EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT
FOLLOWING NIAGARA PAUL'S IS IMPORTANTER
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In October, 1978, a bunch of us headed to La Belle Province.
Glad we did.
You don't see stories like this everyday.
It was
TRES BIEN!!!
Gilles Villeneuve
Heres the story thanks to the www
Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian GP 1978
© The Cahier Archive
With safety at Mosport Park not being good enough and a French-Canadian driving for Ferrari, it was decided that a track should be laid out on the roads on the Ile de Notre Dame, which had been the site of Expo 67. The man-made island was then transformed for the 1976 Olympic Games and featured a rowing basin. The work was completed hurriedly and most drivers complained that it was too narrow and that overtaking was very difficult.
With the grid restricted to 22 starters there was intense competition in qualifying as 28 cars had appeared. Ensign had decided not to run Brett Lunger and so Derek Daly had two cars to himself, while Brabham had a third car available for Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese was back in action after the controversial ban which meant he could not race at Watkins Glen.
The lap times were very close indeed with Jean-Pierre Jarier(Lotus) taking pole by one-hundredth of a second from Jody Scheckter's Wolf with Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari) two-tenths behind them. Then came John Watson (Brabham), Alan Jones (Williams),Emerson Fittipaldi (Fittipaldi), Niki Lauda (Brabham), Hans Stuck (Shadow), Mario Andretti (Lotus) and Jacques Laffite (Ligier).Carlos Reutemann was not competitive in his Ferrari, qualifying 11th, while Piquet was an encouraging 14th. At the back of the grid Clay Regazzoni (Shadow) and Beppe Gabbiani (Surtees) missed out by a tenth of a second as Keke Rosberg (ATS) and a troubled Jean-Pierre Jabouille (Renault) scraped onto the back row of the grid.
It had rained intermittently throughout practice but the weather was cool and overcast on race day as thousands of fans crammed onto the island to see Villeneuve in action.
At the start Jarier made the best start to lead Scheckter, Jones and Villeneuve into the first corner. Stuck and Fittipaldi went out almost immediately when the German spun into the Brazilian and this dropped Laffite to the back of the field as he had to take avoiding action. Further around on the first lap Scheckter drifted wide and Jones dived into second place. But Jarier was in the lead and pulling away.
Further back Andretti and Watson engaged in a lively battle for fifth place, the American keen to get ahead of the Brabham. On the sixth lap Andretti made a move and the two cars collided and spun. Patrick Depailler (Tyrrell) moved to fifth but he soon had to pit for new tires and so Reutemann took the place. On lap 18 Jones began to drop back with a slow puncture and he was soon overtaken by Scheckter and Villeneuve and the Canadian then moved to second. But Jarier was almost 30 seconds ahead and Villeneuve had little chance of catching him.
But on lap 50 Jarier went into the pits with no brakes. A hole was found in the system and the car was retired.
Villeneuve was thus left in the lead and duly won his first F1 victory, to the delight of the local crowd. Scheckter followed him home with Reutemann third, Patrese fourth, Depailler fifth and Daly sixth.
Peter Fitkowski
Trois Cien Chaud Grand
Deux Pepsi
MERCI!!!
Pos
|
No
|
Driver
|
Constructor
|
Laps
|
Time/Retired
|
Grid
|
Points
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
|
12
|
70
|
1:57:49.196
|
3
|
9
| ||
2
|
20
|
70
|
+13.372 secs
|
2
|
6
| ||
3
|
11
|
70
|
+19.408 secs
|
11
|
4
| ||
4
|
35
|
70
|
+24.667 secs
|
12
|
3
| ||
5
|
4
|
70
|
+28.558 secs
|
13
|
2
| ||
6
|
22
|
70
|
+54.476 secs
|
15
|
1
| ||
7
|
3
|
70
|
+1:21.250
|
18
| |||
8
|
8
|
70
|
+1:26.560
|
17
| |||
9
|
27
|
70
|
+1:28.942
|
5
| |||
10
|
5
|
69
|
+1 Lap
|
9
| |||
11
|
66
|
69
|
+1 Lap
|
14
| |||
12
|
15
|
65
|
+5 Laps
|
22
| |||
NC
|
10
|
58
|
+12 Laps
|
21
| |||
Ret
|
26
|
52
|
Transmission
|
10
| |||
Ret
|
7
|
51
|
Spun Off
|
19
| |||
Ret
|
55
|
49
|
Oil Leak
|
1
| |||
Ret
|
18
|
37
|
Engine
|
16
| |||
Ret
|
21
|
16
|
Fuel System
|
20
| |||
Ret
|
2
|
8
|
Accident
|
4
| |||
Ret
|
1
|
5
|
Brakes
|
7
| |||
Ret
|
16
|
1
|
Accident
|
8
| |||
Ret
|
14
|
0
|
Accident
|
6
| |||
DNQ
|
17
| ||||||
DNQ
|
19
| ||||||
DNQ
|
37
| ||||||
DNQ
|
25
| ||||||
DNPQ
|
36
| ||||||
DNPQ
|
9
|
Race Fans
L-R- Photo Rob, Ruth Ann Videan, The Blogger, Dancing Guy
Seated with blue cap, Peter Fitkowski
Here Niagara Paul works the pitlane for my blogging public.
Niagara Paul and the guy with smoke.
Thats all I got so say about this.
CAN YOU IMAGINE!!
CANADIAN DRIVER WINS!!
CANADIAN CAR OWNER/CONSTRUCTOR SECOND!!!
You don't see that everyday.
My brother John Nemy and Ruth Ann Videan catching up on her sleep.
Here my brother John Nemy and his Crossle Formula Ford.
Ran the supporting race.
DON'T SEE THIS EVERYDAY
ACTUALLY
DON'T SEE THIS HERE
GAGNANT!!!!!!
sweet dreams are made of this
Paul
ReplyDeleteI own a Crossle 32f that was driven by Gary Yott in the same race as your brother at the 1978 Canadian GP. He was car 18 and probably red in colour.
Do you have any photos of the race. It looks as if it was a wet weekend? I would love to hear any recollections of the FF race as I am trying to piece togeather some history. I believe Yott was a DNF tru accident.
Regards Jacob
Hi Paul
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your Croatia posts. We were there 12 months ago and did Split, Debrovnik and a week sailing around the islands. Super place.
Did you have any recollections or photos of the Formula Ford race at the 78 GP?
Regards Jacob