Motorsports playground taking shape at Area 27

START YOUR ENGINES! – Osoyoos Indian Band Chief Clarence Louie was on hand Saturday to walk the track at Area 27 with Bill Drossos, President of Area 27, middle, and racing legend Jacques Villeneuve, who designed the layout at Area 27, located on a bench on Osoyoos Indian Band land off Black Sage Road in Oliver.
MLA Linda Larson was also on hand Saturday.
Lamborghinis may not be racing on the dirt at Area 27, but they will be when asphalt is laid, likely in the fall, setting the stage for summer 2016 racing at Area 27. Supplied photos

The track has been staked, and Area 27 Club members had the opportunity to walk the track with racing legend Jacques Villeneuve last Saturday

Area 27’s progression thus far could somewhat be compared to games young boys play during that anything-automotive-related phase. You know, watching your kid digging a trail in the dirt with a grader, getting out the hot wheels race cars, and ripping around the newly built track on hands and knees.

At this point, Area 27, located on a bench on Osoyoos Indian Band land in the hills east of Oliver, off Black Sage Road, is just an old pasture, with outlines of a racetrack carved into the dirt and red stakes lining the area will which will eventually sport an asphalt base suitable for racing.

Soon, Area 27 will become a playground. A playground for men, and women, who will have the ability to race their finely-tuned machines around a 4.9-kilometre track with turns taking into account the contours of this land which previously grew corn, but may soon be the breeding ground for the next Jacques Villeneuve, one of Canada’s most-prized race car drivers.

In fact, the track is the vision of Villeneuve, one of the most trophied and versatile figures in motorsport today, and Bill Drossos, a Penticton entrepreneur and president of Area 27.

From the Formula One World Championship and IndyCar Driver’s title, to winning the Indianapolis 500, Jacques Villeneuve has accomplished a great deal as a professional race car driver, and looks forward to adding track designer to his accomplishments.

This is the opportunity for Villeneuve’s ‘inner spirit’ to come out. The accomplished racer, musician and artist, on canvas, is now driven to create his own form of artistry in a former corn field high above Oliver.

“I’ve always been a creator. I did music, I like writing. This is a little bit of the artist in me. Since I was five-years-old, I knew I would race cars. I would spend all day playing with little cars and drawing race tracks not the carpet,” said Villeneuve, who used a less primitive method to design the Area 27 track. “We took the initial drawings, which were done by hand, and put them into a racing simulator. It you just have a 2-D picture of it, it just looks like a bunch of corners. That’s not very exciting. Somebody looks and says, ‘Why isn’t there a corner here, or there’s too many corners’. It’s built the digital way but it’s created by hand.”

The racer simulator took into the account a topographical survey of the land,” added Drossos. “Trevor Siebert will now have a 3-D model of the track, showing what it will be like when they cut here or fill there. It will show where to cut into the true contours of the land.”

This past Saturday, Villeneuve, who flew in from Switzerland, and Drossos, hosted a weekend for Club members, and took the media and those who have spent big bucks to play in the sandbox for a walk of the track – all 4.9 kilometres of the winding road-type course. The makeshift parking lot at the east end of the bench was filled with Lamborghini’s, Jaguar’s, Porsche’s and a few trucks lifted halfway to the moon.

The drivers of those expensive automobiles liked what they saw.

“We wanted to walk the track with members, and explain where the corners are. When you walk it and explain it with all the elevation changes, it got them really excited,” said Villeneuve. “Now they understand the drawing. For them, it went from just being a racetrack to something they are excited to drive. The goal was to create that kind of track.”

For both, it feels good to get to this point.

“You can see the shapes of the land and where it’s a natural fit to put a corner or have the road go over a hill and follow the contours,” said Drossos. “You get a better idea what the possibilities are. We must have drawn about 20 different configurations, and took into account how to integrate everything. If you have a corner going in this direction, you may not be able to use this part of the land. We wanted to be able to use it all naturally and effectively.”

For the past year, the group has been working on layout models. Recently, the track was pinned and staked, allowing Club members to closely inspect every element of a lap during Saturday’s walk through.

“It doesn’t have everything I wanted, but it’s got more stuff that I didn’t think I wanted, and it turned out great. The key was to try and make a track I knew I would enjoy driving. There’s a few hilly tracks out there, like Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, when you do a good lap around there, you think, ‘I know I did something special, and it was fun’. Some tracks you drive around, and it’s like work. It’s like taking a shovel and digging a hole, and you have to keep on digging the hole. It’s just not fun. It’s a pain in the neck to do a lap. And there are other tracks, even though you are not up in speeds, it’s a trip. There’s a feel good factor. and that’s what we are wanting with this track,” explained Villeneuve. “You also try to think, if I were sitting there watching this race, would it be fun. That was also a key, not just driving on your own, but driving in a pack. Would it give fans a good race and some over-taking opportunities, and would good drivers make a difference, and would the good drivers with a big heart, the ones that would they be willing to take the risks, like it. All these little things we were wanting to be part of this track.”

In a letter to prospective Club members on the Area 27 website, Villeneuve included the following statement: “Area 27 is for the passionate motorsport enthusiast like yourself, a place where you can safely find your limits, experience the Grand Prix lifestyle, and live your dream.”

Villeneuve, born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec the son of famed racer Gilles, certainly has racing in his blood, and was asked to explain that statement.

“There’s so many people that want to drive to the limit and want to drive fast. They have amazing cars and there’s nowhere to drive them. You don’t do that on the roads. The roads aren’t made for that, and it’s dangerous. There’s a bit of frustration, and you don’t have the outlet. This is a good venue for that. You can actually spend your money on a good car, and have a reason for it, and go out there.

“It’s probably a little bit like golfing. You sit around and have a beer and talk about how amazing you were on that hole. The same thing can happen here, like how amazing you were at that corner, how you got a bit sideways and caught it. There’s that excitement that only happens when you drove there. And you can sit down and feel good about yourself. That’s part of the fun, and what this is all about.”

There are still some loose ends to tie up, but Area 27 is expected to be fully operational by the summer of 2016.

“We are at the stage of getting the lease from the federal government – the nuts and bolts of everything behind the scenes that gets you on the land and able to start construction. Archaeology reports, environmental reports, surveying – all those documents have to be done and signed off and reviewed. We are in that process right now, and it’s fairly advanced,” said Drossos. “We’re probably two months out starting construction. There will be more engineering that Trevor will do, and we will work on some pit lane ideas. In theory, if we had the lease today, we would be on the ground in probably three weeks.

If we started construction by June 1st and have a warm fall, there’s potential to put asphalt down in November. You could probably do some exhibition laps with street cars. It would be a soft opening, and we could get back to work in the spring (of 2016) to do the curbing, fences and safety areas.”

Jacques Villeneuve has been around racing all his life, watching his father Gilles win many races, and now enjoying his own success on the track. He can’t wait to speed down the asphalt at Area 27.

“I spent all my youth playing with cars and designing tracks. And I never stopped. So it’s something I was really wanting to do, and I do it passionately. I want it to be as close to perfection as it can be. I want to wake up in the morning. I want to drive that track, because it’s fun, and it’s exhilarating. It’s enjoyable. You can push the limit and get an adrenaline rush. You can feel good about yourself, because you know when you’ve done a quick lap here, and you’ve done something special.”

Soon, Villeneuve, the artist, will provide Area 27 Motorsport Club members with a new playground in which to enjoy their passion. Construction is in the final lap.

Gentlemen, and ladies – start your engines!

For more information on Area 27, check out: www.area27.ca.

Dale Cory

Oliver Chronicle