Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Miguel is a busy man; a contract with both Kawasaki and Commonwealth Racing keeps him that way. " Bu t I started to get tired of it, I didn't see any future for myself. I didn 't wan t to have to deliver pizza to afford to race; as you get older you become more concious of the money. Even bac k then, there were conflicts between associations, and I got fed u p with it. The purses were going down instead of u p. I really love motocross, I th ink it's th e best practice, but road racing was starting to capture my atten tion more and mo re." While California-based road raci ng World Champions often mention lack of recognition in the ir homeland, .Quebec-based motorsports aces have it better than almost any other gro up of "gearheads" in North America . Half European and half American in its influence, Quebec is a slice of France just an hour from the U.S. border. The media reflects this con tinen tal bias with lo ts of car racin g coverage. Mon treal has its own F-I car GP and Quebecbased two-wheeled competitors also get lots of atten tion if they do well. Since Gilles Villeneuve climbed ou t of rural Quebec to the top of car racin g with Ferrari in the late 70s, the Quebec media have been watching for their next world-class competitor. Yvon DuHamel got similar star treatment in the 70s and without a doubt son Miguel is more aware of his opportunities because of this. His manager, early '80s AMA 250 and Formula One feature winner Alan Labrosse, also got the red carpet treatment during his successful da ys in car and bike raci ng. In a city that's crazy about its hockey team , the Canadians, young men are also exposed to the possibility of motorsports-related stardom. Ironically, Du Hamel now basks in the glow of local hockey-generated publicity. When the Canadians started the pl ayoffs against the Boston Bru ins, the leading French language newspaper contacted var ious sports celebrities for their opinions of the " Habs" efforts. DuHamel was among the few who got the call . DuHamel interrup ted his motocross schedule to take a RACE Riders School at Shannonville Motorsport Par k in July of 1986, sharing his brother's Suzu ki RG500 (even tual winner of the National Pro 600cc Production title that year) with his sister , who also rides in the dirt. Although Miguel says he simply wanted to " try it " following the school, it is worth mentioning that his first-ever road race was a National at Gimli, Man itoba , that season, over ' 1000 mile s away from home. DuHamel diced wi th the loca l hot shot at the September even t, eventually placing second in Amateur 400 Production on a ratty Yamaha RZ350, on ly to win the race tlianks to a post-race teardown. That go t Miguel busy setting up for his first full year of pavement competition in 1987, addin g a stock Yamaha for the n ewl yannounced RZ350 Cup as well as a FZ750 superbike to h is fleet of well used machinery. " I just kept going faster and faster, and for a' while road ra cing, to me, got kind of boring," DuHamel says of his impressive first full season. "But then I found out that you could actually go faster sliding th e bike , like at comer four at Shannonville, both tires started slidin g, and I thought that was a lot of fun ." Canadian fans remember that year as one of con troversy surrounding DuHamel's RZ350 fleet, including a race disqualifica tion for th e use of " blended" gas. Protest surrounding the two-strokes led to th e crea tion of the non-super FZ superbike. "The FZ wasn 't really a su perbike, but there were a couple of guys with fast NS400s who were always protesting my RZ. They'd pass me by 20 mph on the straight, but I would win , so they would protest me. Mostly, we kept on winning. Then I got the FZ part way through the season, and right away my tuner put a pipe on it. He said that sin ce this bike had a five-valve engine, he didn't want to be pulling it apart all the time for protests, so we just made it a superbike with a pipe." In his debut with the FZ superbike, DuHamel rode in pain from a recent wisdom took extraction to win the Amateur portion of the bike rac e sup porti ng the F-I car GP at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. That track had been the scene of h is fath er's most recent big win, renewing an old partnership on a Bob Worktuned Yamaha Canada TZ750 OW31 in an invitational race during 1981. Bu t 1987 ended on a down note with DuH amel missing out on th e Italian trip to represent Canada in th e World Yamaha final when he and th e eventual champion ran off the track during the winner-take-all fina l. Contrary to what has been p rinted, DuHamel wasn't the Canadian RZ Cup Champion, although ma ny th ough t he could ha ve been. _ The year 1988, DuH ame l' s first Pro season and his second as a road racer, proved to be crucial, setti ng the pace for th e years to follow. Although he was .loo kin g for a superbike support ride, th e major manufacturers