Jacques Villeneuve will continue in Euro NASCAR in 2020 but with his own FEED Racing team alongside his partner Patrick Lemarie.
Villeneuve made his Euro NASCAR debut in 2019, where he competed in the Elite 1 category for Go Fas Racing in a Chevrolet, finishing eighth in the standings with multiple podium finishes. The Canadian will return for his second season in 2020.
But this time, Villeneuve will race for his own FEED Racing team in PRO class, which he started with his partner Lemarie, who will also be racing. The duo started the FEED Racing academy to help young racers to achieve their dream of becoming a professional racer.
Keeping that in mind, they will also field 17-year-old Belgian Simon Pilate in the #6 car in the NASCAR 2 category, which he will share with Lemarie. At the same time, Villeneuve will be driving the #5 car. The release hasn’t confirmed the car they will use.
“This is a project aimed at giving young talents the opportunity to grow and become professionals in racing,” said Villeneuve. “I always loved this kind of cars and races and after gaining some valuable experience last year in NWES, we are ready to take the next step.
“With Patrick we know each other since we were eight years old, he was the test driver at BAR in F1 and we founded the FEED Racing academy together, so this is a natural step forward. The Euro NASCAR car is perfect to learn the basics of driving a race car, it is bold and aggressive, it has no electronic aids and plenty of horsepower and since two drivers share the car, we will be able to do a proficient work together with our young drivers.
“The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series can open a very interesting development path for them and in the next couple of months we’ll evaluate the opportunity to expand to three or four cars, fielding more top drivers and more up-and-coming talents. Progressing will be the key element.
“Personally I’ll want to do better than last year and that logically includes fighting for the NWES championship and bring home some wins. The same will be for all our drivers, we’ll want the EuroNASCAR PRO drivers to be able to compete at the front and the EuroNASCAR 2 drivers to show they can step up to the top championship in 2021.”
At the same time, Lemarie added: “I really look forward to drive a Euro NASCAR car! I’m a close friend with Jacques Villeneuve since a very long time and last year he was so enthusiastic about the NWES car and the championship and he told me this would be the perfect occasion to race together. So here we are, I’ll come back after 15 years.
“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to return behind the wheel but I went to Zolder for the NWES Finals, I saw the car and the championship and I was immediately very excited about this opportunity. I’m super happy to be Jacques’ teammate and I really want to enjoy the races.
“The goals of the entire FEED Racing project is to help young talents and we think that the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series can be a very good opportunity for them. The car is challenging to drive and definitely a great school and they can share the car with us, so they can learn how to work and have a good exposure for their sponsors. We hope it can open many doors for them.”
Here’s Jacques Villeneuve with his podium finish in 2019
