Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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VOL. 54 ISSUE 10 MARCH 14, 2017 P119 show potential in American racing. He scored a podium at Loudon in 1989 in the AMA 250 Grand Prix race, but Miguel's coming-out party of sorts in road racing took place in the Canadian stop of the World Superbike Series at Mosport in 1989. There, Duhamel raced a near stock Suzuki GSX-R750 and battled for the lead with World Champion Fred Merkel before going a little wide in a turn trying to pass Merkel and crashing out. While the Mosport race didn't end the way he'd hoped, it was the first time Miguel began to come out from under his dad's shadow and show that he was a rising talent in his own rite. Yoshimura Suzuki recognized his potential and hired him in 1990. He was injured for much of the season, but broke through to win his first AMA Su- perbike race at Topeka towards the end of the year. He was named AMA Superbike Rookie of the Year. In spite of his promising 1990 season, at the start of 1991, Duhamel found himself without a ride. When Honda factory rider Randy Renfrow was injured in pre-season tests Duhamel was given the opportunity to fill in for Camel Honda in the Daytona 200. Duhamel made the most of the opportunity and shocked the fans by winning the race. With that win, Duhamel's career was set and his long as- sociation with Honda was off and running. In 1992 Duhamel raced MotoGP (then known as 500cc Grand Prix) for Yamaha France. He scored a slew of top-10 finishes with a fifth in Brazil, his best result, and finished 12th in the final stand- ings. It was a promising rookie GP campaign, but Kawasaki came after Duhamel hard, wanting him to come back to AMA Superbike, and when no good GP offers materialized, Duhamel followed the money and came back to America. En route to his 1995 AMA Superbike title, Duhamel won six-consecutive races, an all-time record for the series at the time. But of all of Duhamel's accomplishments, per- haps his best remembered win came in the 1999 Daytona 200. It's been called the greatest race in the history of the series. A total of 63 riders started the 1999 Daytona 200, but the race came down to just two—Miguel Duhamel and Mat Mladin. Duhamel beat Mladin to the line by a scant .014 of a second, in front of one of the biggest crowds ever to see the race. Many were on hand to watch Daytona master Scott Russell race the Harley-Davidson VR1000 in the historic event, but Russell was getting ready for surgery to repair bones in his face, the results of a fracas at a local Daytona Beach nightclub. Fans didn't leave disappointed though. They saw a comeback of epic proportions. It was the miracle comeback race for Duhamel after nearly losing his leg from a crash at Loudon the year before. He walked the pits with the as- sistance of a walking cane. "I'm very fortunate," said Duhamel after the victory. "You've got to put things in perspective. I was happy just to keep my leg and have all the people believe in me. Coming back racing, I was willing to accept whatever scenario was going to happen. I worked hard, really hard for the last 10 months now, and it paid off." A running joke during Duhamel's career was what his actual age was. If you look at super- bike media guides in the 1990s, his date of birth changed to a more recent year perhaps three times. It did present a conundrum once, when the subject of the oldest Daytona 200 winner came up. Miguel had to decide whether or not to reveal his real age to claim that title. To this day, be- cause of his moveable birth date, no one in racing is really sure of his age and Miguel just smiles and enjoys promoting the mystery. One thing is certain, riders like Duhamel are timeless and being able to root for guys like him is one of the reasons motorcycle racing has such a dedicated fan base. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives