Rider, instructor

A crash in the early ‘80s convinced him to quit racing. A few years later, his friends convinced him to give it another try, and the rest is history. For the next decade, the Texan reigned as one of the world’s top riders. By the time he hung up his leathers, he had won two World Superbike championships (1991, 1992), two FIM Endurance World Championships (1997, 1998), the 1993 AMA Superbike Championship, two AMA 600cc Supersport Championships (1987, 1988), the 1988 AMA 750cc Supersport Championship and the 1995 Suzuka 8 Hours. In 1989, Polen became the first foreigner to win an All Japan Road Race TT-F1 or -F3 title and the first rider to win them both in the same year. Polen still holds the record (as of 2019) for most World Superbike Championship wins in a single year with 17 and the fastest laps in a single championship season (13). Currently, Polen offers one-on-one instruction at track day events throughout the US. He was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 2011.