Michelle Duff (1939-2025)

Michelle Duff passed away on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Liverpool, NS, at the age of 85.

Michelle had a very interesting but difficult life. She was born Michael Alan Duff on December 13, 1939. Michael became fascinated by motorcycles and motorcycle racing at a very young age, and he had an impressive natural talent on the race track. In 1960, at the age of 20, he left for England to live his dream of racing on the British short circuits, the Isle of Man and in the GPs. He quickly made a reputation for himself and in 1964 Phil Read recommended him as his teammate on the first official Yamaha factory team in the GPs. He won one GP in 1964 in the 250cc class, and then in 1965 one more in the 250cc class and one in the 125cc class. Unfortunately, at the end of the 1965 season he was badly hurt while testing a new prototype in Japan, and his injuries caused him major problems for the rest of his career. His return to racing the following year was the subject of a National Film Board of Canada documentary by Robin Spry, titled Ride For Your Life.

In the early '80s, after years of self doubt and frustration, she changed her name to Michelle Ann Duff and went through gender reassignment surgery. She left her 'motorcycling life' behind and led a quiet life with her pet dogs. I had met Michelle several times when she did her slide show/talks on her racing career. Some time later she mentioned that she had thoughts about putting a book together about her racing career. With encouragement and some editing from Jean Landry and I, it was 'honed' into a manuscript that definitely deserved to be published.

In the end she decided to self publish the book, titled Make Haste Slowly, and it was very well received by the racing community and fans alike. A second edition of the book included her transition into Michelle. After retiring from her job as an Ontario civil servant, Michelle decided to leave the Toronto area and set up in Nova Scotia where she had been living a quiet life with her beloved pets.

Godspeed Michelle!