Steve McLaughlin wins the very first AMA Superbike Championship Series race held at Daytona International Speedway.
Steve McLaughlin's #83 BMW earns a place in the motorcycle history books by winning the inaugural AMA Superbike National Championship race at Daytona. McLaughlin won this seminal event riding a Butler & Smith BMW R90S in a photo finish over BMW teammate and eventual series champ Reg Pridmore. The photo shows Steve won by mere inches. Inches.
As impressive as McLaughlin’s racing career was, he is even better known for being one of the true visionaries in the history of the sport. He was a driving force behind getting the AMA to grant national championship status to Superbike racing. McLaughlin also later became known as the father of the World Superbike Championship, which launched in 1988.
Interesting motorcycle fact: Steve's father, John, also an AMA Hall of Fame member, was a leading desert racer in Southern California who came to national acclaim by winning the prestigious Catalina Grand Prix.
Steve McLaughlin was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 2004.
