1979 USGP East at Watkins Glen, friday practice in the wet(very)raymondu999 wrote:A great legend, a great man, and a great loss indeed. I especially loved his super flamboyant driving style, and how despite that the man seemed to have a knack for tyre preservation. His fantastic drives really were amazing - how he could hold off faster cars for (almost) entire race distances. A gentleman too - considering how readily he supported Sheckter that year, fully trusting that Sheckter would have repaid the favor the next year.
People go on about how Senna outqualified Prost by, what was it? A second? At monaco. Then I remember how Gilles outqualified the rest of the field by 9 or 11 seconds. I don't remember when or where that was unfortunately
only 5-6 cars went out for practice due to the heavy rain. Scheckter being one of them came into the pits thinking he was the fastest, and he was, 3sec. faster then the others but then was told the Gilles was 9 sec. faster then him. the drivers that didn't go out for practice stood along pitlane just to watch Gilles, they say they could hear him spinning the tires in 5 gear on the back side of the track. Thats how I remember it, my numbers might be off a little, but forgive me I'm Canadian
Nigel Roebuck had this to say about that day: "Gilles was the one bloke who made you go and look for a corner in a practice session, because you knew that where everybody else would go through it as if on rails, Gilles would be worth watching. That day in the rain at Watkins Glen was almost beyond belief. It truly was.
"You would think he had 300 horsepower more than anybody else. It just didn't seem possible. The speed he was travelling at didn't bear any relation to anybody else. He was 11 seconds faster. Jody was next fastest and couldn't believe it, saying he had scared himself rigid! I remember [Jacques] Laffite in the pits just giggling when Gilles went past and saying, 'Why do we bother? He's different from the rest of us. On a separate level'."
