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World Superbike Champion Doug Polen returns to America to take care of unfinished business

Don Canet

IMAGINE, FOR A MOMENT, THAT YOU’RE A PROFESsional roadracer, and a good one. In fact, you’re one of the world’s best. In the last two seasons, you’ve done what few' men in the history of motorcycle racing have accomplished: win back-to-back world roadracing championships. Specifically, World Superbike championships in perhaps the most hotly contested series in motorcycle racing.

But with the upcoming season just months away, you’ve got a decision to make. Do you go for World Superbike title number three, and, if successful, become the first rider in history to pull off a hat-trick in that class? Or do you leave Superbike racing entirely, and jump headlong into the rarefied and lucrative air of the 500cc grand prix series, widely recognized as the ultimate form of two-wheeled competition?

For 32-year-old Doug Polen, two-time World Superbike champion, and the man who helped put U.S. club-level roadracing on the map, the answer to those questions is None Of The Above. Rather than immerse himself in the high-profile World Superbike and GP schedules, Polen will channel his energies in 1993 toward the goal that has eluded both him and the Fast By Ferracci Ducati team he rides for: an AMA Superbike Championship.

“My primary concern this year is to win the AMA title,” Polen says. “We’ll run a few Japanese F-l events, the Suzuka 8-PIour and some World Superbike races, but only ones that don’t conflict with our set schedule.”

To many, Polen’s plan to race in the States in ’93 might seem like a leap backward. After all, conventional wisdom says that U.S. Superbike racing is the kid sister of the roadracing world, a stepping-stone series that simply doesn’t stack up to the GP and WSB series in terms of prestige and

monetary reward. The flow of talented U.S. riders to Europe over the years-Roberts, Lawson, Schwantz, Rainey, Kocinski and Chandler are names that come to mind-certainly lends credence to that position.

So why exactly did he decide to concentrate on the AMA series? Polen cites several reasons, though it’s clear that the financial rewards involved are near the top of the list.

“I’d rather race here than abroad, if possible,” he says. “Racing in America seemed to be the best thing for me to do at this point in my career. The biggest thing was to have it work out financially. As it turned out, Ducati > offered me that opportunity. I’ll be able to ride here and still make good money-actually more money than I made doing the world championship series.”

Polen is no stranger to the moneymaking side of roadracing. Between ’86 and ’87, Polen turned club-level roadracing into a veritable cash cow for himself, crisscrossing the country with several machines to compete in a variety of contingency-paying national and local events, most of which he won. Not only did Polen make a ton of money-$90,000 in ’86 and well into six figures in ’87-the wins and notoriety helped snare him a factory Superbike ride with the Yoshimura/Suzuki team in 1988.

But money isn’t Polen’s only reason for staying stateside this year. Like the Ducati factory and the Fast By Ferracci team, Polen has never won an AMA Superbike crown. He came within four points of the title in ’88 aboard a factory-backed GSX-R750, but the championship went to Team Honda’s Bubba Shobert.

“It’s one of the things that Ducati wants to do,” says Polen, “and they figured I was probably their best chance; it means a whole lot to Ducati. It’s also one of the championships I haven’t won; I'd like to win Daytona and the AMA Superbike championship all in one year-that, along with the Suzuka 8-Hour, would be a triple crown you couldn’t beat.”

Ironically, Polen’s current plan isn’t too different from the one he formulated when he first joined the Ferracci/Ducati team back in early 1991. The team’s goal that year was to win the AMA championship, with World Superbike as a secondary concern. After a poor U.S. series start-caused by a derailed chain at Daytona-Polen and Ferracci’s emphasis shifted to the World Superbike series, where he found himself in a commanding position early on. That result was a World Superbike title, his first year out.

“That had been my goal since 1986,” he said, “I wanted to win a world championship, whether it be on a Superbike, a 500, whatever.”

Another reason for the U.S. move is Polen’s seemingly honest desire to make American roadracing better for everyone, to give it sort of the shot in the arm he ended up giving club-level roadracing in the 1980s.

“Being the reigning World Superbike champion, and making a decision to go after the U.S. Superbike title instead of defending my title; hopefully that will say something about the racing in America. Maybe people will take U.S. racing more seriously. That’s the goal, that’s what I’d like to see come out of it.”

Polen sees plenty of positive things happening in the AMA series, though the main obstacles of small purses, limited corporate involvement and a lack of television coverage remain.

“Television is the big factor,” Polen says. “Hopefully, we can get better TV coverage and a more professional-looking program. All those things are starting to come into play. It would be satisfying to see American racing get to the point where there > was more outside corporate sponsorship and more money being injected into the sport-enough for teams to pay riders so they wouldn’t have to go outside the U.S. More TV could make that happen.”

Not surprisingly, Polen is looking forward to the 1993 Superbike season, especially Daytona, where he hopes to avenge his devastating, unbelievably narrow loss to Muzzy Kawasaki’s Scott Russell last year.

Polen’s anticipated run at a Daytona win was almost sidetracked, however, due to a nasty testing crash there in December of last year, a fall that separated his shoulder badly enough to require surgery. Preseason setbacks are nothing new to Polen, who lost four toes on his left foot in a horrific practice crash at Willow Springs Raceway in early 1990. The off-season certainly hasn’t been kind to a man who seldom makes mistakes during a race season. But he says he’ll be ready come Cycle Week.

“Rehab is looking pretty good,” says Polen, “and I’m pretty much ahead of schedule. I should be 100 percent and ready to go.”

Competitive machinery is obviously vital in Superbike racing, and it’s clear that Polen knows he’s aboard what many consider to be the very best Superbike available, the eight-valve Ducati V-Twin, which is allowed to run a larger engine and at a lighter weight than Japanese inline-Fours.

As to whether the booming Ducatis have an unfair advantage, at least in World Superbike racing, Polen offers some insight.

“It’s hard to say,” he says, “but I think there probably should be some rule changes. I don’t think the rules are unfair, but I think the FIM probably needs to make a change just so the four-cylinder teams feel that things are equal. I think it would be the best for the class because it’s not healthy if everybody thinks that somebody else has an unfair advantage.”

Of a future 500cc GP ride, Polen says, “It’s there, it’s possible. I’ve had offers before. We’ll see how the next two years go here in America. If things get going good over here, who knows? If the opportunity is there in the future and it looks like a really good deal, I might do it.”

And what do his competitors think about Polens return to full-time AMA Superbike racing? Rob Muzzy, the man who built 1992 title-winner Scott Russell’s ZX-7Rs, knows it won’t be easy to repeat last year's success.

“It hasn’t had any effect on our plans for the season,” says Muzzy, “though it does make our job a lot tougher. Certainly, Doug Polen will be the guy to beat as far as I'm concerned. The guy’s a champion, and lie’s proven that.”