Does Miguel Still Have a Daytona Win in Him?

This year's 60th annual Daytona 200 will be Duhamel's 10th appearence in the race. His first appearence was in 1991 which resulted in his first win...

Duhamel won his second 200 at Daytona in 1996 by a half-bike lengthover Russell and captured his third in 1999, when he edged Mat Mladin by .014 seconds.

"In 2000, I was disappointed," said Duhamel, a native of Montreal. "Ifelt we had a good shot at winning it and wound up not being thatcompetitive, unfortunately. I don't think that's going to happen again in 2001, at least I hope not."

Though the 33-year-old may have been disappointed with last year, after finishing ninth in the 2000 AMA Superbike championship standings, he likes his chances this year on the factory Honda RC51.

"The bike is good, especially on tracks like Daytona and Road America," Duhamel said. "The bike's got a lot of speed and it definitely works well. On the tighter, smaller tracks like Loudon or Colorado, we've been running into difficulties, but that's to be expected because it's in the first year of racing development and you're refining the bike from race to race. I think this year is really going to be a stronger year for Honda."

Tickets for the Daytona 200 By Arai can be purchased online at www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or by calling the Speedway ticket office at (904) 253-7223.

Note: Miguel is one of the few professional racers Danielle has met in person. After picking up some gear at Alpinestars, she came back and reported that she "met some guy from Honda Racing Corporation," and that his name was, "Miguel something." She has since been informed as to the greatness of Miguel and now is able to look back and laugh at herself, just like we did when first we heard of her encounter -- Minime