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The other Jacques Villeneuve


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#51 cheesy poofs

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Posted 06 August 2014 - 13:41

Found out today that Jacques Villeneuve is now battling cancer. Now 60, he says he hopes to win this battle and keep racing next winter. He's been following chemotherapy and hopes to fight this cancer. He's lost some weight and his hair due to the chemotherapy.

He says he hopes to race again this winter if he can find more speed in his snowmobiles.

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#52 Ray Bell

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Posted 06 August 2014 - 14:21

All the best to him...

A positive attitude is one of the things that will help him, of course.

#53 Richard Jenkins

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Posted 06 August 2014 - 20:50

Oh dear, it's not been a great few years for him, has it? Let's hope for the best.



#54 Marc Sproule

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Posted 10 October 2014 - 02:44

does anyone have a current update on jacques?

 

i got to know him fairly well when he was in the atlantic series. i always liked him and we got along quite well. i guess you could say he was always more "country" than gilles so it makes sense to me that he was not interested in leaving north america to race.

 

here are a couple of images of him and gilles together on the pre-grid prior to the atlantic race in trois rivieres in '76.

 

i hope he makes a full recovery.

 

https://www.flickr.c...@N03/4444748474

 

https://www.flickr.c...@N03/4442749868

 

there are a fair number of pics of jacques in my atlantic set......eventually there will be more

 

https://www.flickr.c...57623186773769/

 

and one of jacques in the 2 liter osella can am car.....

 

https://www.flickr.c...N03/4434223478/


Edited by Marc Sproule, 10 October 2014 - 06:01.


#55 Allen Brown

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Posted 16 October 2014 - 13:46

Reading this thread, you'd think Jacques Snr was some sort of wannabe racer trailing disconsolately in his brother footsteps.  I don't recognise that at all.  Just to recap, these are the major International series that he WON:

 

1980 North American Formula Atlantic Championship 

 

1981 North American Formula Atlantic Championship

 

1983 Can-Am Championship

 

I'm sure he was very happy for his brother when GV got into F1 but JV was a star in his own right.



#56 cheesy poofs

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Posted 12 September 2016 - 15:03

Going to revive this thread by saying I got to meet Jacques for the first time ever while on vacation.

Had the pleasure to chat with him for about 15 - 20 minutes. Now 62 years old, Jacques looked in very good spirit and was exactly how I expected him to be. Very spirited and talkative!

His cancer seems to have receeded for the time being. Huge snowmobile crashes in the past 5-6 years and left him with quite a visible scar on his right leg. His mobility has suffered as a result. But yet, it does not seem to slow him down at all.

Not sure if his snowmobile days are really over but I would not be surprised to see him racing again.

Edited by cheesy poofs, 12 September 2016 - 15:04.


#57 D28

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Posted 12 September 2016 - 16:03

That is positive news for sure unlike most of the news posted on older racers. Thanks for the update hope he continues with reasonable health As for more racing... well he has absolutely nothing left to prove.



#58 E1pix

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Posted 12 September 2016 - 19:10

VERY glad to hear Jacques is doing better!

First time I saw him run was in a FF in Montreal, 1978... the Magic Race for Canada and his brother. I believe he may have won, but think he took 3rd.

Two years on I went from Colorado to the Midwest to pick up a Super Vee to tow back to Denver, and quickly realized it was the weekend for Road America's Can-Am -- and Jacques was there running a March 80A in Atlantic. Hard to believe now that Gilles was still alive...

I had a completely non-racing friend along, and told him of the V Legacy... and just as I did, Jacques missed his braking point for Canada Corner (of all places!) and the car drifted wide on the grass within a few feet of the Armco. Brother J never lifted at all, dirt and grass a flyin' everywhere. Turns out he had the same genes after all.

In '84 I was called to letter a Can-Am car. I walked into the shop and was floored to see it was the about-to-be former Canadian Tire Frisbee. I had developed a trick of removing sign lettering with oven cleaner, but in this case taking any Villeneuve name off was decidedly painful -- if not downright sacrilegious.

Hope you get back on the sled, Jacques!

#59 racinggeek

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Posted 12 September 2016 - 22:21

Hope the elder JV -- wow, it's weird to type that -- continues his recovery and apparent improved health.

 

First time I recall watching him race was his sole CART win in 1985 at Road America, and second time was what probably should've been his second CART win at same track a year later.

 

In what was maybe the worst weather in which I have ever watched a race -- actually, the scheduled date was postponed by rain and moved down a couple weeks, but the rescheduled date wasn't much better, cold, stormy, dark and dreary -- a late-race downpour and yellow saw Roberto Moreno get out front on tire-changing strategy, with JV second and closing very, very quickly. I was one of just a couple of brave (foolhardy?) souls on the hill outside Canada Corner, cheering JV as he visibly was closing on Moreno.

 

With a handful of laps to go, in the wet, JV was a few car-lengths back heading into the corner, and even as I said, "No, don't" aloud, he just flat dive-bombed Moreno down the inside, spinning both of them off the outside in sprays of rainwater and mud and letting Fittipaldi through for the win instead. And of course, in the pre-digital SLR days and figuring Moreno was too far out front to be caught five or six laps earlier, I was out of film and have only my recollection and perhaps one or two other witnesses to corroborate ):

 

Anyway, best of luck, JV.



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#60 JacnGille

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Posted 13 September 2016 - 01:53

Great news