Jacques
Villeneuve, Sr.
Biography
Jacques Villeneuve, Sr. was born in Berthierville, Canada. He is the younger brother of Gilles Villeneuve and the uncle of Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 World Champion. To tell him apart from his nephew, he is often known as Uncle Jacques.
His career began in snowmobile racing. From 1976 to 1978 he raced saloon cars in Canada, winning a Honda Civic series and many races. He then moved up to Formula Ford and Formula Atlantic, where he was named Rookie of the Year in 1979 and won the title in both 1980 and 1981. In 1980 he also won the World Championship Snowmobile Derby, an event he later became the first driver to win three times.
He was entered for three Formula One races but never started one. At the end of 1981 he failed to qualify an Arrows for the Canadian Grand Prix and the Caesars Palace Grand Prix. In 1983 he narrowly missed qualifying a RAM in Canada. That year he won the Can-Am title and took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In CART he took pole position at Phoenix in 1984 and ranked 15th overall. In 1985 he became the first Canadian to win a CART race, at Road America, and finished eighth in the standings. Later he continued to make occasional appearances in CART, Formula Atlantic and IMSA. In 2001 he was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.
This driver has no race starts.
Statistics: F1DB by Marcel Overdijk and contributors, licence CC BY 4.0, prepared by Hotlap Delta.