In his three full seasons of AMA Superbike Tiger Sohwa never won a Superbike race, but scored three podium finishes, including being runner up to Troy Corser at Pomona in 1994. He finished his AMA Superbike career with Ferracci Ducati in ’95. (Dunlop Press Kit photo)

Takahiro ”Tiger” Sohwa was one of the top AMA Superbike riders of the mid-1990s. Rookie of the Year in 1993, Sohwa first raced for Muzzy Kawasaki when he came to compete in the Daytona 200 in 1992. Sohwa came to Daytona after finishing a close third in Japan’s Superbike Championship in 1991 (then called TT-F1).

Doug Polen knew Tiger from racing in Japan and the ever-self-assured Polen gave the Orlando Sentinel reporter a quote concerning Tiger before the ’92 Daytona 200 that would make most riders blush. He said that Sohwa would be a celebrated world-beater should he win the Daytona 200. Fair enough, but then Polen went further – ”His lifelong dream is to beat Doug Polen,” said Polen, the defending World Superbike champion referring to himself in the third person. ”That’s his goal. He has a spot in his heart to do it. In Japan, he would be a hero for who knows how long. He’d be known as the one who came to America and beat the world champ.”

Alrighty then.

Tiger, after crashing hard in Superbike qualifying and then coming back to finish second to Britt Turkington in the ‘93 Daytona 750 Supersport race, smiled and in his broken English told a reporter, ”No crashes today, and that’s OK,” Sohwa said. ”I’ve crashed many times and still can go fast.”

In his three full seasons of AMA Superbike Sohwa never won a race, but scored three podium finishes, including being runner up to Troy Corser at Pomona in 1994. His top AMA Superbike ranking was third in 1994. He finished his AMA Superbike career with Ferracci Ducati in ’95.