Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ ~ 1989 Japanese Formula One & Formula Three Road Racing Wrap-Up A fast Texan hits Japan By Will iam Edgar Photos by Junko Yamashita and Edgar F 14 or eig ht months, a T exa s sto rm named Doug Pol en battered th e a ncie nt isles o f Nippon to even tua lly blow th e presti gi ous 1989 All j apan TT Formula One and Form u la Three National road raci ng co m pe titio n rig ht o ff th e ma p. T he 28 -yea r -o ld Amer ica n , ' in hi s epic fir st sea so n o n nondomest ic ci rcu its, re-wrote th e reco rd books by riding to unprecedented double series ch a m p io nsh ips in both j apan 's Formula-One a nd FormulaThree ca tego ries aboar d Su perbikeeq u iva lent 750cc a nd lighter 400cc GSXRs prepared for' th e Su zuk i factory by Fujio Yoshimura a t hi s shop o n th e ruraledge o f T ok yo , no w accla imed birthp lace to th e m ost torrid mot orcycles in japan. That T eam H onda , K awas aki a n d Yam ah a co llec ti ve ly formed a season-long nem esi s fai led to crush th e Po len-Y oshimura co m bo . After coming to the battle irritatingly off-tune and initially a llo tted on ly standard-grad e ra cing rubber from Michelin, T eam Yoshimura fought to wrench its tune-R-tire act together and duke it out with th e opposition, th en ran brilliantl y to the wire for th e big twin-win. There's a familiar word in japan for wh at Doug and Fujio did " seiko." H ere in th e States we call it victory, triumph, or just plain old "success ." . But behind th e h eadlines co me retrospective questions. Su ch a s How can a grass roots American with on ly a privateer 's past take on and defeat th e hottest road ra cers today's japan has to offer, on japanese home tra cks , right under the noses of th e mo st technologically advanced m otorcycl e manufacturers in th e entire world? First off, it's a long, intricate story that requires much condensing. Plus understanding the stunning riding tal ent who not only challenged th e japanese way of precision road racing, but a lso totally consumed it - in fact , took it right into his very being - physically, "em o tion a lly, philosophically. No walk-through racer won th ese two championships, no sir. The one who did, Doug Polen, went at it th e wayan ardent surgeo n sa ves a life. H e knew his own mind and whe re to put th e blade. It all began a year ago when, aft er losing 1988's AMA Superbike Champi onship to Bubba Shobert by just Doug Polen became the first to ever win the All-Japan TT F-1 and F-3 championships in the same season, four points, Polen signed with Rodney Sheldon, th e top H oll ywood enterta in me n t ' ma n ager who al so kn ew and loved m otorcycle rac ing an d wanted a road race win ner on hi s cl ient ro ster. And Pol en took a lo t o f flak fOT it. The racin g co mmuni ty doubted th e eth ics o f this Tinsel T own marriage - th in kin g " Ho lly wood Guy Grab s Greed y Racer Onl y T o Gouge Sponsors For Big Bucks." Wrong. And Sheldon proved it. After week s of hea vyweight negotiations, he ultimat ely pl aced Pol en sm ac k in th e middle o f th e japanese show, wh ere Doug would have to run against that nation 's best, and be scrutinized by Asia's massive road racing audience. hi o ther words, where Polen The Racer might gain stardom quickest on an international level. And when critics co n tin ued to accuse and grumble, Sh eldon figured he'd knock them fla t - by turning over to Doug a nd his br ide, Dian ne, his own manager's commission for th e en t ire .Ii r s t year of Polen 's co n tract (by season's end a su bsta n tial sum, indeed). With that scenario more or less resolved , the next encou nter for Doug was to m esh gears with hi s new jap.anese ride, th e formidable T eam Yoshimura-Suzuki. Its chief, Fuj io Yoshimura, had become a bra sh new legend in his homeland, a recogn ition begun by h is revered father " Pops" and furth er e n h a nced through' Fujio 's own ac h ieveme nts in building and campaigning winning race bikes. -Beyo nd Yoshimura cha m p io ns h ips in japan in '85 an d '86, Fuj ios top r ider Yukiya Ohshima won the All japan F-I title in '87, but then O hsh im a fell from th e pace - and somewha t from grace - th e year after, a not uncommon follow-up in the complex japanese ra cers ' psyche. Hence Fuj io 's' attraction to the ri sing Statesid e protago nist, Polen, who 'd a lready won races on Yoshi m ura bikes in bo th the U.S. a nd j apan. Fuj io, a long with Ca liforniabased colleague Suehiro Watanabe, fig ured Polen m igh t have what it ta kes to help further develop their ra ce bikes and win ba ck th e prestigious All japan championships, a revolutionary concept of bringing fresh Am eri can riding ta lent into a traditionally nationalisti c j apan ese arena. What Fujio didn't figure was, with Rod n ey Sheldon managing Doug and ca m p a ig n in g P o len 's potential and updated dollar/ yen value, Yoshimura japan would have to part with co nsidera bly more cas h for a Pol en co ntract than Fujio ever imagined. Th e deal was m ad e regardless. So, co m in g into it on a big premium as h e did, th e Yankee ra cer in King Fujio's co urt was o n trial from th e start. What then happened was this. Last March, at th e '89 season's first race by Ise Bay so u th of Nagoya, a t fam ed Suzuka Circuit - j apan 's pride in international rating and Diane and Doug Polen. and his manager Rodney Sheldon. m ilitantly Honda-owned - Doug Polen ' a nd the Yoshimura/Suzuki GSX R750 fizzled w hile Ho nda scored 1-2-3. In Hollywood, where Sheldon awai ted phoned results, Polen's also-ran fourth at the All j a pan opener was tantamount to a box office bomb. But only three weeks lat er , a t the very next race, in a post-main eve nt fo llowing the j a panese Grand Prix so daringly . wo n by Kevin Schwantz, Kevin's pal Doug Polen p icked off h is smaller displacement yet highly competitive Form u la T hree field one by one to win from beh in d on th e Yoshimura at Suzuka. Unlike Pol en 's one-shot GP debut on a poorly prepped works' Suzuki earlier that da y, Doug's F-3 ride was a ma sterpiece of tacti cal co ntrol that only a h andful of spe ctatorswere still aro u nd to watch. And, pitside, Fujio with his ra cing scen e celebrity sister, Yumiko Kato, saw it all. And it pl eased th e hell ou t of th em. At th at moment, th e Yoshimura siblings must ha ve felt thatwith Doug Polen th ey had th eir rider. Wh at remained on th eir dolist wa s a Yoshimura/Suzuki race bike that co u ld dominate th e '89 field b y m eetin g th e c h a lle n ge o n Mich elin. Tires were a m aj or factor from th e outset. Sure, Pol en co u ld grab poles well enough with th e rubber he was given, but h e still n eeded th e higher level stuff to ra ce hard the full distance and win - at a' time when Michelin 's best seem ed to be going exclusively to star GP teams. And th e struggle wa s only aggravated by co n tract in terpretation among Michel in japan and the Yoshimura front office. Doug wa s ca ug h t in th e middle. Home now in T exas, he co m m en ts, " O u r tire situa tion didn 't sit real good a t th e first of th e season with me, let's pu t it that way." And then th e rains came. Monsoons. In japan, frequent and tor rential. Returning to Suzuka in late April to race th e F-I 'a ga in , Doug's face shield fogged halfway through a downpour, dropping him to an embarrassing II th place finish. "I had to cock m y head all th e way back and sit straight up just to see out of a little crack at th e bottom," he says. "E verybody asked me , "Is that some kind of new riding style you 've got?' " Exposed to all the elements, natural and deductive alike, probably no rnotorsports professionals ma ke easier targets for criticism than motorcycle road racers. They could just as well have bul l's-eyes painted on their leathers. De p ressed , trying to sort approaches to the taxing calendar of F- I and F-3 races that lay ahead, Doug elected not to go to a la te Apri l F-3 event at Nishi -Nih on , west of Hiroshima. H is frie nd and ' team mate, th e seasoned Ohshirna-san, ran away with the race . Clearly, Polen had to yank his act together. And in early May h e got his first chance at -Sugo, th e Yamaha-owned resort in Miyagi Prefecture, two rai l h ou rs north of Tokyo by Bu llet train. "It

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