Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eINTERVIEW - Daytona 200 winner Miguel DuHamel ~ ~ DuHamel partners the acknowledged lon g-d istance master, five-time 24hour winner Alex Vierra. How does a you ng sprint racer adapt to these longer races , co m p letely unlike U.S. Endurance racing in term s of pace and equipmen t? "Sometimes you get up at night, it's 3:00 a.rn., and you have to get dressed quick and get ready to go," he explai ns. "Sometimes I'm walking through th e pits with Sylvie and I look at her and say, 'don 't tell me what time it is.' Because she might say it 's only two o 'clock, and I wou ld get mad and say: 'It 's only two o'clock!" So she might tell me it's Iive, but I know that it 's only two even though I don 't have a watch. If you look past your shi ft, it can become intimidating. "The races ar e long, and it 's hard to set up a factory bike to work well C three peo ple. I like endurance, but or I would prefer in the next few years to conc entrate on World Superbike or 250 or 500 Grand Prix. I wou ld lik e to go back to endura nce eventually, bu t it's frustrating trying to ride your best with a compro mise setup." DuHamel hooked up with man ager Labrosse for '89, signing with Suzuki Canada for National Superbi ke events, Honda in World Endurance and then putting toge ther a last-minute LassakYamah a deal C AMA 250cc actio n. or Although he just missed q ua lifying for the U .S . G r and Prix, DuHa m el q uick ly became a factor in the U.S. tha n ks to a good relationship wi th tuner J o h n Lassa k. A lap record perfor ma nce at Atla nta and rostrum position at Loudon , beh in d Joh n Kocin ski an d Rich Ol iver, promised much, while the Ca nadia n Match Ra ces at Shannonville yielded a lap record tha t still stands. DuHamel' s Match Race win with Lassak 's yearold Yamaha over Ol iver, Don Greene, Richard Moore and company is still one of his favorites, In Canada, DuHamel also found instant success wi th the Mike Crompton ru n, brand new GSXR750RRs, even though th e bikes were unsorted at the start of the season. DuHamel won the first two Nation al s in a row, passing Crevier on the last lap at Sanair and then doi ng the same to McMurter in a con troversial televised ro und at Shubanacadi e, Nova Scotia. " You can't expect a guy to rid e any harder than. that," said a delighted Crompton , one-time tuner for Freddie Spencer. Miguel 's best efforts were saved for endurance, attracting the attenti on of H onda 's Japanese brass , and DuHamel went to th e Suzuka warmup " big 200" and placed sevent h in his " homeland" debut. Honda asked him to contest the 8-hour, but Miguel broke his femur in private testing at Suzuka, ending his 1989 campaign. While Duhamel describes his Japanese accident on qual ifying tires at Suzuka, Sylvie leaves th e room bri efly, returning with a long, U-shaped rod, removed from DuHam el's left femur last fall. "T ha t bar was a problem, because it was cutting into me all the time ," DuHamel said. "I could feel it wh en I was riding. I don't want to make too big a deal about it, but it does weigh on your mind when it' s in there." The 1990 season started with the DuHamel-Crevier Can adian Daytona disaster, both new Yoshimura-Suzuki rid ers crashing out of their heat with in seconds of each ot her. Then Du Ham el had an impressive Supersports ride at Atlan ta, only to crash the same bike at Loudon in his heat, breaking an an kle. "T he reports of that crash really made me angry," repeats DuHamel. . " We were all set in the Superbike race, turn ing competitive times , and then Cell orr the Supersports bike because it jumped out of gear. Nobody said tha t." Followi ng the Loudon mess , Yosh imura fired Crevier but gave DuHamel time off to get ready for the Suzuka 8-hour, where he would team with Doug Polen. The '90 Suzu ka expe rience helped DuHamel get hi s confide nce back. T he time with Polen ."really cheered me up. Doug is a great guy . We went out togeth er, and we had a good race. In th e last hour, I was one of the fastest guys on the track. Not Cast like (Michae l) Doohan and (Eddie) Lawson, bu t good Cor a GSXR." Further Suzuka '90 stories would be wasted , since it 's impossible to translate DuHamel's hysterical FrenchCanadian/Texan Doug Polen impression into type. When you add his spoton Rodney Dangerfield and a stilldevelopin g Jamie James to the list of voices, DuHamel's flair for spontaneous humor is Cully revealed . Mid-Ohio was DuHamel's nex t race, and his strong fifth forced h im to make another major change. "I