Suzuki is also the most successful manufacturer in AMA Superbikes with Matt Mladin, Wes Cooley, Jamie James and Ben Spies collecting a total of 13 national titles aboard their Yoshimura-tuned GSX-Rs.
Also a young up-and-coming Texan by the name of Kevin Schwantz ‰ÛÒ who had previously been making a name for himself aboard the Suzuki GS750, switched to the GSX-R, winning many races and, although he just missed-out on the battle for the 1987 AMA Superbike crown, the GSX-R racing pedigree was born as a class-leading machine both on-track and on-the-road as a must-have and revered motorcycle.
The Suzuki GSX-R has also dominated domestic championships globally with nine Australian Superbike Championship titles between 1987 and 2013 in the hands of Tony Armstrong (1987), Peter Goddard (1996), Shawn Giles (2000, 2001, 2002), Craig Coxhell (2003), Josh Waters (2009, 2012) and Wayne Maxwell (2013). The GSX-R has also racked-up numerous race wins in British Superbikes and victory for Crescent Q8 Rizla Suzuki rider John Reynolds in 2004, along with multi-championship titles in the ultra-competitive All Japan Superbike Championship in the TTF1, S-NK, Superbike and JSB1000 classes with Satoshi Tsjujimoto, Yukiya Ohshima, Doug Polen, Manabu Kamada, Keiichi Kitagawa, Akira Ryo and Atsushi Watabe.
The evolution of the GSX-R lies with its predecessor, the GS, which started many riders and teams on the path to victory.
The Suzuki GS series was Suzuki Motor Corporation's first full range of 4-stroke road bikes, launched in 1976 in 750cc guise; which then expanded to include smaller GS550, GS1000, GS125 and GS1200SS models over the years. However, it was the 750 and 1000cc models that drove development on the race track and led-to the development of a new breed of motorcycle; the GSX-R.