In 1990 while taking my niece to the AMA Superbike races at Road America she developed a huge crush on Mike Hale of the Honda Racing (HRC) team. So at that time I decided to root for his team-mate Miguel Duhamel. After that it didn’t take me long to understand what an exceptional racer he was, including having a great sense of humor. Miguel became my all-time favorite. I followed him and the series diligently. I also attended the races at Road America every year (and still do), including other venues. Such as Brainerd, Mid-Ohio, Indy GP and Laguna GP.
After the global recession in 2008, HRC decided to pull out their factory efforts in the American sport/superbike series at the end of the 2009 season. Which meant that my all-time favorite racer, was going to be without a ride. This was very sad news for me.
In 2010 I was contacted by Dean Adams after not seeing him for many years. That year he was going to be in attendance at Road America and asked if I wanted to meet him for lunch at the Yamaha team's transporter in the pits. I am not an idiot and said yes. As I was waiting for him outside of their transporter, when he showed up, so did guess who… Miguel! Miguel was there on his own as a spectator and Dean noticed him right away and asked if he’d eat lunch with us. What a mind-blowing experience! I remember Josh Herrin sitting near us trying to take in everything Miguel had to say. Funny thing was that Keith McCarty of Yamaha Racing thought I was Dean’s wife, even though he had just seen him with his wife at the previous race. After that we walked the pits and took in some of the bikes, we eventually made it inside of the press building at the start/finish line. Just as we were about to depart and I was going to head back out to the track to find my friends, I said I needed proof that this actually happened, so Dean took our photo.
Since then Miguel had a Ducati ride at Laguna in 2010 and while in attendance I found his pit area and mechanics. During the race I never seen him come out. I asked Dean if he knew what happened and he told me that Miguel’s bike went boing. After that Dean created and shared a podcast he made of an interview with Miguel and I still have a copy of it. I was bummed about him not be able to race that event, especially since I was there and ever since then Miguel never did get a permanent ride. Heard he raced once, I think in Canada and also raced a car somewhere too, but that was it.
Ah, I miss those heydays!!!
