Gilles Villeneuve

Gilles Villeneuve is another sporting hero of mine.  I took to him because our driving styles are similar.  We're both oversteer drivers and love hanging the tail of the car out when taking corners.  For me, the image of Gilles driving the no. 27 Ferrari to the ragged edge is always immortalized in my mind.  In honour of Gilles, I adopted 27 as my personal number.  I admire Gilles for: (1) his courage in driving to the limit of traction right on the razor edge (with the tail end hanging out nonetheless), (2) his deep sense of honour and integrity not to overtake his teammate Jody Schekter at the 1979 Italian Grand Prix and become World Champion himself that year, and (3) his battling tenacity, as exemplified by his stubborn determination to wrestle his 3-wheeled Ferrari back to the pits at the 1979 Dutch Grand Prix, even though he could have simply retired on the spot since it made no difference as the damaged car could not continue anyway.  I saluted the way he refused to give up and battled Rene Arnoux's Renault corner after corner for a mere 2nd place at the 1979 French Grand Prix.  He was always the fastest driver among his peers but was unlucky never to have become World Champion.  Unfortunately, he died during qualifying at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix when his car hit another slower car in front, flew up, hit the ground and sommersaulted on land.  Gilles was thrown onto a catch fence and died.  But he died doing what he loved best: taking the car to the maximum limit.  In his memory, I will name my second born son after him.  To me, he'll always be the greatest Canadian racing driver ever.  Period.