Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eINTERVIEW eM Road racer Miguel DuHamel By Paul Carruthers Photo by Renny Ray Abrams 24 iguel DuHamel kind of snuck up on everybody at Daytona in 1991. As a last-minute replacement for Randy Renfrow on the Camel Commonwealth Honda team, not many gave a second thought to the French Canadian when he took to the track for the first time on the all-yellow RC30. A few days later, everybody knew who he was. The son of Yvon made a name for himself at Daytona International Speedway on that Sunday two years ago. For one, he went out and demolished the field on the Camel Honda CBR600 in the 600cc Supersport class, and he followed that up with an impressive victory in the Big Daddy of American motorcycle races - the Daytona 200. Not even his more famous fa ther had pulled off that feat. But DuHamel wasn't a one-race wonder. He went on to win the 600cc crown while finishing third in the AMA Superbike National Championship, finishing second four times along the way. In addition to his on-track prowess, DuHamel was a popular man off the race track. He made plenty of friends with his benevolent demeanor and Commonwealth team owner Martin Adams jumped through hoops trying to keep him around for another season. That wasn't to be. Hell-bent on trying his hand on a 500cc Grand Prix twostroke, DuHamel fled for the World Championships when he was offered a ride on the French Sonauto Yamaha team. He struggled most of the season, but came to life in the end with a fifth place finish in the Brazilian GP. Still, it wasn't enough to give him another opportunity. Hard-pressed to find a sponsor, Sonauto went after the big name of Freddie Spencer to ride the team's Yamahas - and DuHamel was . out. . All this made Rob Muzzy a very happy man. Muzzy went after D\!Hamel at the end of 1992 and signed the 25-year-old to spearhead his AMA championship team. DuHamel should prove to be a threat for the AMA Superbike National Championship. We caught up with DuHamel following his qualifying session at the seasonopening round in Phoenix. With Martin Adams also trying to obtain your services for the '93 season, what made you choose the Muzzy Kawasaki team? There were a lot of things going on in the negotiations in finding out what was the best deal for us. We thought the Kawasaki option was the better one for this year - and that's basically how it came down. There were a few things with Kawasaki that were an advantage for me in certain areas, but it was a very difficult decision. It was really difficult. Did you enjoy your season of SOOcc Grand Prix racing? I enjoyed it to a certain extent, but I never felt that I was able to ride the bike to the full potential of how I can ride a bike. I did well in Brazil and Mugello. (Italy) and stuff like that, but I can do better. That was the frustrating thing. I was constantly fighting the bike to try and make it go good. I think the problem with last year was that Yamaha just didn't make a very good chassis. (Wayne) Rainey tried it and he didn't like it, so if Wayne Rainey had.trouble with it you can imagine me having trouble. We did the best that we could with what we had. I was riding around and after the race they would tell me, 'Hey, Miguel, good ride.' But I would be thinking that I could always do much better. It's hard to explain. I'd come in , seventh and they would think it was good, but I'd think, 'Yeah, I guess so.' Are you going to miss being over there? I would have liked to have stayed in 50Dcc Grand Prix and do what I think I can do. I think this year the Yamaha will have a better chassis for sure. I think that would have allowed me to do the better results that I know I can do. I would have liked to have stayed and done that. If I could get a chance to go back in say '94, I probably would. I still want to ,be able to show what I can do. If I could go there and accomplish all the things I think I can accomplish and )hey still don't think that's good enough, then I'd be more than happy to leave. How did the relationship with the Sonauto Yamaha team end? The team left me or I left the team, which ever way you look at it, because they were having difficulty in securing a sponsor. They got Freddie (Spencer) because that's a much more sellable name. I had a good season when you compare it to a lot of first-year 500cc riders. It was okay. Money is tight everywhere in the world and they just couldn't re-do our contract for 1993. They told us right off the bat that if we got an offer to go race somewhere else to probably take it. They said they didn't even know if they'd still be racing in '93. Rob Muzzy wanted to do this contract as soon as possible so that he knew what was going on with his team so that's why I'm here racing in the AMA. The number one plan with Sonauto was that I was going to stay and Bernard Garcia was going to join me to satisfy the French sponsor. I guess it changed mainly because of the lack of results by me and Niall (Mackenzie), mostly Niall. Not to put the blame on Niall, but he was there to get top five to make the sponsor happy. I was just supposed to progress. In the end the sponsor just wasn't interested in that. When they (Sonauto) said they could get a three-time World Champion the sponsor thought tha t was a good idea. You see when Freddie (Spencer) went testing in Barcelona the first time, I think he got a three-page spread in Solo Moto, one of the biggest magazines in Spain. If I would have gone and tested I probably would have gotten one of those little photos at the bottom of the page. I understand their move as being a diplomatic one with the French rider and a business one with Freddie. Curiously enough, we were talking · in Hungary about racing and the AMA. We wound up on the subject of Freddie Spencer. I was telling them how good he was going, and Christian (Sarron - the Sonauto team manager) was saying, 'Nah, I don't think Freddie will ever be Fast Freddie again.' I said, 'No, he's going really fast again. I don't know if he'll ever be like he was, but he's going really good.' So as it turns out I probably talked myself out of the job right there. At that point Serge Rosset and Christian were really non-believers in Freddie. · How does this Kawasaki compare to the Honda RC30 you raced with success in 19917 Every bike is quite a bit different. The engine on this is different than on the Honda; the way the power comes on, the way it handles. It's a much wider motorcycle than the Honda. The first year I saw the Honda I thought it was a 250. So it's a big difference. I'm taking my time, but I can say that's why I'm way off. We're still doing things to the motorcycle and every time we go out we get faster, so that's good. We're slowly getting there. We've still got some suspension stuff we're working on. I like the bike a lot. It really reminds me of what I had in 1991 with the endurance team (World Championship Endurance), and most of the time I was just as fast as the World Superbike guys on it. So I'm pretty happy and we'll get the bike working well. The whole team is working really hard and this first race is a good test. This race gives you a good test prior to going to Daytona. How much other testing were you able to do prior to the season? It WaS good that we could come here before Daytona. We didn't have all the , parts and things at the other tests, and there's no better test than to actually be racing. This is the best way to measure what everybody else is doing. For me this is a big plus, probably more so than the other teams. You won Daytona in 1991. Do you think you've got a shot at winning there again? For sure, I want to win Daytona again. I don't think I'd be the first, but I want to be one of the guys who can repeat ·at Daytona. I skipped last year so that would still make it two in a row for me. I would especially like to win this year because riders like Eddie Lawson will be there, Doug Polen, and everybody else. That gives me a lot more incentive to win this race. ·Speaking of Eddie Lawson, you were able to race with him a few times last season. How do you think he'll fare at Daytona on the Vance & Hines Yamaha? I have no idea how Eddie will do. If I knew I could make money. For sure Eddie will go fast, bu t I think he'll be surprised at the caliber of riders racing in the AMA right now. Like you saw today, Tom Kipp went very fast, Doug Polen is always fast. It's getting tighter and I think by Daytona everybody will

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