FOLLOW-UP: Jacques Villeneuve to race at Spa 24 Hours originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Comeback Kid? Jacques Villeneuve reportedly wants back into F1 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Poor Jacques is all washed up. Where this writer was born and raised, JV was a homegrown hero who lived up to his family name by taking the checkered flag at the Indy 500 (and the CART championship) and going on to win the Formula One title only two years later. But when you've reached the top, there's only one way to go. Unfortunately for Canadian race fans, that's the direction Jacques has been going for the last ten years.

After running out of F1 teams that would sign him, Villeneuve tried to salvage his reputation with a move to NASCAR, which both he and fellow grand prix defector, Juan Pablo Montoya, spun as a move sideways, not downwards. JP made a go of it, but JV's fortunes have not been so favorable, and, aside from an upcoming drive for Peugeot at Le Mans, he's had to sit out his first full race season since the start of his career.

When trying to organize a deal to race this season in the second-tier NASCAR Busch Series, the addition of a race in his hometown on the track that bears his father's name only seemed to sweeten the deal. The negotiations broke down, however, leaving Jacques without a ride. But he remains hopeful that he will make his debut in stock cars at the Montreal event this August.

"We are taking our time to do it properly. There is no point in rushing," is what Villeneuve had to say about getting behind the wheel for the Montreal race. Big words for a man who's used to going fast.

Related posts:

• Audi DTM wants Villeneuve and Montoya
• Update: Villeneuve's NASCAR deal
• Anyone got $18 million for Jacques?
• Villeneuve and Montoya close in on closed wheels
• Not coming for you, Ricky Bobby: NASCAR sans Villeneuve in 07
• Villeneuve headed for the Busch leagues
• Reports: Villeneuve signed NASCAR deal with Roush
• Mais, oui! NASCAR developing a French connection?

[Source: Autosport]

Villeneuve down but not out - still hopeful for hometown NASCAR debut originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 26 Apr 2007 17:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Having unveiled the 908 LM racing car at the Paris show this past September, Peugeot is gearing up to race their new car in the European Le Mans Series. The French company is serious about competing at Le Mans and in the entire series, and they've signed on some key drivers to get them to victory lane.

The biggest name is none other than Jacques Villeneuve. For those coming late to the game, the French Canadian driver recently left Formula One and is trying to make his way into NASCAR. With his efforts looking less-than-likely to materialize for the 2007 season, Jacques is joining the Peugeot racing program in a bid to become the first driver ever to have won the F1 championship, the Champ Car title, the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. As if his CV wasn't full enough as it is...but unfortunately, despite the enormous success of his early career, subsequent seasons in F1 were less than spectacular, to put it mildly.

Joining Villeneuve behind the wheel of the 908 are Nicolas Manassian, Stephane Sarrazin, Pedro Lamy, Marc Gene (of Ferrari test-driving fame) and three-time Champ Car champ Sebastien Bourdais. Eric Helary, who won Le Mans for Peugeot in 1993, joins the new team as a test and back-up driver.

The Peugeot 908 follows the smashing success of the Audi R10 diesel racing car with an all-aluminum twelve-cylinder common-rail direct-injection twin-turbo diesel with the latest advanced particulate filter system. Between the green power, the big-name drivers and the return of the French carmaker to the series, there are a lot of reasons to keep an eye on Peugeot this season, kicking off at Monza on April 14.

[Source: Peugeot]

French Connection: Villeneuve to drive Peugeot 908 at Le Mans originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 14 Jan 2007 12:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Used to be there were known routes for washed-out F1 drivers to go. Couldn't make it in the big leagues, you could always go to Le Mans-style endurance sportscar racing or to touring cars, for example. But as the story we've been following has unfolded, the latest refugees from the top-level series have been spinning a different web, painting their unprecedented moves to NASCAR as a sideways one, not downwards. That doesn't mean they're without their options, though, as Audi has made clear.

