1995 Indianapolis 500 winner, 1995 CART champion and 1997 F1 champion, Jacques Villeneuve has raced in circuits all over the world during his career in Formula One, IndyCars, sports cars and NASCAR stock cars. Yet, somehow the Canadian ace has never raced at one of America's most historical road courses, the Watkins Glen International since Zippo 200 Nationwide Series race. A circuit where the legendary Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques' father was victorious in 1979 United States Grand Prix in a rainy race.
On Friday, the rain was heavy enough all day that only a few cars even took the track, and fewer still made any serious attempt at a lap time. Of the six that did actually record a time, Villeneuve was fastest by over nine seconds! Scheckter, second fastest, thought he was mad, but was also quite in awe of the Canadian's performance in the conditions.
But Jacques Villeneuve had no chance to race at the same circuit as the circuit was removed forever by the F1 calendar in 1980 and there was no CART-Indycar race there until 2005. But Zippo 200 gives Villeneuve an excellent chance to drive Dollar General No. 32 Braun Racing Toyota in the same track and even be victorious there just like his father. Villeneuve commented:
"Whatever I was racing, that race wasn't happening. In my dad's time, F1 was racing there. When I was in IndyCar, they weren't racing there, either. It's one of the great tracks....It's always good knowing a track, even if it's in a different car. That saves you a lot of time. Now, we only have one practice session to get going, so I really don't know.
It's not a typical road course, with a lot of braking. But the good thing is there's not many corners, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find the way around. It's a short track. If you take Elkhart Lake, it's an extremely long track, so that makes it a little bit more difficult with a lot of braking and overtaking and blind corners. Montreal is very special because it's very tight, very slow.
The Glen, apart from the Bus Stop -- it's called the Bus Stop? -- seems to be fast enough, with a little bit of banking as well, if I remember watching the TV last year. It's a different kind of road course, so it requires a different kind of setup."
