 What follows is an excerpt from the book 'Gilles Villenueve: The Life of the Legendary Racing Driver', written by Gerald Donaldson and published in 1989. "Gilles particularily liked to hear about Ronnie Peterson, his favourite F1 driver. He had seen Peterson's spectacular sideways displays on television and in person at the Grand Prix at Mosport in 1971. He and Joann stood on the outside of Turn One in the rain watching the cars of the stars tiptoe around in admittedly terrible conditions. The exception was Peterson, who powered his rain-tired March up from sixth on the grid to engage polesitter Jackie Stewart in a tremendous tussle. He musceled past him into the lead and stayed there for thirteen laps until he clouted a backmarker (the Canadian driver George Eaton in a BRM). Peterson continued to drive in total disregard of the weather and the bent nose of his March. Stewart won, with Peterson a close second, but it was Ronnie who impressed Gilles."  i was also at mosport that cold september day sitting in the main grandstand with my dad, on the outside of the track just along from turn one. it was the first f1 race we had ever attended. we could barely see the cars come out of corner 10, along the pit straight and through turn one in the rain and fog. at one point, i walked down to the fence for a closer look as the cars sped by in a ball of spray. i can still picture the red march with the bent wing tearing past. the driver was wearing a blue helmet with yellow stripes, the colours of his native sweden. he stood out from the pack. from that day on, ronnie peterson became my favourite driver. |
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