Introduction - Early Life and Career Gilles was the last great driver. The rest of us are just a bunch of good professionals. - Alain Prost, 1982 Born Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve on January 18, 1950. Fascinated with mechanical things at an early age, he reportedly wouldnt play with his toy trucks and cars unless they were very realistic. He grew up cycling and skating and playing hockey, but when his father let him drive the family VW van when Gilles was still but a child, the fever had struck him. His father bought an old beater of a van and let Gilles drive it around the fields near their home when Gilles was just 11 years old. Gilles somehow made himself a sort of go-cart from a conglomerate of lawnmower parts. At age 15, Gilles was gripped with the need to drive so badly, he secretly made a copy of the keys to the family car, and sneaked out for a drive one rainy night. His joy-ride ended in a crash, totaling the family car and forcing Gilles to walk home. His parents were understandably none too pleased. That put an end to his driving until his 16th birthday when he obtained his drivers license. One night while on a trip to a nearby town to see a girl he was sweet on, Gilles got into a race with another car that ended when he ran into a herd of loose cows on the highway, he wound up in the hospital with 80 stiches in his head. Undaunted by his collisions - this is Gilles Villenueve were talking about after all - he soon bought himself a Czechoslovakian made Skoda, and was soon terrorizing the streets again, which led to many citations dutifully issued by the local gendarmes. He used the car to compete in slalom events organized on local parking lots. When he was 17, after reading much on the subject of auto racing, he had an epiphany that it was possible to make a living doing what he loved best - drive very fast. To those ends, he purchased a Ford Mustang and after some modifications, started entering local drag races, but it wasnt enough of a thrill to keep him interested, so he tried some oval racing. That too did not sate his hunger for true thrills. He longed to do the type of road racing he had read about in magazines, particularly Formula One, as he had spent many an hour reading about the likes of Amon and Clark, but he had no means to pursue that dream. However, there was a form of racing that he could pursue. Snowmobiling was soon to become a major pastime in the Great White North - what else is there to do when all that snow is on the ground, after all. And soon, Gilles had purchased his own snowmobile. These were still relatively new crafts, so it wasnt long before the manufacturers of them started organizing races for the folks who bought their product. Gilles entered them and was soon dominating. When he was 18, a family friend purchased a snowmobile that was purposely built for racing, and gave it to Gilles to race. He won so much that by the next year, the Skiroule factory had signed him to race theirs. He soon became Quebec champion as well as Canadian champion, and even won the 440cc World title in New York state. But by this time Gilles was married and a father of two, and he needed a year round income, or at least a better one. So in 1973, friends suggested he try his hand at auto racing and a friend suggested he attend the Jim Russel driving school in order to pursue a career on four wheels. Gilles excelled at the school, feeling totaly at ease in the cars and impressing his instuctors. Right away I could see he was one of the rare ones, he settled right down in one of the schools racing cars and set out to go faster than anyone we had ever seen before. The chief instructor of the Jim Russell race driving School, talking about student G. Villeneuve - 1973 He soon earned his competition license. This led to him purchasing a 2 year old Formula Ford car, in which he won his 2nd time out. He would go on to not only win rookie of the year honors, but the championship also. Money was still tight on the home front, and even though he was still winning in the snowmobiles, he knew he needed to move further up the ladder if he was going to keep doing this for a living.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 11:01:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015