The inaugural Scandinavian Open Superbike championship attracted over 40 entries from the four Scandinavian nations and each country had a potential title challenger, though by early June only half of those remained. Finland's Erkka Korpiaho claimed the first victory at Anderstorp but elected to focus on his home championship for the rest of the year, and Norwegian Jan Olav Noteng was on his way to victory at Kinnekulle when a violent crash with a lapped rider left him severely injured. It was left to the former Danish champion René Rasmussen and Sweden's Pär Johansson and Jörgen Hållinder to fight for the title, and the two Swedes came out on top - Hållinder's two victories at Karlskoga kept him narrowly ahead of Johansson with Rasmussen never quite on their pace after round one. Experienced Finn Harri Maikola won in Norway but was out of contention for the championship having missed the first round entirely.