The 70^th renewal of the Daytona 200, the most famous
motorcycle race in North America, will go to
the post this afternoon without a five-time winner, Canadian superstar Miguel
Duhamel.

It's a shame, really, because the now-42-year-old resident of Las
Vegas, who's originally from Montreal, would really like another shot to
perhaps become the only rider to win it six times.

In a wide-ranging telephone conversation earlier this week,
Duhamel — the son of Yvon Duhamel, who's perhaps Canada's best-known motorcycle
racer — insisted, like his father, who's 71, that he's not retired (he was in
competition a year ago, although he hasn't raced full-time since 2008) and
would be back on a bike in a second if the right opportunity came along.

But to miss Daytona (“I've had some offers but they weren't what
I was looking for”) is something else.

“Racing at Daytona is really special,” said Duhamel, who's won
eight AMA national championships, “and I'd like to go back. It's really an
amazing race, a difficult race with pit stops and a little bit of strategy
involved. It's a long race, a very difficult race.

“Every time you cross the finish line at that race, you never
mistake that win for a win somewhere else. Wins are always great but at Daytona
there's a big reward emotionally and I was very fortunate that I was able to do
it five times.”

Now, Duhamel was not the first Canadian to win the Daytona 200.
That honour went to Billy Mathews of Hamilton,
who won it in 1941 and again in 1950. And another rider, the retired Scott
Russell of East Point, Ga., has also won the 200 five times.

But Duhamel has done what no other pro rider has done in U.S.
motorcycle racing history and that is to dominate
the sport, and this particular event, over such a long period of time — more
than 20 years, in Duhamel's case.

Duhamel turned pro in 1988, racing for Suzuki in the Canadian
Superbike Championship. He won his first AMA Superbike race in 1990 in Kansas, was
rookie-of-the-year, and went on from there to become the most successful rider
in AMA Pro Road Racing history with 86 victories to his credit, mostly on
Hondas.

While Mathews was active for a dozen or so years, and Russell
scored his five Daytona wins between 1992 and 1998, Duhamel won his first 200
in 1991 and his most recent in 2005 — the others coming in 1996, '99 and 2003.

So I asked him: how does it feel to be considered one of the
greatest motorcycle racers of all time? And his answer illustrated perfectly
his wonderful, self-deprecating, sense of humour.

“I would suggest that people are very intelligent to say that,”
he laughed.

“But it's a great honour. I've put my heart and soul into what
I've done all my life with motorcycle racing. I started
with motocross and then I went to road racing. I invested everything I
had. My mentality was damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead and what comes,
comes.

“Unfortunately, for that, I have some injuries that require a
little limp in my leg, which hurts my golf swing. . . I've broken my leg a few
times (three, to be exact, plus punctured lungs, lacerated livers and any
number of scrapes, bumps and bruises).

“But it's very gratifying that people recognize that I don't hold
anything back when I'm out there.”

Duhamel was 3 when his dad first put him on a motorized bike (“there
must have been something the matter with me because he put my brother, Mario,
on a bike when he was just 2 . . .”) and was totally committed to the sport by
the time he was a teenager.

“I'd started doing motocross when I was 7; I started taking it
pretty seriously when I was 13. I was winning just about every race — I'm
having a flashback because I just went motocrossing yesterday with a bunch of
my buddies — but I never practised.

“We lived in the city; we just cleaned up the bikes and showed up
in the country on the weekends. And I won everything. I learned one thing from
motocross; I got used to winning. So then I tried road racing.”

But he remembers that first Daytona 200 victory in 1991 as if it
was yesterday.

“It was one of the biggest wins of my career and I'll tell you
why. I'd been going to Daytona since I was 6 with my father and he never won
that race. He'd have the fastest bike and the chain would fall off, or
whatever. He had a lot of bad luck.

“When I won in '91, I really felt that I had vindicated the
Duhamel name, my father and myself, that we should have won this race before
and I was so proud that I had finally been able to do it.”

“It was for the family. That first win, it was a major milestone
in my life — not my career, but my life.”

Despite his own successes, Duhamel clearly loves to boast about
his dad, who he sees as a giant even though he's two inches taller (Miguel is
5-foot-six; Yvon is 5-4).

“I don't think anyone comes close to my father's
accomplishments,” said the son who even races with his dad's number: 17. “I say
this because of his racing skills — and I say racing skills because they
weren't limited to motorcycles.

“Ice racing, dirt tracks, motocross, speedway, snowmobiles, road
racing — he did everything well. I don't think too many people know this but he
even raced once in NASCAR Winston Cup (in 1973, at North
Wilkesboro) and he finished 10^th. To this day, he's the
second-highest finisher as a rookie in NASCAR in his first race. We shot a commercial together for Honda a few
years ago and I could barely keep up with him.”

Like his father, Miguel has also done some auto racing (in the
NASCAR Canadian Tire Series) and has acquitted himself well. He's also
part-owner of the Autodrome Saint-Eustache, so is open to driving race cars in
future. But he's in no hurry.

“My life right now is
pretty good. I can waste a day away if I feel like it; I can enjoy life at my
own tempo. Some people say you should produce or do more and I say I already
produced what I want.

“I took all those chances so I could enjoy my life today, to say
to you, ‘I wish you a nice day at work, at the office, but I'm comfy watching
TV, thank you.'

Norris McDonald writes an auto racing blog at wheels.ca

nmcdonald@thestar.ca