Gilles Villeneuve

[twincamman]

FWIW 29 years this weekend that G.V. died -- -a true champion --ed

[CBUEB1771]

I will always remember watching him qualify at Watkins Glen in a Ferrari 312. We were at the outside of the last corner feeding onto the pit straight. He came by, lap after lap, drifting to the outside, getting about three inches of rear tire onto the dirt and kicking up a plume of dust. He finally came into that corner just perceptably off line and as he drifted out the whole of the rear tire was on dirt which put him straight into the Armco. Body work and wheels flew everywhere but Gilles jumped out of the tub and sprinted across to the pits. As soon as the debris was cleared he went out in his spare and on the first lap was immediately back to getting three inches of rear tire onto the dirt and kicking up the same plume of dust.

[Galwaylotus]

Yeah. I had a photographer's pass in the good old days in the '70s for the Long Beach GP and have a photo of Gilles just after he crashed his Ferrari there. With Gilles it seemed he would always put everything on the line and sometimes he went over it! I remember attending the French GP in '79 when Renault turbo won - chased to the bitter end by - you guessed it! R.I.P., Gilles and thanks for the memories.

[robertverhey]

Yes I can never forget that horrendous footage of his final accident. Was watching the Turkish gp last night and it occurred to me how safe formula 1 has become compared to then

Robert