A total of 32 editions have been held, all at the TT Circuit Assen, which is about to match the record of Phillip Island: no other track in the Superbike World Championship has been used as many times. The first round at Assen took place in 1992 and has been a fixture ever since, with the only exception being 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
GP data
According to Brembo technicians who work closely with 12 out of the 14 teams in the Superbike World Championship, the 4.542 km TT Circuit Assen falls into the category of tracks that are not particularly demanding on brakes. On a scale from 1 to 5, it has been assigned a difficulty index of 1, despite riders using the brakes 10 times per lap. However, only one of these braking zones is classified as "High," while 5 are categorized as "Light." Over the course of a lap, Superbike riders use the brakes for a total of 27.2 seconds.
The most demanding corner for the braking system at the TT Circuit Assen is Turn 1, as it is the only one where deceleration exceeds 130 km/h. By applying the brakes for 3.7 seconds with a lever load of 4.5 kg, riders slow down from 271 km/h to 108 km/h, experiencing 1.4 g of deceleration. Meanwhile, the bikes cover a distance of 190 meters, and brake fluid pressure reaches 9.6 bar.
Carl's kingdom
Assen has been the ultimate hunting ground for Carl Fogarty, as demonstrated by his streak of 8 consecutive victories. The "Ice-Eyed Englishman" began his reign with a double win in 1993 aboard the Ducati 888 and repeated the feat in 1994 with the 916. He made it a hat-trick in 1995 with two more dominant victories. In 1996, riding a Honda, he easily won Race 1 and edged out Troy Corser in Race 2 by just 56 thousandths of a second. Fogarty also claimed victory in Race 2 in both 1997 and 1998 and secured one final double win in 1999 aboard the Ducati 996.
Brake discs of the past
Carl Fogarty is the only rider in history to have won the Superbike World Championship using both carbon and steel brake discs. Initially, his Ducati 916 was equipped with Brembo carbon discs, which were later banned at the end of 1994 due to cost concerns.
However, this change did not affect Fogarty's dominance, as he continued to win titles in 1995, 1998, and 1999 using steel discs. He typically used dual 320 mm floating discs at the front and a 200 mm disc at the rear on the 916, which was later upgraded to a 220 mm rear disc on the 996.
Modern brake discs
For today’s Superbike machines, Brembo provides riders with front steel brake discs measuring either 336 mm or 338.5 mm in diameter. Given the increased power of modern motorcycles compared to the 1990s, braking power has also significantly increased. These discs have thicknesses ranging from 6.2 mm to 7.4 mm and are also available in a finned version.