Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

place in the points with some very fast and consistent riders ahead of him, and Honda was again in a very deep hole. Last year he crashed twice, Daytona and the fateful one at Loudon. In 1997 he also crashed at Loudon, the [one D F which derailed his championship and all but handed it to Muzzy Kawasaki's Doug Chandler. A year earlier, 1996, he suffered an unexplained crash in tum two at Laguna Seca, which may have been due to a mechanical failure. Chand[er won the title that year by a mere five points. Honda ha very deep pockets and very long arms and can have virtually any rider they want. And, at the end of the 1997 season, they decided they wanted to keep DuHamel, though they made a very strong push for Doug Chandler and DuHame[ had an extensive flirtation with Harley-Davidson, and also talked with Muzzy Kawasaki, Vance & Hines Ducati, and Yoshimura Suzuki, before re-upping with Honda. ''It was so close you can't even imagine," he now says of his move back to Har[ey-Davidson, the team which chose him to spearhead their debut into Superbike racing in 1994. "The thing that was funny about - and that a lot of people don't know this - is that I agreed to ride Harley first. I called up (H-D race team manager) Steve Scheibe and I told him, 'Okay, we're going to go with you guys, but you need to change one little thing.' It sort of involved money, but not money. It was like depending on races and stuff and winning and how it was going to go. I aid 'Everything's good, call the president (H-D president and chief executive officer Jeffrey Bleustein), tell him we're going to ride, he needs to change this. I think this is worth more' - not moneywi e again, it was a point system. And he said, 'Okay.' He was real excited and I was excited. I felt confident [ could deliver the goods and do good on the Har[eyDavidson. And Honda was putting some pressure on me, putting a lot of pressure on me. They were putting it not just in that way, but other ways. "We· called up Steve Scheibe and Steve called us back and Honda were putting a lot of pressure, like [ mentioned, in various ways, not just with signing Doug Chandler - I mean I could have gone to Kawasaki if the Harley thing would have fell through. [ think [ could have gone anywhere. For sure I would've gotten my elf a ride. Harley came back and they said, 'No, we're not changing this. This is our final offer.' Like I said, it implicated kind of money, if I won... it's hard to explain. It wasn't really straight-up money. It was a point situation. It was our own little point deal that we had with Harley. We looked down at it and I was just like, you know, 'We just need one more point.' it was that much, it wa just that little thing and they decided to go, a.''' So he came back to Honda. After crashing at Daytona, the word around the pits was that they were tired of him. It was the same sort of talk he'd heard after crashing at Loudon a year earlier. Then came the Loudon '98 crash. When his leg didn't heal as quickly as was expected, the sniping increased. There was talk that he wasn't working hard enough to heal the leg, that he was keeping something from someone. In the end, he admits that he might have made the wrong choice. Instead of waiting on the surgery, having it done sooner rather than later may have been prudent. "The reason there was no news coming down the pike is because there was nothing happening,'" DuHame[ explained. "My leg wa really slow to heal and we just kept thinking, 'Well, we're shooting for this test and we're going to shoot for that test: and obviously Daytona was the point where [ thought for sure I was going to make that test. When I didn't, when [ couldn't, after having a CAT scan, I said, 'Well, three days or four days after that, having a bone-graft operation in Montreal.''' DuHamel said that, of the five doctors he consulted, only Dr. Arthur Ting advised him to have it done sooner. "He was the first one to ca II it au t," DuHamel said. "I guess I definitely learned a les on right tllere. He was right. And I had like five other doctors that were not agreeing with him. Maybe he would've just said it's a bone-graft operation I would've been willing, but he said bone-graft and plate it, and a lot of doctors didn't agree with that. . Whether that was right or wrong, we'll never know, because I didn't take that route because I thought I was going to heal by myse[f." All of which caused some friction within the Honda camp. "I'm getting to the point - maybe because when you're with somebody's family - I've been with Honda so long, it's kind