Early racing in Quebec Duhamel was born in
Montreal, Canada where he became an avid bicyclist and established a small bicycle repair shop in his older brother's service station when he was only 13-years-old. Using borrowed riding gear, he finished second in his first dirt track race in Quebec. Duhamel began competing for the Deeley Yamaha team at
AMA races in the United States such as the
Daytona 200 and the
Loudon Classic. His second place finishing position would be the best result of his career at the Daytona 200, which at the time was considered one of the most prestigious motorcycle races in North America. His son Miguel Duhamel, would become a five-time winner of the event. Duhamel also raced in AMA Grand National dirt track events during this period with his best result being a sixth place in the 1968 Sacramento Mile, but uncompetitive dirt track machinery kept him from seriously contesting the Grand National championship. In the winter of 1969, Duhamel was selected to drive for Ski-Doo factory racing team, becoming one of the sports first factory supported snowmobile racers. Duhamel’s pole position on the tiny 350cc Yamaha motorcycle against the larger 750cc four-strokes marked the beginning of the two-stroke era in AMA road racing competitions. Later that season he took the 250cc race victory at the Loudon Classic after a fierce battle with Gary Nixon ended when Nixon's bike broke down. In October 1970, Duhamel and Nixon were invited to England to race in the
Mallory Park Race of the Year, becoming the first AMA racers to compete in the prestigious event.
Kawasaki factory racing team For the 1971 season, Duhamel signed a lucrative contract with the Kawasaki factory racing team to compete in the AMA road racing nationals with 1963 Daytona 200 winner, Ralph White as his teammate. The
Kawasaki H1R was known as a fast but fragile motorcycle with an explosive power delivery and brutal riding characteristics that made it extremely difficult to ride. Despite having a temperamental motorcycle, Duhamel was able to give Kawasaki its first AMA national victory on September 5, 1971, at the
Talladega Superspeedway, a wide open track which favored Kawasaki's horsepower advantage. The season ending Champion Spark Plug Classic held at the Ontario Motor Speedway, was run in two 125-mile segments. Also in 1972, he helped Ski-Doo set a snowmobile land speed record when he drove a Ski‐Doo XR2 to a clocked speed of 127.3 mph at
Booneville, New York. For 1972 season, White departed and Duhamel was joined by new teammates
Gary Nixon and
Paul Smart. At the 1972
Laguna Seca National, Duhamel qualified on pole position, however he crashed in the first turn taking out Cliff Carr and Dick Mann in the process. The race was held with two legs and a 45 minute intermission. Duhamel was forced to start the race from the last row of the starting grid after crashing during his qualifying heat race. On April 8, 1973, Duhamel raced a
NASCAR Winston Cup race in the
1973 Gwyn Staley 400 held at the
North Wilkesboro Speedway. He finished tenth for
Junie Donlavey in the No. 90 Truxmore Ford after starting 15th, completing 381 laps of the 400-lap race. Despite his respectable result, Duhamel never switched to car racing due his advanced age and for the fact that he was being paid well to race motorcycles. At Ontario, he led a Kawasaki podium sweep with teammates Gary Nixon and Art Baumann finishing second and third. Kawasaki's domination during this period led motorsports journalists to dub the team as "the Green Meanies", in reference to their lime green paint scheme. The 1973 season was the highpoint of Duhamel's Kawasaki career, as the
1973 oil crisis precipitated a drop in sales of recreational vehicles, which forced the Kawasaki team to reduce their racing budget for the 1974 season. He beat Kenny Roberts and set a new lap record in the first race of the series held at the
Brands Hatch circuit but, he proceeded to crash out of subsequent races due to piston seizures. At the season-opening
French Grand Prix held at the challenging
Circuit de Charade, Duhamel's Kawasaki suffered a mechanical failure on the third lap of the race. Kawasaki introduced the
KR750 for the 1975 season and, Duhamel used it to place a close second to multi-time world champion
Giacomo Agostini at the 1975
Paul Ricard 200 race, despite having to make two fuel stops to Agostini's one stop. He returned to the
Assen Circuit on July 9, 1975, and won the Dutch round of the
1975 Formula 750 season. He also competed in the
FIM Endurance World Championship at the famous
24 Hours of Le Mans and teamed up with
Jean-François Baldé to place third at the 1975
Bol d'Or 24-hour
endurance race. The AMA introduced its first road racing category for production class motorcycles as a support class for the 1975
Laguna Seca national. Kawasaki entered Duhamel on a modified version of the
Kawasaki Z1 and, despite his small stature, he was able to muscle the motorcycle to victory. Duhamel was the sole rider on the Kawasaki factory team in 1976, signed to enter in only three AMA races as he began to reduce his riding schedule. He had lost his motivation due to the frequent mechanical failures of the Kawasaki as, the
Yamaha TZ750 began to dominate the 750cc class. Duhamel scored two more podium results in the Canadian rounds of the Formula 750 championship in
1977 and
1978 in his final appearances as a member of the Kawasaki factory racing team.
Later life Never officially retired, Duhamel reduced his racing activities in the 1980s as he became involved in his sons' racing careers. He funded their early motorcycle racing and helped driving their motor home to race venues. Duhamel was forced to stop racing after suffering injuries in a bad crash during a vintage motorcycle event at the Mosport Circuit. Duhamel was inducted into the Snowmobile Hall of Fame in 1988, both the
Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame and the
AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999 and, in 2007 he was inducted into the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame. A snowmobile race track at the Grand Prix Ski-Doo de Valcourt sports venue in
Valcourt, Quebec was named Circuit Yvon Duhamel in honor of his snowmobile career. He died on August 17, 2021, in La Salle, Quebec, at the age of 81. Duhamel, who raced with the number 17 on his motorcycles, was born and died on the 17th day of the month. ==Motorsports career results==