Asian Motor Sports

As previously noted Jacques Villeneuve is in Bahrain this weekend competing in the Speedcar Series.

Nothing entirely unusual in that, he is a racer and racers want to race.

Racing has been on Jacques’ the back burner since being ushered out of the Bill Davis Racing garage door in February for lack of sponsorship he was said to be bringing to the table.

With only June’s Le Mans 24 Hours driving a Peugeot 908 on his schedule it’s was a given he’s show up somewhere helmet in hand. (The Canadian joins Ferrari’s F1 test driver Marc Gene, Pedro Lamy, ChampCar champion and F1 Toro Rosso driver Sébastien Bourdais, Nicolas Minassian and Stephane Sarrazin in the Peugeot squad.)

However, having said that, it appears judging by Villeneuve’s quotes in Bahrain his participation in Speedcar seems to be lying beyond or outside the area of immediate interest.

He says parachuting into the series for a couple weeks will not only help him get some valuable seat time in preparation for an eventual return to NASCAR (presumably Montreal and the NNS event), but also to find sponsorship in new markets like Dubai.

“I’ve seen a lot of friends in Formula One as well that I haven’t seen in a long time and hopefully I can find some sponsors for NASCAR when we go to Dubai. I’m working hard on all that.”

The ref to Dubai is Dubai, U.A.E where Speedcar wraps up it’s inaugural season next week at the Dubai Autodrome and serves as the series’ home base.

Give credit to Villeneuve for one thing, he knows where the money is. Dubai (in addition to Bahrain, and Qatar) is set to be a major player in F1 and other forms of motorsport. The Dubai government is behind the takeover of the struggling Super Aguri F1 team by the London based Magma Group.

I’ll never question the Dhow loads of cash available in Dubai and the Middle East, 100 buck barrels of oil attest to that reality, I will be skeptical any of it will come to the U.S. in the form of a Villeneuve sponsorship.

If there’s cash to be had it will remain in Speedcar, GP2 Asia or possibly in the Lumina CSV Challenge series held in Bahrain. I predict it won’t be in the hat Villeneuve was carrying in Bahrain looking for a lifeline back into NASCAR.

Cross posted @ Full Throttle

P.S. The helmet Villeneuve carried came up empty also, he finished 6th in a controversial race one at Bahrain.