“We made a mistake with Villeneuve”

Richard Spenard admits he laughed when he read one of the headlines Log In 1987 Jacques Villeneuve became Formula 1 World Champion for one day.

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This famous driver was a mentor to the young aspirants of motor racing in the country, while contributing to the emergence of Patrick Carpentier, Greg Moore and many others. He was also Jacques’ father Gilles Villeneuve’s teammate in Formula Atlantic.

Co-founder of Spenard-David Driving School, he was able to observe Jacques Villeneuve’s first laps behind the wheel of Formula 2000 at the Shannonville circuit in Ontario in 1987.

“I’ve known Jacques since he was very young when he raced with his father Gilles in Formula Atlantic. We both followed each other between races in our motorhomes,” Spenard said in an interview. Log.

“In 1986, Jacques did a training course for a few days at the Jim Russell Flight School at the Mont-Tremblant circuit. On a subsequent trip to Monaco, I convinced Gilles’ wife, Joanne, to come and apprentice with us in Shannonville. The next year he did.

“He didn’t show anything spectacular,” Spenard said. He did a full season at our school. He is not necessarily fast. A few times he was able to complete a fast lap, but it didn’t last. He’s been making mistakes around…