WSB Stats

The World Superbike Championship Statistics and Race Records: 1988 – Present 

Leading winners 

It’s now more than 30 years since the very first World Superbike Championship round took place when Davide Tardozzi was the very first race winner at Donington Park in 1988. However, this round was unique as for the only time in the championship’s history, the race results were combined to determine an overall winner; 1981 500cc World Champion Marco Lucchinelli got the verdict with first and second in the two legs after Tardozzi crashed out of the second race.

In total, 78 riders have now taken race wins (Scott Redding and Michael Ruben Rinaldi being the latest in 2019) with the Championship having just completed its 33^rd season and the leading rider when it comes to race wins is the record-breaking Jonathan Rea.

The Ulsterman started 2019 on 71 wins but another stunning season saw him claim 17 victories, for the second year in a row, to increase his career total to 88 and move almost 30 clear of Carl Fogarty’s figure of 59. Indeed, Rea’s five Championship winning seasons alone have seen him win a staggering 73 races which further emphasises his dominance.

The shortened 2020 season meant just eight rounds took place but it didn’t stop Rea claiming his sixth successive title and he claimed another 11 wins to move on to a phenomenal career total of 99.

Fogarty’s record had stood since the end of the 1999 season with all but four of his 59 wins coming on Ducati machinery. Foggy grabbed his first win in 1992 on a privateer Ducati 888 and the following year he joined the official factory team. Except for 1996 when he jumped ship to ride the Castrol Honda RC45, he remained with the Bologna factory for the rest of the decade and had it not been for injury ending his career early in 2000, he would certainly have racked up a whole lot more.

Australian rider Troy Bayliss is now third with all 52 of his race wins coming on the Ducatis. He replaced Fogarty in the factory team and went on to notch up three world championships between 2001 and 2008. Just when it looked like he’d beat Fogarty’s record total, he retired as champion at the end of the 2008 season when more wins and titles would surely have come his way.

Despite never having won the title, Noriyuki Haga still has the fourth highest total of wins, 43, with the Japanese ace being victorious on Yamaha, Ducati and Aprilia machinery.

2013 Champion Tom Sykes is next on the list with 34 wins, his solitary victory in 2018 moving him one ahead of double champion Troy Corser. Chaz Davies is next on the list having taken a single win in 2019 before adding two more in 2020, his final year as a factory Ducati rider.

Next up is another champion in the shape of Colin Edwards, the American having taken 31 victories and that puts him four clear of 1991 and 1992 Champion Doug Polen who took 27 wins.  His tally is particularly impressive as 26 of his 27 wins came in just two seasons with 17 coming in 1991, a figure only matched by Rea in 2018 and 2019!

Carlos Checa, Raymond Roche, Marco Melandri and Max Biaggi are the other riders to have taken more than 20 wins, Melandri taking a double victory at the opening round of 2018.

Alvaro Bautista joined this particular chart in 2019 when he took 16 wins during the course of the season, one less than Rea, also becoming the first rider to win the first 11 races in a season. This broke Neil Hodgson’s long-standing record of nine straight wins at the beginning of 2003.

15 wins or more

Leading podium finishes – Solos (40 or more)

No less than 21 riders have stood on the podium 40 times or more since the 1988 World Superbike Championship and it reads like a veritable ‘who’s who’ of the sport with the chart packed with legendary names from the Superbike world.

It’s that man Rea who tops this particular chart too with his twelve-year WSB career yielding 185 podiums to date and it’s his dominance of recent years that has seen him soar to the top of the chart. His six championship winning seasons have yielded a staggering 143 podiums, his 2019 success being a year which saw three races held each weekend for the first time in the Championship’s history.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the length of his Superbike career, it was Troy Corser who previously led the way with his total of 130 rostrums spanning 17 seasons. With the podiums coming for no less than five manufacturers, that shows both his consistency and adaptability and perhaps the only surprise is that his career only yielded two Championships.

