There was a time DSOS truly believed that Jacques Villeneuve, the son of deceased Formula One great Gilles Villeneuve would carry on where his father left off after his death during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix on May 8, 1982. My expectations for Jacques were high, especially after taking Rookie of the Year honours in 1994 in the IndyCar championship series, winning four F1 races as a rookie in 1996, and then going on to win the F1 Championship in 1997 with 7 victories to his credit in only his second year of Formula run racing. Who could blame me for having high expectations for somebody who in three short years of professional racing in two different classes was on top of the racing world because his skills and daredevil talent?
Sadly for Villeneuve 1998 would be the beginning of the end for him as far as professional racing goes, and 10 years later, his racing career is all but finished. He has nobody to blame but himself, what with his arrogance and the life-in-the-fast-lane-lifestyle he has led since he won the Formula 1 championship.
Would you believe the man I now consider a chump and wannabe on the racing circuit even had the balls to try his hand in the music industry, releasing an album February 2007 that as of December 31 last year had only sold 836 CDs in North America. I’m thinking that Villeneuve might have bought most of those 836 albums himself.
Fourteen years after entering professional racing Villeneuve’s career has all but been flushed into the St. Lawrence River, but don’t try telling him that. He still thinks he has what it takes despite his poor performance in the NASCAR series, the latest stop in his racing career.
With a poor performance at the UAW-Ford 550 in 2007, failing to qualify for the 2008 Daytona 500,a and finishing 16th in the Nationwide race in Montreal, it has been a struggle for Villeneuve and sponsors have shown little interest in him and now he finds himself heading to South America to race in the Argentinean Touring Car series at the end of this month to get more stock car experience under his belt so that he might be able to attract enough attention from sponsors, which he desperately needs for a sponsorship package he is trying to put together so he can compete full time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series in 2009.
I wish him luck with that, but nah, I doubt going to South America is going to change his fortunes. His racing career is all but finished and unless by some miracle he returns to the driving and winning form he had on the IndyCar and Formula 1 circuit, South America could very well be the last stop in racing career. A poor showing in South America will definitely put the brakes on what I think has been a racing career that has relied more on luck and balls than it has on skill and talent.
Villeneuve set to race in South America series
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