to his vision and persuasiveness.

Davide Tardozzi – 1988

Kel says: Italian Davide Tardozzi could’ve been WSBK’s first World Champion, but he crashed on the warm-up lap in the final race in New Zealand after being out-psyched on the grid by Fred Merkel.