Third on the list with 116 podiums is another rider who had a long and successful career in the WSB paddock, Noriyuki Haga although he has the unenviable tag of being the most successful rider never to have won the title.

He’s four clear of Tom Sykes who made four more rostrum appearances in 2019 after ending his long association with Kawasaki to move to BMW and that enabled him to move ahead of Carl Fogarty whose 109 appearances on the rostrum were achieved over a period of just nine years, which proves just how dominant he was during the 1990s.

Fogarty retired early due to injury, so one can only wonder how many more could he have racked up and he’s the final rider with a century of podiums. Next up is Chaz Davies on 98 with his nine podiums in 2020 seeing him overhaul Troy Bayliss.

The Australian’s 94 rostrums were also achieved over a nine-year period and he retired as Champion at the end of 2008 when very much still at the top of his game so, like Fogarty, could have had a much greater total.

Aaron Slight now sits in eighth and is followed by Colin Edwards and three Italians in the shape of Marco Melandri, Max Biaggi and Pierfrancesco Chili.

124 riders have now finished on a World Superbike Championship podium.

Most titles – 2 or more

Since 1988, 17 riders have been crowned World Superbike Champion but only nine of them have been victorious on more than one occasion and only three riders have won the title three times or more. The first to achieve that feat was the King of Superbikes himself, Carl Fogarty, with his four titles coming in a six year period between 1994 and 1999. He also finished second overall in 1993 and 1997 to further cement his status as the greatest Superbike racer ever.

However, that accolade should now, perhaps, be bestowed upon Jonathan Rea who, after equalling Fogarty’s four titles in 2018, went one better in 2019 to become the first and only rider to win five World Championships with all five of them coming in consecutive years. He then extended that sequence to six title in a row in 2020 and he’s also the only rider, other than Fogarty (1994/95 and 1998/99), to retain his title.

The third rider to have won three titles or more is Troy Bayliss with his three titles, like Fogarty’s, all coming on Ducati machinery. The Australian replaced Foggy in the factory Ducati team and didn’t disappoint with his titles coming in 2001, 2006 and 2008.

Six riders have taken two titles, the first being Fred Merkel who took the Championship on the RC30 Rumi Honda in its first two years. Fellow Americans Doug Polen and Colin Edwards also took two titles as did Troy Corser, the Australian’s two titles spanning the biggest gap of any rider at nine years. James Toseland and Max Biaggi are the two other riders to have enjoyed double title-winning success.

Solitary title success has been taken by Raymond Roche (1990), Scott Russell (1993), John Kocinski (1997), Neil Hodgson (2003), Ben Spies (2009), Carlos Checa (2011), Tom Sykes (2013) and Sylvain Guintoli (2014).

Titles have been won by American, French, English, Australian, Italian and Spanish riders.

WSS Statistics (1997 – Present)

World Supersport wins – 10 or more

First contested in 1997, the World Supersport Championship has now completed 24 seasons and such has been the competition over that period, just eight riders have wins in double figures.

Mr Supersport himself, Kenan Sofuoglu, has more than double the total of the second best rider with his five wins in 2017 moving him on to a total of 43, comfortably clear of Frenchman Jules Cluzel who has 20 wins although the title continues to elude him. Indeed, after finishing second overall in 2012, 2014 and 2016, he’s subsequently finished third overall from 2017-2019!

Fellow countryman Fabien Foret is next up on 16 wins after having one of the longest careers in the Supersport division whilst double World Champion Sebastien Charpentier is still fourth on the list with 13 wins, one ahead of Eugene Laverty whose victories were all taken in just a two-period – he was extremely unlucky not to have taken a title in at least one of these years.

Laverty’s total was matched in 2020 by Andrea Locatelli and he bettered the feat of the Northern Irishman as all 12 of his wins came in a single year, the Italian taking the series by storm in 2020 as he became the first rider to win nine races in a row and winning the title by a mammoth 104 points.