was feeling good on the way back from Japan, so I bet Sylvie my moustache that I would win at Ohio. I liked the track, but I didn't win , so Cor Calgary (th e RACE National the next weekend) nobody recognized me. My mom couldn't figure out what was different. " For the swarthy DuHamel, a lip warmer owner sin ce his mid-teens, the change was made with the hope that . he would be less intimida ting to th e pr ess, with fewer dark and menacing facial features . The Calgary National allowed DuHam el to ride his U.S. Suzuki agai nst Jeff Ga ynor on DuHamel's regul ar Canadian machine, the bike surprisingly similar in terms of per form an ce, DuHam el led much of the race in his first Canadian star t in two mon ths, but faded to third a t the fin ish. When he coul d on ly ge t thi rd at Westwood, h is 'co u n trym en wer e won dering if Migu el and ' the GSXR were up to the test. The fina l National at Shannonvill e generated a wild dice with Pascal Picotte's Yama ha , the latter getting the lap record but DuHamel nabbed the wi n. A week lat er he scored his AMA Superb ike breakthrough at Topeka in Kansas, fina lly getting a toe hold (he thou ght) in the U.S. scene. Although he blew an engine at Willow Springs and suffered sim ilar problems near th e end of a good ru n at the Bol D'or, DuHamel was bullish on 1991. Then the problems started. Yoshim- Miguel in action in 1988, winning his first-ever Canadian National at Shannonville in the rain. ura decided not to renew h is contract, and DuHamel was annoyed by corn men ts th at he had "one good run" with the team. Kawasaki o ffered good money to go endurance raci ng in the revamped World Championsh ip, and Miguel sign ed on, planning to run selected AMA 250 even ts with old buddy John Lassak to comp lete his season. A proposed Suzuki 250cc GP ride with the Martin Wimmer's team proved to be too costly to seriously conte mp la te, but everything chang ed when Dayton a destiny called in the form of Co m m onwealth 's Martin Adams. " Fro m tha t perspective, Daytona was a dream come true, even if I di dn' t win," ·says DuHamel. "T he . team was great, really su pportive. The bike was easy to ride and needed littl e adj ustment. The set of golf clubs I won . from Ray (Plum b) on our bet helped me too! " The men tion of new golf club s, scheduled for delivery a t Brainerd, bring up th e question of mat eriali sm. Any racer who has had factory involvement on several con tinents for three seasons and grabbed ro ug hly $40,000 in one day in Florida sho ul d be well off. For all anyone knows, DuHamel may be keeping his loot in a ma ttress. Although he does wear ni ce running shoes and his stereo didn't come from Radio Shack, there are few "nouveau rich " trappings in the Sylvie and Miguel road show. On the way in from the airport, Miguel takes great pride to point out hi s three-year-old Colt ("built for Dodge by Mitsibushi" deadpans DuHamel) is on its original set of tires. " I keep thinking I should buy something better, but this car has been good and I don 't worry when I leave it at the airport all the time." As far as his favorite hobby goes, DuHamel could use Plumb's new cl ubs , since his current set looks like leftovers from a rummage sale and even the carrying case has a broken strap I . Following a photo session, DuHamel and his future spouse leave for their favorite restaurant, the Mercier. Everybody in the place knows them, and several of the staff mention that they watched Daytona's coverage on TSN (The SportsNetwork, Canada 's ESPN) that day. " I like the food here," says DuHamel of the typically huge and varied Montreal menu. "They have everything from simple to big deal." DuHamel generally avoids any alcohol within two weeks of an event, and even then he is a non-partyer, Sylvie's only complaint regards his penchant for playing rap music full blast early in th e morning before he _ heads to the gym or the local fishing hol e. Over 'un Broch ette" (shis h kebab) DuHamel looks into his future and hopes for a 500cc GP ride , as well as a possibl e crack at the superbikersform at Guidon D'Or event in France. H is biggest recent thiill was a chance meeting with Wayne Rainey at Laguna, when the World Champion told on e-time rival Labrosse that-he considered DuHamel for his newl y formed 250 team. . But with the points lead in both the AMAlCCS 600cc Supersport and AMA Superbike Series and a good shot at the World Endurance cro wn, DuHamel may be hearing even better offers in the near fu ture. al

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