of easier - it's always easier to be mean to somebody in your own family," DuHamel reasons. "You meet a total stranger and he'll be an a ,and you'll almost be kind to him because you don't know him. Maybe that's the effect. I know that I get a lot of support from Honda. Every time I speak to the people, they're really happy for me and they cheer me on - obviously after Daytona. But even before Daytona, I've got some key people that really support me at Honda, and for those guys, it means the world to them. I feel like I'm at the point in my career, with all the wins I've accumulated on the superbike and 600, that I'm at a point now that they need to maybe change that look and start look. ing at me like a Fred Merkel or Eddie Lawson or a Wayne Rainey - getting a bit more respect, I guess. I don't mind going out there and proving it, but I don't want to feel [ike [have to." What Merkel and Lawson and Rainey all have that DuHamel doesn't is multip[e World and American Championships. Eacll won the AMA Superbike title at least twice and each won at [east two World Championships. For that they earn respect, something which has eluded DuHameL Call it the Rodney Dangerfield issue. It's the reason that DuHamel doesn't get asked to do the pre tigious Suzuka 8 Hours when far less talented riders are invited, and it's the reason he's not asked to race World Superbike. "I don't know why I don't get offered more tuff from Honda," he says. "Even to test the 500 or something like that. Obviously, we could go over there and go decent on that bike. I don't know. I'm just ranting. I'm just ta lking here. The best [ could come to is maybe one day when [ was in Japan for a while - [ was going quite a bit in Japan in '89, stuff like that - I must've made somebody angry at me for some rea on or something, probably the head guy or something. Maybe he doesn't like me or whatever. I don't know. Also what [ hear, though, is that Honda of America, they like me a [at, they want to keep me here. So, knowing that, they don't ask me to do other stuff." DuHamel has mixed emotions about going World Superbike racing. On one hand, he'd like to win a World title; on the other, he won't short-change himself to do it. "It's been more and more on my mind - I've wanted to be World Champion more and qore," he said. "I just figured I could do it anytime, a I don't have a time limit on it. Like if I go next year, I'd be World Champion next year. If I go the year after tha t, it'd be the year after that. That, 1 guess, is a lot of confidence. I just feel that I can do it anytime, pull it off anytime." DuHamel wa there once before, in 1992, when he rode the for the Yamaha of France 500cc GP team. It isn't an experience he remembers fondly. "For sure, '92 was such a bad thing for me, too - a bad year," he begins. "As far as the bike, the Yama ha was 0 bad that Wayne Rainey was the only guy who could put it close to victory circle. And many times you would go out and crash, and J knew J was going to crash, but 1 just had to try it. But that's where [ gained a lot of respect for him. My dad is still number one, but Wayne Rainey is right up there as far as riders." In that season's final Grand Prix, DuHamel had a brush with a track-safety issue and there was 'almost a rider boycott. The sad truth is that things haven't significantly improved in the intervening years. One need only look at Loudon and Phoenix for evidence. "There's absolutely no excuse why there should be no hay bales there," DuHamel says of tum one at Loudon, . the place where he and H-D's Thomas Wilson both saw their sea ons end viciously. "Not only by common sense, but after what happened to Thomas Wilson, not to have anybody go out there and say, 'Listen, we're going to stop iliis, especially in this rain condition: or the condition iliat was coming up. It was tricky, to say the least. it's unforgivable. It really is. For the longest time I played wiili the idea of suing the AMA for gross negligence because J thought that was just the tupidest thing. On top of that I went to see, I talked to (AMA national technical manager) Rob King and 1 told him to do' something about it. They had the whole lunch break, about an hour and a half before our session went out, and iliey said they were on it. I guess iliey meant the next day. It's just mind-boggling. I think change are on the way, and 1 think ourselves, as riders, we need to start hanging together now and putting our foot forward as far as that afety thing." If not, there is the option of boycotting race tracks, which DuHamel thinks sends ilie wrong message. "It's the worst iliing you can do, boycott a race like happened in Joliet, beca use all the wrong people get the wrong message and they all get fru trated, the promoter and the spectator :' DuHamel said. "They're nothing to blame at all, people iliat didn't do their job before that." What's needed, he believes, is a more forthright exmange among the various powers-tha t-be. 