1976: Villeneuve emerges as a star

Ecurie Canada had another reason for pride for as well as winning their eighth race in nine starts, James Hunt brought their second car into third place behind Alan Jones's Gitanes Chevron B34. With Vittorio Brambilla taking fourth ahead of Bobby Rahal and Patrick Tambay, the imported drivers proved full value for the money it cost the race organizers to get them to Canada.

It was a superb race, likely the best Atlantic event ever held, and after the Villeneuve victory Trois Rivieres was wild last Sunday night.



The Canadian Atlantic season traditionally ends with the race through the streets of the Trois Rivieres exhibition grounds, and for the tenth anniversary event the promoters had assembled the best line-up in the race's history. With a potential 1976 World Champion, a couple of Formula 1 regulars and a pair of F2 drivers competing against the best in North American Atlantic racing, the necessary ingredients were present for the best race in the formula's history.

However, there were, as always, minor bothers throughout the two days of practice and qualifying. The troubles centred around the lack of available practice time. A couple of 45min practice sessions on the first day were followed by a 45min and a 30min session of qualifying on the cool and damp following day. Really the problem came down to the organizers trying to have too much racing.

As a result the sessions were few and short, for many different classes of cars have to be accommodated in the available practice time. There was just not enough time for the Atlantic teams to do the fiddling and adjusting that usually takes place at a Player's event. In large part, it was get out there and run and hope that you've guessed right on all your settings.

One who, as always, did guess right was Gilles Villeneuve, for there he was on pole yet again in his Ecurie Canada March, sponsored by Direct Film, a fast film processing company. He had a mostly troublefree two days to continue his streak of taking pole at every Atlantic event this year. The car was as usual except for new rear brake ducting, which did its job, for Villeneuve had none of the stopping problems that always bother cars on a circuit on which all of the corners require first or second gear.

Under the gaze of Eric Broadley, Tom Klausler put his Traylor Lola alongside Villeneuve for the fourth time this year. Klausler became something of a legend in the paddock as all marvelled at spectacular performances in what is obviously a difficult car to drive.

But that March have the best Atlantic chassis this year was emphasized as they filled the second row of the 32-car grid. Bobby Rahal's Swing Orange 76B was only a hundredth behind Klausler, while Vittorio Brambilla was a shade under two-tenths further back. Rahal's qualifying ended with a bent tub after he misjudged the final bend and put the right front corner squarely into a concrete wall. The team had a spare for race day. Brambilla, reunited with his former March F1 mechanic Dave White, was his usual enthusiastic self, having his practice disturbed only by a broken bolt in the throttle linkage at a very inopportune moment in the fastest session, being forced to do his time in the slower afternoon session.

Row three was lined up in reverse order, for although many watches had James Hunt a tenth quicker than Patrick Tambay, the official clocks had things the other way around; so the Frenchman was fifth in the Fred Opert Gitanes Chevron. Once he had acclimatized himself to the lack of power Patrick found it all quite enjoyable.

Hunt, in the Ramada Inns March prepared by Ecurie Canada, was another in a quandary about handling: "I have no idea what an Atlantic car should feel like and I don't know which way to go to change things. On top of all that, I daren't fiddle with the car as the sessions are so short, there's just no time to do something and then go back out and try it." So it was get in and drive, which he did in the final session.

Alan Jones was in the second Opert Gitanes B34 with Harry Stiller's name on the side. "He helped get Alan for the race and also might run an Atlantic car at Laguna Seca in October," explained Opert. The Surtees driver's spot was a triumph over adversity, for on the opening day he only completed half a dozen laps before the flywheel sheared off. The morning qualifying session ended after four laps as he coasted to a stop with no electrics. Once that was traced to a duff wire he went out in the final session with the engine missing at two corners around the circuit and lapped seventh fastest.

Eighth best was impressive James King in only his third race since the start of the summer, sliding his March with considerable abandon. Bill Brack might have been in front of King but again official watches gave him a time slower than his crew had reckoned. As has become common this year, he was having trouble coming to grips with the handling of his STP Chevron. Completing the top ten was Tom Gloy's Tui. Although the car was fastest down the straight, there was bad understeer coming out of the circuit's lone hairpin, and some time was lost on the opening day when Gloy had an unscheduled meeting with a concrete wall. A damaged right rear corner was the result.

There were a few surprises further down the field. Jose Dolhem was 12th best in his Opert Gitanes B34 after spending much of practice sorting out the brand new car, while Damien Magee was near the back in a car that had no end of troubles. A couple of oil leads, gamming in gear and losing the starter ring gear from the flywheel of his March 722/75B all conspired to prevent him from doing many laps.

However, Magee's lot was better than that, which befell Howdy Holmes. His Jiffy Foods Chevron went off in the first practice session when he tried to pass a slower car but slid wide on the still sandy circuit and right into a concrete wall. The monocoque was bent badly enough to render him a spectator.



