In a change requested by several teams that competed in the World and European Championships, the Italian Superbike Championship was changed for 1991 to consist of only 3 rounds late in the year. These rounds were open to riders on the international grading list for FIM competition, and for all other riders there was a four-round "selective" championship held earlier in the year to decide who else would be eligible for the main championship. These early races were dominated by Davide Tardozzi, who won all six that he competed in, though they did allow riders such as Cristiano Migliorati, Paolo Blora and Luca Pasini some time in the limelight. Tardozzi was comfortably repeating this form in the Italian Championship until a violent accident in qualifying for the World Championship at Mugello left him severely injured; having won every race at the first two rounds Tardozzi was absent from the finale. His closest competitors had been Fabrizio Pirovano and Fred Merkel (racing under an Italian licence) who shared a win each at Vallelunga in October, and by virtue of having one fewer non-finish Merkel was crowned champion. Tardozzi had already done enough to finish a close second, followed by Pirovano and Massimo Broccoli who tied for third.