'There's a lack, iliere's definitely a big lack of communication between teams and riders because it-costs a lot of money and stuff and obviously Phoenix is definitely (a venue) where we shouldn't be riding. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure iliat one out. I think AMA on some levels is excellent, they do a great job of teching bikes and cllecking all the bikes' parts and stuff like that. But iliere's definitely a big old vacuum, there' a dead spot there between ilie on-track facility stuff, and the management and organization of the AMA and as far as the promoters go. And I don't know who's to blame for iliat, whicll is kind of sad. If I don't know if that means I'm not a very vocal person. I've been here for SO long, you don't know sometimes what's got to be done. "I was for the split, when ASBO (NASB) came out with Roger Edmondson, I wanted to go with ASBa. I was one of the fir t, becau e first of aU, AMA's going to be tHere every day - it doesn't matter if we race wiili AMA or not - and it would have been a good kick in the pants for ilie AMA to get their act together. But we stayed wiili AMA and now we see what happen. First year at Loudon we got airfence and hay. bales and then we got hay bales and then we get cones. And we get two severe injuries because of it. One guy's still not riding, and he's got a two-year contract. And then we race at Phoenix, [ike you just pointed ou t. And there was like four or five helicopter air evacuations. I think you guys need to start drilling the right people about this. Obviously, I don't want to be part of the helicopter, I don't want to be doing this. But there's not that mum empowerment that I have." Dangerous tracks may s-Iow him down, but his leg doesn't. He goes as hard as he can with the leg, always pushing it to the next level. '1 just take it to that limit, take it to the left side of ilie comer to that limit and the right side is a different ballgame:' he says. '1 go in iliere and every time it's a new experience. I'm trying to push iliat limit and push it and see what [ can get away with. And that's ilie only way to keep it true. If you put yourself a barrier where you go, Tm doing iliis here every lime: you're pu lling a barrier, you're not going any further. It doesn't sayan the next lap that you can't do it a little bit better, or different. It' a work in progress." As is his season. On the eve of his Willow Springs crash, he felt that, becaUse of ilie AMA points structure, he still had a shot at the Superbike title. 'Til definitely try to work it that way:' he said. "Try to ride and do nothing stupid, keep ourselves in iliere - and I think we're doing a great job of that, considering. It's hard, you know; the caliber's so strong. You've got so many good riders out there." Now come two very difficult tracks Sears Point and Laguna Seca. Both require two healthy legs. Then comes the less-taxing Road Atlanta, and then back to Loudon. By June he figures his left leg will be at about 0 percent. Between a bad leg and a bad crash, by ilien it may be too late. Honda has been known not to sign riders who've won championships for them. See Ben Bostrom, 1998. They also seem to be on a youth kick, signing 22year-old Eric Bostrom and developing 17-year-old Nicky Hayden.' Where DuHamel fits into their future is unclear. '1'd like to say that we've developed a really close relationship wiili Honda since '95, since I've got a good following of fans and a lot of people at Honda like me a lot,"~ he says. "I think I'm still doing a good job of racing. I don't anticipate any problems. I think I'm going to stay with Honda for at least another two years, three years, for as long as they want to keep me. As long as my results are up there, I'm definitely going to be one of their first picks to stay with Honda. As you mentioned, you never know what's going to happen. You never know which side of ilie bed sometimes people could wake up." If they don't bring him back, he won't be out of work for long. Infuria ting as he can be, no one puts it on the line like DuHamel. "I still want to win:' he said. "There's still only one goal. It's kind of easy when you keep everything simplified like iliat." tIM 39

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