Melbourne’s Herald-Sun newspaper is reporting that Supercheap Auto Racing is chasing 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve to fill the seat left vacant by Paul Morris.
Morris is the team principal of Supercheap Racing and he thinks the Villeneuve deal might just come off, “This is real. Absolutely. He is pretty keen to do it,” Morris said.
“It would be the full season. Not just one race. If we can make a bit of a buzz about it then I think it can definitely happen.
“We would have to write about $2 million in sponsorship so we could run the car and pay him to drive.”
Paul Morris knows ex-Aussie Barry Green, a key member of Villeneuve’s management team, and the topic of Villeneuve in a V8 Supercar came up midway through 2008. The newspaper report claims Villeneuve was offered a drive at last year’s Bathurst enduro race but time commitments saw it fall through.
However, Morris, who is travelling to the United States next week, is keen to talk to Green again to see if a deal to bring Villeneuve to Australia can be worked out. “The next step would be to get him out here to drive the car,” he said.
Watch this space. If Villeneuve was to race in the V8 Supercar category he would certainly attract a broader motorsport audience to the series.
Source: Herald-Sun (Thanks to Chris for the tip.)
Update 10 January: There’s some great attention seeking quotes HERE from Paul Morris—he was just getting started when he said this, “We need people in there who have got profile. The current crop of drivers are more worried about where their sunglasses are sitting on top of their hat; they are all as boring as bat shit and not many of them have any real personality.”