The 1988 Superbike World Championship was the inaugural FIM Superbike World Championship season. The season started on 3 April at Donington Park and finished on 3 October at Manfeild Autocourse after 9 rounds.

American Fred Merkel won the riders' championship and Honda won the manufacturers' championship.

Race calendar and results

The second Le Mans race was not held due to schedule issues.^[1]

Round		Country	Circuit	Date	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning rider	Winning team	Report
1	R1	Great Britain	Donington Park	3 April	Roger Burnett	Marco Lucchinelli	Davide Tardozzi	Bimota SpA	Report
	R2					Bubba Shobert	Marco Lucchinelli	Ducati Team Lucky
2	R1	Hungary	Hungaroring	30 April	Davide Tardozzi	Fred Merkel	Fred Merkel	RCM	Report
	R2					Marco Lucchinelli	Adrien Morillas	Team Kawasaki France
3	R1	West Germany	Hockenheimring	8 May	Alex Vieira	Christophe Bouheben	Davide Tardozzi	Bimota SpA	Report
	R2					Virginio Ferrari	Davide Tardozzi	Bimota SpA
4	R1	Austria	Zeltweg	3 July	Malcolm Campbell	Davide Tardozzi	Marco Lucchinelli	Ducati Team Lucky	Report
	R2					Christophe Bouheben	Davide Tardozzi	Bimota SpA
5	R1	Japan	Sugo	28 August	Marco Lucchinelli	Gary Goodfellow	Gary Goodfellow	Don Knit Sugano Racing Team	Report
	R2					Kenichiro Iwahashi	Mick Doohan	Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team
6	R1	France	Le Mans	4 September	Marco Lucchinelli	Fabrizio Pirovano	Fabrizio Pirovano	Moto Club Carate Brianza	Report
	R2					Race cancelled
7	R1	Portugal	Estoril	11 September	Stéphane Mertens	Davide Tardozzi	Davide Tardozzi	Bimota SpA	Report
	R2					Raymond Roche	Stéphane Mertens	Bimota SpA
8	R1	Australia	Oran Park	25 September	Mick Doohan	Fred Merkel	Mick Doohan	Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team	Report
	R2					Mick Doohan	Mick Doohan	Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team
9	R1	New Zealand	Manfeild	2 October	Davide Tardozzi	Fred Merkel	Fred Merkel	RCM	Report
	R2					Stéphane Mertens	Stéphane Mertens	Bimota SpA

Championship standings

^{[2] [3]}

For the first ever Superbike World Championship round at Donington Park, and for the only time in the championship's history, the race results were combined to determine an overall winner.^[4] For future weekends, it was decided to award half points for each race instead, although the original system was used again at Le Mans due to only one race being run.^[5]