Ingolstadt would be happy to welcome both Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve into their German touring car team. DTM has had its fair share of former F1 drivers, and after losing Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Audi is keen to fill his seat with other big names.

Touring cars are Europe's version of stock-car racing, and though maybe not as big as NASCAR is in the US, Germany's DTM series draws a big crowd and races on familiar road-course tracks. Montoya may be on a more solid track into NASCAR than Villeneuve, but neither of their futures in the series are secured, so a move to DTM for either is still far from out of the question.

Related posts:

• Update: Villeneuve's NASCAR deal
• Anyone got $18 million for Jacques?
• Villeneuve and Montoya close in on closed wheels
• Not coming for you, Ricky Bobby: NASCAR sans Villeneuve in 07
• Villeneuve headed for the Busch leagues
• Reports: Villeneuve signed NASCAR deal with Roush
• Mais, oui! NASCAR developing a French connection?

[Source: German Car Blog]

Audi DTM wants Villeneuve and Montoya originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 25 Dec 2006 20:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We just can't seem to get enough of Jacques Villeneuve's impending switch to NASCAR. Maybe it's the converging of the two worlds of motorsports, the tragic failure of a one-time king, his heroic stature in this writer's home town, the legendary association of the name.... The latest news on JV's deal with Roush Racing comes from the Globe & Mail, one of Canada's largest national newspapers.

While at first we reported that Villeneuve was looking for sponsorship to start his own team with assistance from Roush, it now seems the sponsorship cash is to pay his way into a Roush racing seat.

The deal would start Jacques in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2007. (Yeah, that's right...from F1 cars to pick-up trucks.) Later in the season, he'd move on to the second-tier Busch Series, which will feature a race in the champ's hometown of Montreal next year on the F1 circuit that bears his father's name. If and when Jacques would graduate to the top-level Nextel Cup will likely be determined by how he does in Craftsman and Busch. Bonne chance, Jacques!

[Source: F1i.com]

Update: Villeneuve's NASCAR deal originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Evidently undeterred by the breakdown in negotiations to get himself into the Busch series, and ever-determined to make it into NASCAR one way or another, Jacques Villeneuve is making some fine progress in starting up his own team.

The former world champion has reportedly reached an agreement with Roush Racing, Ford's biggest fielder of stock cars, to help him set up his own team. After winning the Indy 500 and the CART title, JV moved to F1, and has raced for half a dozen teams since then. As such, he may have a good scope of how teams are run, but running his own team in NASCAR should present a whole new slew of challenges to the French-Canadian driver.

What the Jacques needs now is more than love, sweet love...he needs to secure $18 million in sponsorship to finance the venture. Certainly not an impossibility for a name like Villeneuve, but any way you cut it, that's a big lump of cash for a series rookie to raise on his own.

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

Anyone got $18 million for Jacques? originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 03 Dec 2006 16:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The latest reports in the saga of Jacques Villeneuve's impending switch to stock cars say it won't be happening just yet.

As we reported earlier, the former world champion was talking with Roush Racing, one of the biggest outfits in stock cars, to race in the second-tier Busch series for 2007 in preparation for an anticipated assault on the big-league Nextel Cup for 2008. Roush is now calling any such prospect "an outside shot", leaving the French Canadian driver without a ride for next year.

With a Busch race scheduled for Villeneuve's home town of Montreal next season, he had looked like a shoe-in, holding the F1, CART and Indy 500 titles, but it looks like he may have to start even smaller - like fellow defected F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya has - if he hopes to make it in the world of moonshine racing.

Related posts:

• Villeneuve headed for the Busch leagues
• Reports: Villeneuve signed NASCAR deal with Roush
• Mais, oui! NASCAR developing a French connection?

