Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction November 2015
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No other name represents Canadian racing like Villeneuve. The son of racing legend Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques became only the fourth driver in history to win the Indy 500 and the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship.
This 1997 Bell Dominator helmet was used while driving for Williams Renault during his championship season at the French GP held at the Magny-Cours track on June 29th 1997. The helmet is labeled “Bell R.8 painting S.P.O.R.T.S. Bell ‘97” on the lower back. Jacques qualified 4th and finished 4th in that race on route to winning the 1997 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship.
The helmet is all original and still has the microphone attached, as common with Jacques helmets he has closed off the air vents with heli-tape and added extra foam to the eye-port. The helmet was originally produced without any Rothmans advertising as the French GP is a non-tobacco race. The Rothmans decals on the cheeks were added at a later date as the helmet saw a little extra duty in testing. Also included is the original Bell carrying bag with “J.V. 97 R.8” handwritten annotations.
The helmet has been photo-matched to two images from the French GP weekend; it was common that Williams would replace the word “Rothmans” with “Racing” on helmets used in non-tobacco races. This is the only helmet we have seen that shows nothing where you would have seen either Rothmans or Racing on the forehead of the helmet. The first photo-match is of Jacques in the pits and you can see the blank blue area on the forehead, the second image shows him in the car and you can clearly see a chip in the blue paint in that same blank blue area that has since be covered up to prevent further damage.
The helmet is from Jacques Villeneuve’s personal collection and will come with his signed LOA.
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