World Champions Paolo Casoli and Karl Muggeridge both have 11 wins and are the only other two riders to have won on more than ten occasions.

Kenan Sofuoglu – 43 wins (2006-2017)

Jules Cluzel – 20 (2012-Present)

Fabien Foret – 16 (2001-2013)

Sebastien Charpentier – 13 (1998-2006)

Andrea Locatelli – 12 (2020)

Eugene Laverty – 12 (2009-2010)

Paolo Casoli – 11 (1997-2001)

Karl Muggeridge – 11 (2000-2004)

World Supersport podiums – 20 or more

Just 14 riders have stood on the podium 20 times or more since the 1997 World Supersport Championship but it contains many of the division’s leading lights.

As expected, given his dominance over the years, it’s Kenan Sofouglu who leads the way with a whopping 85 podiums, over 30 clear of the nearest rider Jules Cluzel, the Frenchman moving onto a career total of 53 podiums after the 2020 season.

Third place is fellow countryman Fabien Foret, whose 44 podiums were achieved over an impressive 14 seasons, whilst the only other rider with more than 30 podiums is another perennial bridesmaid Broc Parkes. The Australian never won a title and only took six wins but took second overall twice and finished on the rostrum an impressive 32 times.

Frenchman and 1999 Champion Stephane Chambon is next up with 29 podiums, many of these coming on the Alstare Suzuki, a figure that was matched in 2020 by fellow countryman Lucas Mahias.

World Champions Sebastien Charpentier, Paolo Casoli, Andrew Pitt and Sam Lowes all took 23 podiums with Japan’s Katsuaki Fujiwara and Australia’s Kevin Curtain joined by Federico Caricasulo at the conclusion of the 2019 season as the only other riders, other than Parkes, to have taken 20 rostrums or more but never get their hands on the number one plate.

Kenan Sofuoglu – 85 podiums (2006-2017)

Jules Cluzel – 53 (2012-Present)

Fabien Foret – 44 (2000-2013)

Broc Parkes – 32 (2003-2012)

Stephane Chambon – 29 (1997-2002)

Lucas Mahias – 29 (2015-Present)

Paolo Casoli – 23 (1997-2001)

Sebastien Charpentier – 23 (1998-2006)

Andrew Pitt – 23 (2001-2009)

Sam Lowes – 23 (2011-2013)

Kevin Curtain – 21 (2002-2006)

Katsuaki Fujiwara – 21 (2002-2007)

Karl Muggeridge – 20 (2000-2004)

Federico Caricasulo – 20 (2017-2019)

Most titles – 2 or more

Since 1997, 14 riders have been crowned World Supersport Champion but only three of them have been victorious on more than one occasion, perhaps no surprise given how competitive the Championship’s been, especially in the early years when they were referred to as the ‘axe murderers’!!

The only rider to have won more than two titles is Kenan Sofuoglu with the Turkish rider having spent the majority of his career on the 600cc machines. 2016 saw him claim his fifth title with Frenchman Sebastien Charpentier and Australian Andrew Pitt, the only other riders to have taken two titles or more.

Thirteen riders have won the title on one occasion – Paolo Casoli (1997), Fabrizio Pirovano (1998), Stephane Chambon (1999), Jorg Teuchert (2000), Fabien Foret (2002), Chris Vermeulen (2003), Karl Muggeridge (2004), Cal Crutchlow (2009), Chaz Davies (2011), Sam Lowes (2013), Michael van der Mark (2014), Lucas Mahias (2017), Sandro Cortese (2018), Randy Krummenacher (2019) and Andrea Locatelli (2020).

Titles have been won by Turkish, French, Australian, Italian, German, English, Dutch and Swiss riders.

Kenan Sofuoglu – 5 titles (2007, 2010, 2012, 2015,2016)
Sebastien Charpentier – 2 (2005, 2006)
Andrew Pitt – 2 (2001, 2008)

Now those are some impressive records and stats; lets see where they made history happen…