A third pace lap was added to the customary ones when, as they came down the line for the start, both Hunt and Brambilla were out of line, ready for the flag to fall. Then they had planned to rocket up the outside to the first corner. All was right the next time, though, and Villeneuve dived into the first corner followed by Klausler and Rahal. All disappeared in the same order as they started after Tambay had tried to sneak inside Hunt at the second corner, a tight, narrow left-hander. In fact he succeeded on that first lap, and came past sixth in front of Hunt but behind Jones, who had had a good start. King was next followed by Gloy, Dolhem, Cobb, Roos, Brack and the rest.

On the second lap, Spenard's Ralt was sent for a flight when he was shunted up the back by Cochesa's Chevron; Cochesa had in turn been hit by Barone's March. When it was all sorted out, Barone and Cochesa were finished, while Spenard continued after stopping at the pits for a new front tyre.

Another to pit early with tyre troubles was Klausler, who surrendered second spot on lap 3 when a valve stem broke on a front tyre. With a new tyre he continued, eventually to finish tenth with a misfiring engine.
This let Rahal into second, but by the five-lap mark Villeneuve had pulled out a 1.5secs lead over the orange March. Tambay had been demoted to sixth by Hunt, and the young French driver was coming under strong pressure from King.

It was clear, though, that Brambilla was determined not to let Villeneuve get away. He was past Rahal after six laps, and within the space of four more had whittled three-tenths off Villeneuve's 3.6secs lead. Rahal had enough to worry about in third, as he was coming under attack from both Jones and Hunt. They had gradually left Tambay behind, for Patrick had missed a shift and the motor was subsequently down on power. "The rev counter read 11,000," he explained after the race.

Behind them, Gloy was leading Dolhem and Cobb, while Brack had worked his way to the front of another group, leading Rebaque's Lola and Roos's Ralt. Still a little further down the field Magee had come up to 16th and was locked in what turned out to be a lengthy battle with Bancroft's March.

Try as he might, there appeared to be nothing that Brambilla could do to close the gap further. In fact Villeneuve responded by beginning to build it again. Slowly it crept up until, by one-third distance, he had an 8secs bulge on the Italian.

Surely this wasn't supposed to happen; there must have been an error somewhere. Indeed Villeneuve had won his four races by slowly building a lead to about l0secs and then holding it to the finish. But these were Formula 1 drivers he was racing against, and he wasn't supposed to do the same against them. Someone must have forgotten to tell him!

On he went, but behind a tremendous scrap began to develop. Brambilla was in trouble, as his engine had gone off just a bit. Rahal still holding a good third was coming under more and more pressure from both Jones and Hunt. Tambay held sixth in isolation, clear of the Gloy-Cobb battle, a lonely Rebaque and Dolhem. Brack had pulled off with a bad engine misfire after 18 laps.

By halfway, Rahal had pulled back a couple of seconds over Jones, but that changed again half a dozen laps later as they all worked through slower cars. Rahal was in further trouble, for an engine mount had broken and the result was a strange-handling car under braking. It climaxed with Jones nipping past for third after 38 laps, and then Hunt charging past two laps later.

The Australian next set his sights on Brambilla. In a cloud of blue smoke, he just tucked inside the Italian at the first corner in a desperate late braking move beginning lap 45. Three quarters of the race was over, and now the chase was on, for clearly Jones was the fastest man on the circuit. The gap to Villeneuve soon began to tumble. It was 10.7secs when he took second, but by lap 52 it had come down to 7.8

Combined with Jones's charge, Villeneuve was in a bit of trouble of his own, for he had missed a shift, and a puff of smoke which first appeared on lap 26 began to come more regularly. Would the engine hold out? He knew that Jones was closing, and his driving was becoming just a bit more ragged.

The battle behind the leaders also hotted up considerably as the race neared its conclusion. Once Jones had slipped by, Brambilla next came under pressure from Hunt. That all came to an end on the final corner on lap 49. The two cars just touched, but it was enough to leave a back mark on the nose of the red Ramada Inns March, and derange it just enough to upset the handling in the race's final laps. Vittorio had gone wide on the corner and Hunt had made it through by driving up over the kerbing and gravel. Nonetheless, he was past, and he set out after Jones.

Jones got closer to Villeneuve, narrowing the margin to 7.5secs with only five laps remaining, but that was it. Using traffic and just plain trying very hard, the French-Canadian moved the margin back up to almost 10secs by the time the flag fell. He had done it, and beaten the imported stars in a straight fight. Needless to say, the home crowd went crazy.

Jones came home second after a superb performance. "Really the difference between the two cars was our starting positions," he noted. "It's so hard to catch someone when they start first and you are seventh!"

Hunt came home in third just over a second clear of Brambilla and Rahal. These three had staged a great battle in the final few laps, as Rahal saw Brambilla in front of him and decided, he might be able to catch him. As it was, they finished less than a second apart, but well clear of a lonely Tambay.

Gloy took seventh ahead of Cobb, who maintained his 100 per cent finishing record with another steady performance. Rebaque suffered with a wing falling off his Lola in the final laps, but finished ninth ahead of Klausler.