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X-HISTORY: 1975 SKIROULE 440 IFS
SNO-X Magazine Vol 6, No 3, Jan 2008
Story by Jim Urquhart, Doug McIIwain, and retrosno.com Images by Brian B.

1975 Skiroule 440 IFS

Jacques Villeneuve was just 22 years old when he first climbed aboard the Skiroule Sno Pro sleds in the fall of 1975. Jacques’ brother Gilles, who was 25 at the time, had designed, built and raced a radical twin-track Alouette during the 1973-74 season that featured an independent front suspension. Though the sled proved prone to breakdown and resulted in more than one DNF, it was also very fast when it worked.

Many in ice racing’s inner circle took note of Gilles’ sled, including a company that had become known as Skiroule Ltee., HMK Group in 1975. Rejean Houle started Skiroule in 1966, and the name was derived from the word “ski” and the first letter of his first name combined with his last name sans the “h.” In 1969 Coleman bought the company, and then in 1975 Boston Industrialist Herbert M. Karol purchased Skiroule from Coleman and that is when it acquired the aforementioned title. Karol wanted to re-invigorate the company and decided to go racing. And who better to campaign the sleds than the two hot shoe Villeneuve brothers from Berthierville, Quebec? Thus, Skiroule race director Peter Hill signed them to race the Sno Pro ice oval series for the 1975-76 season. With that, the brothers were given free reign to all the resources Skiroule could provide.

The Villeneuves set up shop in the Skiroule manufacturing facility in Wickham, Quebec. Complete with a dyno room and all the tools and materials to fabricate whatever they would need, they were like kids in a candy store. Personal touches can be seen in things like the sleds’ serial numbers; the brothers stamped a first initial and the engine size, for example. Both Villeneuves were already talented engineers and had inherited a love for speed and driving on the edge from their father. While not close in their younger years due to an age gap, they later became great friends. Their collaboration as teammates on the Skiroule Sno Pro race team was a prime example of that friendship and was the only time the brothers would collaborate from start to finish on a race project.

During the summer of 1975, Gilles had been racing the Formula Atlantic Player’s Challenge Series in Canada, and he tallied a win at the Gimli, Manitoba, race and also finished fifth in points. He was running his own program, pulling his car to races on an open trailer behind a station wagon with the entire family (wife Joann, son Jacques and daughter Melanie).

Villeneuve was doing most of his own wrenching, and he no doubt took what he had learned in car racing and adapted it to snowmobiles, first with the Alouette and then with Skiroule. Jacques, too, was getting his feet wet in motorsports, and it’s not surprising the two wanted something more compliant and tunable to ride on the ice ovals. For them, an independent front suspension was a no-brainer.