Jacques Villeneuve therefore qualified for the Daytona 500 Miles. At 50, with three of his five sons with him. Including the last, Gilles, born two weeks ago.
The circle is complete. At the age of 50, Jacques Villeneuve brought his father’s name back into the bosom of his family. Peace, finally, holy peace.
I still remember those piss-vinegar unable to see greatness in others because of their personal mediocrity who vomited on the former world champion saying that he was racing for the money and that he did not have the passion for racing like his father.
Millions, Jacques has earned and spent dozens. If not hundreds. But he never strayed from the race. He’s driven everything, including Toyota pickups. Take a racing discipline and at one point, Jacques Villeneuve made the effort to carve out a place for himself.
And there, at age 50, visibly happy, accompanied by three of his five sons, he prepares to take the wheel for 500 miles at 300 kilometers per hour at three wide on the track. How about that ?
DO NOT FEAR DEATH
We were in Jerez in Spain. The evening of October 26 when Jacques Villeneuve became Formula 1 world champion. It was nearly nine o’clock and the sun was setting on the gentle hills surrounding the circuit. I left the press room with Torto. We were both empty. I had written seven or eight pages on this explosive championship which sent Michael Schumacher into the gravel.
Villeneuve’s car was powered by a Renault engine. And the big French multinational was leaving F1 that night. We had set up a big table on the asphalt in front of the garages and we were eating cheese and drinking wine. Or rather the reverse.
Torto and I, as Québécois cousins, had met with the French.
That evening, Christian Contzen, the big boss of Renault-Sport, told me that the only driver who worried him in Formula 1 was Jacques Villeneuve. “Because Jacques is the only pilot who does not fear death. In Interlagos, he is the only one who never lifts his foot in the big curve. He has a contempt for death that scares me,” he had thought aloud.
PASSION AT THE HEART
These words struck me. We always talked about the audacity and passion of Gilles Villeneuve and the cerebral calculations of Jacques in the race. However, Villeneuve took high risks, but keeping a form of intelligence in decision-making.
But above all, Villeneuve has always had the courage of his passion. He said no to an 84 million US offer from Renault when he was at BAR. But this ill-fated team that ended up becoming the all-powerful Mercedes team was his creation, his baby. Craig Pollock’s millions, it was Jacques who invested them. The son carried out his father Gilles’ dream of creating an F1 team. It cost him dozens of wins over the F1 years, but the team lived on and grew. When Lewis Hamilton was world champion, his Mercedes was born BAR and Jacques Villeneuve was the secret shareholder in the adventure.
A BEAUTIFUL QUEBECOIS
Some wonder why Louis Butcher ends up in Daytona Beach to cover a 50-year-old pilot “who is not even a real Quebecer”.
First, Louis Butcher is doing his job. Go for the information to tell interesting stories.
Second, Jacques Villeneuve was undoubtedly much more proud of Quebec than Quebec was proud of him.
Thirdly, Jacques Villeneuve is Quebecois like Céline Dion is Quebecois, like Guy Laliberté is and like Félix Auger-Aliassime is even if he had the intelligence to settle in Monaco.
As I am Bleuet even though I left Saint-David-de-Falardeau 50 years ago.
On my brother Guy’s pontoon on the very calm Grenon lake in Falardeau, on a beautiful evening at the end of July, I even found my lake accent…
Don’t be easy… (sic)
A female NHL: cash!
The Olympic finals of women’s hockey teams have a knack for making fans bawl. The defeat in Nagano, the victory in Salt Lake City despite a referee sold to the Americans, the incredible suspense of Sochi when the puck grazed the empty net post at the end of the match, the victory in Beijing…
The spectacle is always exciting and often poignant.
But how to transport these emotions in a professional circuit in normal life?
The solutions are not many and all end up in a dead end. Because professional sport runs on dollars. At cash.
And hockey fans don’t want to pay to go see women’s hockey.
THE NHL WILL NEED TO CONTRIBUTE
There might be a way to allow a real professional league to develop. Thanks to the sponsorship of the big National League. Canadian teams could fund three women’s teams and US teams fund three more. Let’s say in Boston, Minnesota and Philadelphia.
By using the big NHL teams to cross-promote men’s and women’s hockey, a market could perhaps be established in less than ten years.
But we’re talking millions of dollars…