I've been a friend of Jacques Villeneuve Sr. for so long, but he still manages to surprise me with his tenacity and his rage to excel.With the collaboration of Pierre Lecours
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| Here's Jacques during the first sessions of Friday. |
The little guy from St-Cuthbert, also the 2006 Valcourt Grand Prix winner, was back for the 2007 event to defend his title against a pack of young wolves... who must really wonder what he's made of.
What happened? Well, Jacques crashed in Turn One of the icy oval track and was knocked unconscious for a few moments before realizing what had just taken place.
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| Jacques loses control in Turn One. |
My colleague Pierre Lecours from the
Journal de Montréal was sitting next to me in the press box and he wrote his usual report for the Saturday edition of the Journal. With his permission, here's an excerpt:
Villeneuve was on the starting line for the first qualifying race in Champ 440, the main competitive series on this oval track.
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| Here's Jacques at the start of the qualifying race. |
"I had a great start, told the driver from St-Cuthbert. Prior to the race, I changed the blade under the front left ski to benefit from a sharper front end... but it was too much. I attacked the first turn too fast and too much outside. The front skis turned and, since I wasn't heavy enough, my snowmobile was tossed on its side.''
"I was thrown in the air and I knew it was going to hurt," he added, grimacing. Indeed, Jacques lost control of his snowmobile and hit a haystack wall, flying through the air badly. He was catapulted into a protective wall 20 metres away.
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| The wrecked snowmobile after the crash. |
"It's weird, but it was like in a movie. When I bounced on the ground, everything seemed fine, but I think I got hurt when I collided with the protective panels. I took my time before getting up even though I knew I had no broken bones. I said to myself: it's going to be OK. At the moment, I felt no pain."
Then, things got worse.
"I began feeling more and more pain
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| The medical staff comes to Jacques' rescue. |
when I got to my RV. My knee swelled up and my ribs hurt real bad... Well, I guess it's over: another driver will win this year!" he said, lying on a makeshift bed next to his wife Céline.
Villeneuve never wanted to be transported to the hospital! So, unless the healing process was miraculously fast, his chances of competing in the 2007 Valcourt GP were slim.