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

Not coming for you, Ricky Bobby: NASCAR sans Villeneuve in 07 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rumors and speculation have been circulating (partially self-fueled) of Jacques Villeneuve moving to NASCAR since the former world champion lost his race seat with BMW-Sauber that put the final nail in the proverbial coffin of his atrophying F1 career. The latest reports place Villeneuve in a stock car for a few events next season in the Busch Series for Roush Racing.

Given recent developments, we doubt they'd miss the opportunity to put JV in the Busch race at the track that bears his father's name in his home town: the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, scheduled for August 4.

The Busch Series is a step below the top-tier Nextel Cup where NASCAR's up-and-coming stars learn the ropes, and where Nextel Cup racers compete as well for a little extra practice (and prize cash). Like Juan Pablo Montoya (who's started even lower in the ARCA series when he switched from F1 to stock cars), racing in the Busch Series should give Villeneuve the opportunity to acclimate to stock car racing, though as a former Champ Car champ and Indy 500 winner, Jacques knows his way around an oval track.

Related posts:

• Canadian race shuffle: NASCAR comes to Montreal, CART moves to Tremblant
• Reports: Villeneuve signed NASCAR deal with Roush
• Mais, oui! NASCAR developing a French connection?
  

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

Villeneuve headed for the Busch leagues originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 15 Oct 2006 18:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

To battle its image as a form of motorsport exclusive to the South, NASCAR is going North - to Canada: "the True North, Strong and Free" (at least that's how the anthem goes). So with F1 drivers coming to NASCAR, NASCAR is going to an F1 track: it's been confirmed that next season's Busch Series schedule will include a race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, home of the Canadian Grand Prix.

In past years the track has hosted both F1 and Champ Car races each season. After securing exclusive rights to the track from Montreal city hall in June, Canadian Grand Prix promoter Normand Legault began moving on plans to bring stock car racing to Montreal. As an extra bonus, the weekend will also feature a Grand-Am race.

The Champ Car race, meanwhile, will move even farther north to the legendary track by the slopes of Mont Tremblant. Securing a major open-wheel event is a huge coup for the recently revived track, which was once famously referred to by Michael Schumacher as the "little Nurburgring". (No wonder Ferrari elected to open its first North American driving school there. )

Having grown up in Montreal, this writer can attest that it's a die-hard racing town through-and-through (in the summer, at least). Hosting F1, CART, Grand-Am and NASCAR will only allow more fans, teams and drivers to get a taste of the action.

[Sources: GrandPrix.com and Canada.com]

Canadian race shuffle: NASCAR comes to Montreal, CART moves to Tremblant originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's surely a credit to stock car racing that F1 drivers have been migrating to NASCAR. In the new parody movie Talladega Nights, it seems like a joke that the antagonist (pictured) is a French F1 driver come over to America to race stock cars, but that's looking less and less like a joke as it becomes reality.

McLaren recently released its departing driver Juan Pablo Montoya from his contract early so he can begin testing stock cars. And the speculation continues to mount that former world champion Jacques Villeneuve is planning to move to NASCAR as well. Other former F1 drivers have gone back down the totem-poll to sports-car racing, endurance racing, Indy cars, and touring cars, but Jacques indicated his intentions by asserting that NASCAR was not, in his bespectacled eyes, a step down from F1.

The latest reports claim that the French Canadian son of legendary Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve has already signed a contract with Roush Racing. Roush drivers won the Nextel Cup in 2003 and 2004, and the team is considered to be Ford's leading NASCAR challengers. In addition to the five cars run in the top-tier Nextel Cup, Roush also runs six cars in the lower Busch Series and two Craftsman trucks. While it's not yet clear where the former Indy 500 winner would start (nor, for that matter, confirmed that he will), he'd be joining a winning team with the apparatus to give him the opportunity to win. After racing for Williams, BAR-Honda, Renault, Sauber and BMW, JV's been given no shortage of opportunities to win in F1 - time will tell if his fortunes will turn for the better in NASCAR.

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

Reports: Villeneuve signed NASCAR deal with Roush originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 04 Oct 2006 09:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.