Villeneuve e a Nascar

F1 champ returns seeking win in stock

By Dave Kallmann of the Journal Sentinel

Elkhart Lake — Except for a bridge that's gone and curbs that have been added, Road America is pretty much the same racetrack Jacques Villeneuve knew in his previous visit 15 years ago.

"I still remember it as if I'd driven it last week," he said Friday.

Villeneuve has changed some, a little more than the track itself. A Formula One world championship, a 40th birthday and two children will affect a man, no question.

"I may be a little bit more easygoing, as well," he said, "because I've achieved the goals I had in racing, and that has an effect."

But the real difference is the cars.

There is virtually no comparison between low-slung, 850-horsepower rockets in which Villeneuve scored both his first and last CART victories at this track and the lumbering, twice-as-heavy machine in which he will try to collect his first NASCAR victory here Saturday.

"You have to nurse these cars," Villeneuve said. "You can't be too aggressive with them.

"The first laps in the car, I really force myself to brake early, not to get into an old habit of braking at the 50-meter board when you should be braking at 150."

The toughest adjustment begins in the Carousel, the Turn 9-10 complex that is the longest corner on the 4-mile, 14-turn course and a place where a driver can gain or lose as much time as anywhere else on the track. Those that come afterward are mostly high-speed turns, where having a well set-up car and a precise, smooth line are crucial for success.

"Every other place, you're going straight, you brake and you turn," Villeneuve said. "The only difference is you brake earlier.

"My biggest worry was The Kink, because in an Indy car, you wouldn't brake. You could lift a little bit. And that's where you could forget you were driving a NASCAR (car) sometimes and get there and the corner's there and you've forgotten to lift; that's where you could really surprise yourself by doing something wrong."

And expensive. And painful.

But Villeneuve quickly shook off any 15-year-old habits that wouldn't translate from CART to the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and in doing so he established himself among the favorites to win the inaugural Bucyrus 200 on Saturday.

Driving a Toyota for Braun Racing, Villeneuve set the pace in final practice and has been among the top five in each session Thursday and Friday. Qualifying is scheduled for 9:35 a.m. and the race for 2:30 p.m.

"You don't become Formula One world champion by being a chump," said Ron Fellows, a Canadian countryman of Villeneuve's and four-time NASCAR road-race winner.

"He's getting around here pretty well, and I wouldn't expect anything different."

In returning to Road America in a stock car, Villeneuve finds himself in interesting company: NASCAR part-timers such as Fellows, Sprint Cup standouts including Carl Edwards, up-and-coming oval-trackers such as Justin Allgaier and former open-wheel racers who once were his fans and now are his peers.

"It's crazy," said Michael McDowell, who raced at Road America five years ago in the Star Mazda development series. "When I made my Sprint Cup rookie season (in 2008) it was Dario Franchitti, myself, Villeneuve was a rookie . . .  Sam Hornish . . .  all open-wheel guys going stock-car racing.

"The reason you're seeing such a transition of open-wheel guys trying to make it over here is just because of how great and how difficult the racing is and how much of a challenge it is. To make it here is a big deal."

Villeneuve won the CART title and Indianapolis 500 in 1995 and the Formula One title in '97 but then hung around in F1 - without winning - through a series of team changes and frustrations through 2006.

The following year Villeneuve embarked on a new career in stock cars, but as sponsorship dried up, so did his opportunities, quickly. He has raced only part-time since, picking up rides for sports-car endurance races and Nationwide races the last two season in Montreal on the track named for his late father, Gilles.

"I was busy raising kids, and that's actually more work than racing," Villeneuve said. "Now the plan is to get behind the wheel full-time to get racing and race at the front, obviously, and to get in the winner's circle."

But where? That's the question that has swirled through the European racing press and Villeneuve's head, as well.

Forty is ancient by F1 standards and merely old in NASCAR. But an opportunity could come from either direction, Villeneuve insisted, and he would be perfectly happy in either world.

"It's better to have options," Villeneuve said. "And they're both amazing racing, so it's not like one is great and the other is 'Mmmph, OK, if the other one doesn't work out, there's always this one to lean on and it's not as good.'

"Neither of those would be a disappointment. NASCAR and F1 are so different - two extreme edges of the same sport - that it's fine."

Which brings Villeneuve back to Road America. A victory on a track he mastered in CART could open doors in stock cars again. And even if Villeneuve doesn't win, it still almost certainly will have been a fun weekend.

"I've always loved long, countryside tracks, where you feel like you're going somewhere when you drive around it," Villeneuve said. "Those tracks are very demanding. You have to take risks in some corners, and it's very exciting."

And that's something else unaffected by the passage of time.

Fonte: jsonline.com

É isto que eu quero! Ver Jacques fazendo o que curte, correr. Eu pessoalmente não curto Nascar, mas em circuitos mistos eu ainda consigo aceitar...hahahaha...Se ele ficar por lá, acho que será melhor para ele, e é só isto que eu quero, ver este canadense feliz da vida! Orgulhando seus lindos filhotes: Jules e Joakin!!!

Beijinhos, Ice-Ludy