were already tied to riders like R ueben McMu rte r, Gary Goodfellow, Steve Crevier , T om Dou glas, Norm Murphy and reigning champ Michel Mercier. When DuHamel appeared at the Moto Salon Motorcycle Show in Mon treal at the end of February with a pair of Kawasakis, 600 and 750cc production class machin es sponsored by Pepsi and painted lime green , observers figured he was wasting his talent in some kind of homage to his father's glory days with the " mean green." Local Ka wa sa ki dealer Monette Sports, strong in the region and big fans of Yvon , also had a 750 su perbike available, campaigned to no particul ar glory by a well-regarded rider the year before. At the openin g re g io nal , DuHamel p ut the primer-pa inted peri l in to the lead , only to crash ri gh t in fron t of Mercier on the last lap. Mercier com p la ine d vigoro us ly about the rookie p ro 's riding after th e race. In th e ear ly part o f the season, DuHamel was ultra-impressive on the production Ni njas, th e only rider on tlie lead pace wi th a Kawasaki 600, while cha llengin g th e laws of physics on the su perbike. Explains DuHamel: " I believed in what I cou ld do. Even now , sometimes I go over what th e bike can do and try and get away with it, if I hav e to. . " I was all exci ted getting all these bikes, I was still new at road racing. Then th e word cam e down that Kawasaki was not going to win any races this year. I didn't expect much, but I ra n top two or three all the time. I just gave the bike a chan ce." The turning point in 1988 cam e at Canada's biggest National, the Superbik e Challenge at Shannonville, when DuHamel 's underfinanced team picked up a Michelin tire deal. " Boom, we ju mped up five or six positions, to where we were fighting for the lead ," DuHamel said. "Then I reall y learned a lot. T he bike wasn't going to win the race by itself, I had to force it. I was ridi ng five classes a weekend, pi cking up trac k time, and I was getting confidence." R o u n d four of the Cana d ia n National Series too k place at the dragstri p based circuit of Race Ciry Speed way in Calgary, Alberta, an d Migu el scored his first National wins in 750 and Open Prod uction. The 750cc race was a treat , DuHamel bea ting the horde of GSXRs, FZRs and RC30s to edge Crevier in a p hoto finish. But the Superbi ke got caught in a firs t-lap tangle, sustaining considera ble damage to its already tweaked componen ts. "We spent some time getting used parts and putting the bike together," he sa id . " My dad a nd every body around pitchi ng in . We missed practice for the next ra ce (Westwood , British Columbia) and everybod y said our bike would never handle there anyway. We kept finding more things to straighte n." But Du Ham el hung tig ht on the fast , hilly, bum py track, taking th e lead ' briefly from loca ls Crevier and Steve Dick and placin g second beh ind the eq ually sensatio nal Goodfellow. Then the Mon ett e T eam head ed back east for the last televised Na tional, beating McMurter at a CMA Na tional at Gimli along the way. Prior to the fina l RACE round at Shannon ville, the GPz required top end repair, since most of th e valve seats had falle n out of the head! But th e overworked team didn't ha ve time to adjust the valves, simp ly p rayin g that everyth ing went back into the sa me sp ot durin g reas semb ly, complete with dented p istons ! In the wet race, Du Hamel battled wi th Mercier all the way to win h is first-ever Pro Superbi ke feature. With the Can adian Na tio nal season co m p le te, DuHamel finish ed th e Qu ebec regi onal year with a perfect five-for-five performance at San air, not far from h is hom e. He th en hea ded for France to join Mario and Yvon in a special Honda RC30 "all DuHamel " sq uad formed by journ alist Did ier Constant of Montreal to con test the Bol D'or 24-Hour even t at Paul Ricard. Little did Miguel know that this would be his career turning poi nt . "T he first five da ys with the RC30, I liked th e bike, but I couldn't believe the times the top guys were doi ng, " Du Ha mel said of his first end urance experience. "Then we got go ing, we actually did pretty well, and it was a real bo nus. T hat go t me recognized by H onda. Duri ng th e night shift, on basicall y a home-bu ilt superbike a ga in st the H onda R VF wo rks machines, I was riding' th e same lap times, usin g the regular slicks , against the A tires. Peop le were saying: 'Whoa, who is this gu y going five seconds faster than any o ther RC30?' Dad go t them look ing, and I was ready. When I rode the RVF in 1988, I coul dn 't believe the difference. Compared to an RC30, it feels like a 2501" H is big-b reak works Honda France/ HRC Endurance rid e in 1989, coupled wi th the Suzu ki factory team in '90 and this season's Kawasaki effort, have made DuHamel into a well -respected star endura nce rider in Europe, where the events draw huge crowds. For 1991 , 25

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