Riders' standings

Pos. Rider Bike GBR HUN FRG AUT JPN FRA POR AUS NZL Pts R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 1 Fred Merkel Honda 4 2 1 5 17 Ret Ret 8 2 11 6 C 4 5 4 3 1 5 99 2 Fabrizio Pirovano Yamaha 8 4 5 6 11 8 2 7 Ret 10 1 C 6 6 6 7 2 13 93.5 3 Davide Tardozzi Bimota 1 Ret 2 3 1 1 5 1 Ret 4 12 C 1 2 11 10 5 DNS 91.5 4 Stéphane Mertens Bimota Ret Ret 3 2 13 2 4 16 3 C 2 1 7 6 6 1 90.5 5 Marco Lucchinelli Ducati 2 1 9 Ret 6 11 1 Ret 12 Ret 10 C 3 4 63 6 Alex Vieira Honda 3 3 4 3 4 C 42 7 Rob Phillis Kawasaki 8 Ret 6 6 3 4 4 3 42 8 Gary Goodfellow Suzuki Ret DNS 1 3 39.5 Honda 8 5 3 6 9 Malcolm Campbell Honda 3 6 17 15 5 8 11 2 33.5 10 Terry Rymer Honda 8 C 5 3 14 11 9 7 32.5 11 Roger Burnett Honda Ret 3 8 4 5 4 Ret DNS 7 C 31.5 12 Mick Doohan Yamaha NC 1 1 1 30 13 Joey Dunlop Honda 3 5 6 Ret 7 5 30 14 Eric Delcamp Kawasaki 11 13 9 6 2 C 29.5 15 Christophe Bouheben Honda 2 Ret Ret 2 5 C 28 16 Adrien Morillas Kawasaki 4 1 19 16 7 5 Ret C 26.5 17 Edwin Weibel Honda 4 Ret 6 4 Ret 5 16 C Ret DNS 23.5 18 Jari Suhonen Yamaha 7 10 14 10 Ret DNS 17 13 16 27 11 C Ret 13 21 19 Andy McGladdery Suzuki 9 7 15 Ret DNQ DNQ 18.5 Honda 19 C 15 12 12 13 14 10 20 Anders Andersson Suzuki 25 12 18 12 20 23 9 12 15 19 13 C 8 9 18.5 21 Robert Scolyer Honda 9 9 8 4 17.5 22 Michael Dowson Yamaha Ret Ret 2 2 17 23 Paul Iddon Bimota Ret DNS 12 8 12 13 32 Ret 9 8 17 24 Virginio Ferrari Honda DNQ DNQ Ret 11 10 9 Ret Ret 10 8 Ret C 16 25 Kenny Irons Honda 6 8 14 7 15.5 26 Ernst Gschwender Suzuki 10 9 18 27 10 10 Ret C 12 Ret 14.5 27 Roger Marshall Suzuki 5 6 20 18 13 28 Marino Fabbri Bimota 28 Ret Ret 9 9 C 16 11 13 29 Robert Dunlop Honda Ret DNS 26 17 29 21 21 23 18 C 10 7 13 14 15 12 12.5 30 Tommy Douglas Yamaha 16 15 17 Ret 7 11 11 31 Yukiya Oshima Suzuki 3 13 9 32 René Rasmussen Suzuki 7 7 21 Ret Ret DNS DNQ C 21 Ret 9 33 Kenichiro Iwahashi Honda Ret 2 8.5 34 Tadaaki Hanamura Honda 8 9 7.5 35 Steve Williams Bimota 11 9 19 16 31 Ret 7 36 Peter Rubatto Bimota Ret Ret 21 14 15 14 16 Ret 23 C 7 17 7 37 Andreas Hofmann Honda 8 10 7 38 Glenn Williams Ducati 10 8 7 39 Mark Farmer Suzuki 14 11 6 40 Mauro Ricci Ducati 15 Ret 21 C 11 10 6 41 Mitsuki Watanabe Yamaha 5 24 5.5 42 Aaron Slight Bimota 7 14 5.5 43 Koichi Kobayashi Honda 9 12 5.5 44 Andrew Stroud Bimota 13 9 5 45 Sean Gallagher Honda 10 12 5 46 Dave Leach Yamaha 15 13 24 18 DNQ DNQ 22 C 5 47 Brian Morrison Honda 26 7 4.5 48 John Lofthouse Suzuki 17 14 3 49 Karl Heinz Riegl Bimota DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ 11 18 25 C 18 19 2.5 50 Paul Ramon Honda Ret 11 DNS C 2.5 51 Toshiharu Kaneko Yamaha 11 25 2.5 52 Dietmar Kemter Honda 12 15 2.5 53 Mike King Ducati 12 15 2.5 54 Udo Mark Bimota 22 17 13 14 27 C 17 16 2.5 55 Anton Gruschka Honda 24 24 Ret C 13 14 2.5 56 Asa Moyce Kawasaki 19 16 DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ 2 57 Bodo Schmidt Bimota Ret 12 Ret Ret 2 58 Jean-Yves Mounier Yamaha 14 C 2 59 Michael Galinski Bimota Ret DNS 13 Ret Ret 15 2 60 Jean-Louis Guignabodet Honda 20 15 25 Ret 18 17 17 C 14 15 2 61 Hisatomo Nakamura Suzuki 13 17 1.5 62 Esko Kuparinen Kawasaki 20 17 25 23 DNQ DNQ 1 63 Dieter Heinen Honda 14 16 DNS C 1 64 Satoshi Endoh Honda 14 22 1 65 Mark Linscott Honda 15 C 1 66 Dale Warren Honda NC 14 1 67 Iain Pero Suzuki 15 Ret 0.5 68 Len Willing Yamaha Ret 15 0.5 Pos. Rider Bike GBR HUN FRG AUT JPN FRA POR AUS NZL Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole position Italics – Fastest lap Source:[3]

Manufacturers' standings

Pos.	Manufacturer	GBR		HUN		FRG		AUT		JPN		FRA		POR		AUS		NZL		Pts
		R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
1	Honda	3	2	1	4	2	3	3	2	2	2	4	C	4	3	4	3	1	2	142
2	Bimota	1	9	2	2	1	1	5	1	4	4	3	C	1	1	7	6	5	1	132.5
3	Yamaha	7	4	5	6	11	8	2	7	5	1	1	C	6	6	1	1	2	11	117.5
4	Kawasaki	19	16	4	1	9	6	7	5	6	6	2	C	25	24	3	4	4	3	92
5	Ducati	2	1	9	Ret	6	11	1	21	12	Ret	10	C	3	4	20	19	10	8	70
6	Suzuki	5	6	7	7	18	20	9	10	1	3	13	C	8	9	15	16	16	16	57
Pos.	Manufacturer	GBR		HUN		FRG		AUT		JPN		FRA		POR		AUS		NZL		Pts