Historical Hockey and Sports Memorabilia Auction June 2024
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/25/2024
The 2003 season was a trying one for both Jacques Villeneuve and the Lucky Strike BAR Honda team. They had chosen to use Bridgestone tires which turned out to be very uncompetitive and Villeneuve spent most of the season in contract negotiations which ultimately lead to him being replaced for the last race of the season. In this last season with BAR Honda, he managed 6 top 10 finishes with a best placing of 6th at the Italian Grand Prix. This relegated him to 16th overall in the 2003 World Championship.
Villeneuve wore this Bell K-1 helmet during the 2003 United States Grand Prix weekend held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway April 26-28 where he qualified 12th but dropped out of the race after 63 laps with engine failure. The helmet painted by Bell Racing Europe has been tagged “2003-14” and has the United States flag decal added to the back to signify where the helmet was worn. The helmet has all of Villeneuve’s customizations; vents are closed off, extra eye-port foam has been added and the Hans Clips remain intact. The drink tube has been drilled out. The full race radio and the interior neck roll have been removed, likely to be used in another helmet.
The helmet shows very nice used and wear, Bell staff has added a rear spoiler to this helmet, this can be photo-matched to images from the USGP weekend. The BAR “bar code” sticker on the forehead was replaced with a traditional Lucky Strike logo sticker with the helmet most likely used at a second event or during testing.
The visor of the helmet is signed by Villeneuve in silver paint pen. Also included is the original Bell carrying bag with “J.V. 03-14” handwritten annotations. This item is from Jacques Villeneuve’s personal collection and will come with his signed LOA.
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