Yvon Duhamel

  Jack Hunt turned another quick lap on the Copetown motocross track, sawing off each corner on the Matchless G50 500. The sound behind him was starting to get on his nerves. First it was in his right ear, then his left, no maybe it was his right ear. He kept the throttle open but his pursuer stayed with him until a corner berm caught one of the low-slung dual pipes on the CZ 360. The pursuer bobbled and took his only option. He steered the now out of control motorcycle through a gap in the snowfence, scattering spectators in his wake. Regaining some semblance of control, he popped back out from whence he came and the chase started all over again only this time with even more fervor. Hunt was now nearing the finish line with only a long jump and a quick sprint to the checkered when the sound of a screaming two-stroke captured his attention again. He looked behind him on the right to see nothing. He replayed the same move again behind and to his left and still saw nothing. He looked back toward the finish just in time to see the CZ land squarely in front of him in a cloud of dust and track dirt. The CZ landed in front of him, using up about eight inches of its six-inch suspension. The pursuer took the win in dramatic fashion, his fourth of the day!
Had Hunt looked skyward, he would have witnessed what the awestruck fans had just seen. Yvon Duhamel had just taken the win some twenty feet off the ground, over the top of a beleaguered Jack Hunt.
Such are the stories of Canada’s motorcycle racing legend Yvon Duhamel.
I had the distinct pleasure of spending an entire afternoon with my generous hosts Yvon and Sophia. Story after story flowed with ease, each picture or souvenir owned a piece of motorcycle racing history.
A row of pristine racing Kawasaki’s line up in the Duhamel basement, almost begging to be ridden in anger again. On the right sits an in-line twin 250 liquid cooled GP bike. Beside it is the ever-popular 350 Bighorn; a H1R 500 three cylinder air-cooled and then there is the famous H1R 750 liquid cooled triple!
Trophies too numerous to count, pictures overwhelming to view, and mementos borrowed from decades of the fiercest competition ever waged in motorcycle racing.

Although Duhamel is most famous for his road-racing heroics, my fondest memories hail from the epic battles between Duhamel and the Sehl brothers at Belleville’s 1/2 mile dirt track.
Duhamel started his illustrious dirt track racing career at Rigault, near Montreal in inglorious fashion. A friend had hurt his knee and couldn’t compete so he offered the young 17-year-old daredevil his bike for the remainder of the season. With ill-fitting leathers and helmet and a floppy hand-made steel shoe, Duhamel somehow manages a third in his qualifier, a second in the semi-final and then thoroughly feeling his oats, crashed hard when trying for the lead in the final.
A second try at Drummondville, with throttle stuck wide open, he ran into the back of pro rider Real Bouchie. Not seriously injured and certainly undeterred, Duhamel was already making plans for the next season even while the family doctor busied himself at the task of draining water off Duhamel’s badly bruised hip.
1959 saw Duhamel in his second season aboard the same 500 Triumph Speed Twin with a freshly rebuilt motor. At sign in, he noticed that he was mistakenly placed in the senior class and had the referee relegate him back a notch to junior. Duhamel then went out what would become typical Duhamel fashion winning his heat, the semi-final as well as the final. Duhamel now found himself squarely in the senior class again which would have been to his benefit had he not changed it. He had won $8 that day but had he been in the senior class, the prize money would have elevated dramatically to a whopping $15.
At his next race at Danacona, Q.C., he again won heat, semi and final and took the big money only after a pre-race move saw him pen himself into senior status on the sign in sheet.
The rest of the season Duhamel raced a BSA Gold Star and was faced with the task of upsetting the consummate professional Ross Woodward. Woodward was campaigning the KR Harley Davidson, the envy of every dirt track racer in North America. Duhamel had followed Woodward around long enough and the young student watched closely, learning from the master. At Ancaster near the end of the season, Duhamel stayed on the throttle just long enough to slip past and now it was Woodward who was the pursuer. Duhamel went on to win the race and the torch had been passed on. Woodward would never again steal victory from Duhamel.
Duhamel recalls other battles with riders like Don McHugh who took the #1 plate in 1964. Other than that one year, Duhamel bookended McHugh with sole position of the #1 plate from 1961 to 1963 and then again from 1965 to1968 when he was beaten in 1969 by factory Harley Davidson rider Dave Sehl.
Duhamel managed a measure of success on some incredible machinery as well as some questionable hardware. After his years with BSA, Duhamel went on to ride a Jawa speedway bike heavily modified to run on the longer dirt tracks. This was the mount that propelled him to CMA dominance. In AMA competition, Duhamel was supported by Bentley’s a Montreal dealership. There he rode a 750cc BSA triple to some success but the machine was clearly better suited as his road-race mount. He then went to ride for Yamaha on a Bob Work prepped TZ350 road-racer powered dirt tracker, until it was shelved in favour of the XS 650 Yamaha twin.
Road racing was starting to beckon Yvon Duhamel and he went on to race Kawasaki’s ill tempered and ill-handling road racers. However, he would occasionally drop in for a dirt track race on a Kelly’s Kawasaki 250 and even tried the fearsome H1R 500cc triple.
Duhamel’s record of seven CMA #1 dirt track championships will probable never be beaten and his legendary status has been duly earned!