Miguel Duhamel, AMA road racing’s most dominant rider in the 1990s and early 2000s, says the keys to his success were attention to detail, maintaining great physical conditioning and cultivating an intense competitive spirit.
“For me, one of the keys was to be a little smarter than the competition,” he says. “I paid a lot of attention to tire selection and my riding setup. And I always tried to finish strong.”
Having energy in reserve for that strong finish was the result of a rigorous conditioning program.
“I was one of the early riders to use cycling to get into good shape,” Duhamel says. “I was very dedicated to physical training. I had the skills and talent. But there were days when maybe the motorcycle wouldn’t perform as well as I would have liked. Because of my training, I could muscle through.”
The competitive spirit manifested itself early for Duhamel.
“I started in motocross when I was about 9 years old,” he says. “I realized that, if I applied myself, I could be one of those guys on the podium. After one win, you don’t think you can win everything, but it gives you confidence to keep pressing forward.”
At the height of his career, Duhamel was the winningest AMA Superbike racer in history, notching 32 class wins in an era of some of the fiercest competition in the AMA road racing ranks.
He captured the Superbike crown in 1995, won the Daytona 200 five times, and took five AMA Supersport titles and two AMA Formula Xtreme titles on his way to amassing 86 career AMA wins.
Duhamel’s 40-plus AMA Supersport victories are a record—more than three times the number of the next person on the list. During his long career, he rode for five different factories in AMA and international competition.
“I am very pleased to be fortunate enough to have had the career I had,” Duhamel says. “Other people suffer injuries that keep them from reaching their full potential.”
Some consider Duhamel very lucky to have survived a 1998 crash at Loudon, N.H., that sent him into a concrete barrier and injured his leg so severely that doctors feared amputation may be necessary.
But Duhamel pressed on.
“In 1999, I returned from the leg (bone) graft, and it was too early, because the graft didn’t have time to heal,” Duhamel recalls. “I showed up at Daytona (International Speedway), and my father advised me not to ride. And the AMA did not let people ride who were under any type of disability.
“So, I ditched my crutches and used a cane to get to the bike and climb aboard,” he says. “I was thinking that I just wanted to get some points to start the season. But I wound up winning both races—the 200 and the Supersport.”
He says that after the race, there was no “Wow, I just won Daytona!”
It was, “Can I just go back to the hotel? I swear, I was so tired.”