Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127607
GINTERVIEW ~ -:::tt 0\ 0\ T"""'l , Ln >.. I-i Ci:l ;:i ~ Ci:l ~ 22 hree years is all it took to make the all-red sighting a familia r one. Do u g Po le n and his Fast By Ferracci Ducati - the pairing was invincible. To get her, Polen and his V-tw in Ducat i w on two World Superbike Ch a m p ion ship s a nd a n AMA Superbike Na tional title. It's d ifficult now to picture him on anything else . Well, start picturing it, because Polen is making the switch. By the time most of yo u ha ve read this interview, the Texan will have signed a contract with Honda to race its new long-awaited RC45 in the World Superbike Series. We managed to catch up with Polen just prior to this issue going to press, and he agreed to talk about the impending contract and what it means to his career. What made you decide to get out of your contract with Ducati so you could sign with Honda? Number one, the motorcycle. I haven 't seen the RC45; I've only heard about it, but the motorcycle was the main deal. The second thing was having the chance to work w ith the HRC people. I raced against them in '89 and '90 over in Japan. I've watched their effort and I've seen how meticulous they are. Th ey want everything to be perfect. Being a part of that is something I wanted to experience. The main two reasons are definitely the motorcycle and the company. Did Honda approach you, or did you go to them? Since I already had a contra ct with Ducati, it was kind of hard for them to approach me. You can get into a problem area there. Everybody kind of stood back and did their own thing, an d it all kind of came togeth er there at the end. When did this all start? When did you start thinking about riding a Honda? Probabl y towards the end of the season, aft er Sears Po int. He re in America there's a lot of time off after the seaso n and a lot of th ings were happening. It jus t fina lly ca me to th e point w he re I said, 'Hey, these gu ys (Honda) actually soun d like they're going to be doing a full-fledged factory effort if they can secure really good riders.' I started looking at who had signed with w ho . As time went on, everybody kept signing with everybody else and they really didn't have anybody. At that point, I thought I'd have a good chance of doing something. When they caught wind of the fact tha t I was interested in getting ou t of my contrac t w ith Ducati, th ere was more interest from their side as well. Everybod y just waited the whole thing out. They (Ducati) let me out of the contract and it worked out rea l good. Was there 'a buy-out, or did Ducati just let you go? The details o f that d eal will be kept undisclosed. It wasn 't anything serious. It was more of a simple, 'Hey, let's keep peace in the sport and keep peace between myself and them.' The departure was very friendly and very cordial. Will the RC45 be a lot different to ride than th e V-twin Ducati? I don't really know . From what I've hea rd, it should be better than anything I've ever ridden. I even think it'll be better than the motorcycle I rode this year . I won't really know until I ride it. Just looking a t specs a nd th ings like tha t, and looking at what I've seen before and what I've raced against, the motorcycle seems to be very similar to the RVF I raced against in Japan. That thing was quite a motorcycle to have to race against. Everybody that rode it just said By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams