Production-based motorcycle road racing in the United States dates to the early 1970s, when AMA race promoters invited club racers to compete in Open Production events alongside Grand Prix machines. Yvon Duhamel won the first such race at Laguna Seca in 1973 riding a Kawasaki Z1. By 1976, the AMA formalized the class as Superbike Production, running it across all road race nationals. The series gained factory backing from Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha as the decade progressed, and was renamed the AMA Superbike Championship when road racing split from the dirt-track Grand National Championship in 1986.
The Daytona 200, one of the most prestigious events in American motorcycle racing, became a Superbike event in 1985, cementing the class as the de facto premier series in the country. Throughout the 1990s, the championship attracted homologation specials such as the Honda RC30, RC45, and Ducati 916, and saw fierce manufacturer competition between the Japanese factories and Ducati.
The 1976 championship was won by Reg Pridmore on a BMW R90S, with the European twin-cylinder machines initially dominant over the more powerful but less-handling Japanese fours. By the late 1970s, however, teams running the Kawasaki KZ1000 and Yoshimura-tuned Suzukis had closed the gap. Wes Cooley and Yoshimura Suzuki won the title in 1979 and 1980, before Eddie Lawson took back-to-back championships for Team Muzzy Kawasaki in 1981 and 1982.
The displacement limit for four-cylinder machines was reduced to 750cc in 1983 for safety reasons, sparking a new era of technological development. Honda introduced the purpose-built VF750F and dominated the mid-1980s, with Fred Merkel winning three championships. The series saw a procession of champions in the 1990s, including Doug Chandler, Miguel Duhamel, and Mat Mladin, whose Yoshimura Suzuki team ultimately won seven consecutive titles between 2003 and 2009 — four with Mladin and three with Ben Spies. Mladin's total of seven AMA Superbike Championships remains a record.
Rules were changed for 2003 to allow 1000cc multi-cylinder motorcycles with fewer modifications, which reduced costs and opened the series to privateer teams. However, manufacturer support declined after Ducati withdrew factory involvement in 2006, and the Daytona Motorsports Group's management of the series from 2009 onward proved commercially unsuccessful, with grids shrinking and television coverage reduced.
In 2015, the KRAVE Group — a partnership including three-time Grand Prix World Champion Wayne Rainey — purchased the commercial rights from the AMA and rebranded the organization as MotoAmerica. The new regime aligned the championship's classes closely with FIM regulations, expanded the calendar to ten rounds, and secured television deals with CBS Sports, Fox Sports, and NBC Sports, alongside live streaming on YouTube and MotoAmerica Live+.
Cameron Beaubier won MotoAmerica's inaugural Superbike title in 2015 and went on to claim a total of five championships, second only to Mladin all-time. Toni Elias became the first Spanish rider to win the AMA Superbike Championship in 2017 aboard a Yoshimura Suzuki. Yamaha dominated a six-year streak from 2018 through 2023, with three titles each going to Beaubier and Jake Gagne. The streak ended in 2024 when Josh Herrin, riding for the Warhorse HSBK Ducati team with factory support, won the title — Ducati's first AMA Superbike championship since 1994.
The MotoAmerica Superbike class requires highly modified, production-based liter-class motorcycles. Eligible machines include the BMW S1000RR, Ducati Panigale V4 R, Honda CBR1000RR, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R, Suzuki GSX-R1000, and Yamaha YZF-R1. Minimum weight is 370 pounds, and engines must remain normally aspirated four-strokes within the FIM homologation parameters.
The season typically consists of 9–10 rounds from April through September, with two Superbike races per round and occasional triple-race weekends. Qualifying across Friday and Saturday determines the Race 1 grid; Race 2 is inverted from Race 1 results. Race distances run between 40 and 50 miles, with 12 to 21 laps depending on the circuit.
Circuits that have hosted rounds in recent seasons include Barber Motorsports Park, Road Atlanta, Road America, Laguna Seca, Virginia International Raceway, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and the Circuit of the Americas.
MotoAmerica operates several support classes alongside Superbike. The Stock 1000 class serves as a feeder series for near-stock 1000cc machines. Supersport features middleweight machines including the Yamaha YZF-R6 and Kawasaki ZX-6R. The Twins Cup is an open class for twin-cylinder machines, and the Talent Cup caters to junior riders aged 14–21 on spec Krämer APX-350 MA motorcycles. King of the Baggers, introduced as an exhibition in 2020 and made a championship class in 2021, features modified touring motorcycles from Harley-Davidson and Indian and has become one of the most popular spectacle classes in the series.
The AMA Superbike Championship helped develop numerous riders who went on to compete at the highest levels of international racing, including Freddie Spencer, Wayne Rainey, Eddie Lawson, and Nicky Hayden. MotoAmerica's revival has reversed the decline of the DMG era, restored manufacturer interest, and built a new generation of American talent seeking paths to MotoGP and World Superbike.