Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/798489
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE A s many longtime motorcycle-racing fans can attest, it feels a bit odd when racing heroes whose careers you've followed in the not-so-distant past start going into Halls of Fame. Such as the case with road racer extraordinaire Miguel Duhamel. It doesn't seem like all that long ago that Duhamel was racking up records in the AMA Pro Road Racing books, and now this past year the charismatic Canadian, who was a longtime fan favorite, was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Pickering- ton, Ohio, and just a few weeks ago, the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame. It seems like overnight Miguel went from racer to legend. Road racing fans know of Duhamel's accom- plishments. For nearly 20 years, the LaSalle, Quebec-born rider was one of the most success- ful riders in AMA road racing. He raced factory machinery across several classes for Harley- Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki, and won the 1995 AMA Superbike title, five AMA Supersport Championships, two AMA Formula Xtreme titles, and the Daytona 200 a record-tying five times. Duhamel racked up enough wins to eclipse Fred Merkel to become the all-time wins leader in AMA Superbike history in 1998. He held that honor for six years. In addition to that, Duhamel was the absolute undisputed king of AMA 600 Supersport racing. His numbers in that series were jaw drop- ping. He won a total of 40 AMA 600 Supersport races along the way. Second ranked was Mike Smith with 13 wins. Some people assume since Duhamel was the son of legendary motorcycle (and snowmobile) racer Yvon Duhamel that Miguel's path to road- racing stardom was paved with rose petals, but that just wasn't the case. When Miguel and his brother Mario were coming up as kids racing, their dad was still busy in his own racing world and the two Duhamel brothers had to become independent and learn to do things for themselves at a young age. Miguel's dad also wanted his sons to learn to overcome equipment deficiencies to win. "When I was racing motocross all these guys had trick suspension and motors," Miguel recalls. "Most of the time my dad made us race stock bikes. We'd [Miguel and his brother Mario] get so frustrated sometimes that our bikes were slower, we'd try to do modifications to them ourselves. That turned out to be a big mistake because we usually only managed to make them worse." Duhamel was on the path to become a moto- cross/supercross racer. He had good success in Canada and was looking to move up to race in the AMA, but he was talked into trying road racing. "Coming from motocross, with all the jumps and berms and stuff like that, I thought road rac- ing was boring," Duhamel recalls. ""The first time I road raced I wasn't impressed, but then, almost by accident, I was able to slide both tires around a corner and I thought, 'Wow! This is something!'" As early as 1989 Duhamel was beginning to P118 DUHAMEL SUDDENLY A HALL OF FAMER Miguel Duhamel at his Motorcycle Hall of Fame induction. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE AMA