The need for a road race series that offered ease of entry for national riders was evident – one that was open to all makes of production motorcycles, machines which required little modification and development from standard road going trim. Enter the Australian Superbike Series.
Australia's flagship road race in 1980 through to 1986 was called the 'Australian Superbike Series', that featured large capacity production motorcycles which at the time, were some of the most competitive in the world 'out of the box'. Winning bikes were mostly Japanese manufactured inline four cylinder powered machines readily available for public purchase in Australia. The motorcycle manufacturers idiom of the day being "Race on Sunday, sell on Monday", a reference to motorcycle sales figures...
For two years, spanning 1987–1988, political and economic influences saw the renaming of the Series to 'The Australian Endurance Championship'. Again, the Endurance Championship was the premier road racing competition in the country, which in 1989 once again morphed, into what was called, the 'Australian Superbike Championship' run under the Australian Road Race Championship banner.