Mississauga, Ont. – Successfully launched in the spring of 2015, the Nissan Micra Cup will makes its debut in the Toronto area this week end, at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with almost 30 drivers competing on the track. The Nissan Micra Cup will be part of the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at the circuit in Bowmanville, northeast of Toronto, for the only Canadian round of the North American Endurance Championship for prototypes and GT.
At this fast track, which was previously host to the Canadian Grand Prix Formula One and the legendary Can-Am series, motorsports fans will no doubt be thrilled to see the Nissan Micra Cup drivers compete in their small, agile, and practically stock Micra S cars. Tens of thousands of spectators will be on-site this weekend and both races will be worth watching from beginning to end, as some intense battles for victory are expected to take place.
Three Ontario drivers are competing throughout the entire 2016 championship. Currently, the highest ranked of the three is Brian Makse, in thirteenth position. Given the tiny gap between him and those behind him, Brian’s goal this weekend is to remain in the top 15. Another Ontarian, Peter Dyck, is currently leading the novice championship and sits in 18th place overall. Rounding out the three is Craig Willoughby in 28th spot, and if all goes well this weekend, he will have a good opportunity to climb even higher.
These three Ontarian drivers are joined by Martin Gray and Eddy Wong, from Toronto’s Alta Nissan Team, who will be at their first race of the series this year. The two journalists/drivers invited to take the wheel of the Nissan Canada cars are also from Ontario, making a total of no less than seven drivers representing the province at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park this weekend.
At the top of the overall championship standings, Quebec driver Kevin King (Sorel-Tracy Nissan) has a lead of just two points ahead of Xavier Coupal (Albi Nissan Team), followed by Albertan Stefan Rzadzinski (Tire Link Team) who is just seven back from King at this point in the season. Valérie Limoges (H.Grégoire Nissan Team) and the 2015 champion Olivier Bédard (Albi Nissan Team) can still fight for the title, sitting in fourth and fifth place respectively. This outing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, which marks the end of the first half of the season, is understandably highly anticipated by all of the drivers.
Multiple Canadian touring car champion in recent years and semi-professional hockey player, young Karl Wittmer will be joining the series at the wheel of the third United Autos Racing Team Micra S. The team already consists of Montrealer Chris Sahakian and his sister Ashley, who is vying for the rookie of the year honours. In addition to Ashley Sahakian and Valérie Limoges, a third female driver will join them on the track this weekend as Valérie Chiasson retakes the wheel of the Groupe Nissan Gabriel car after a two-event hiatus.
After the practice day on Thursday, drivers of the Nissan Micra Cup will be on the track for one last practice session on Friday between 12:20 p.m. and 12:50 p.m., prior to qualifying between 6:10 p.m. and 6:40 p.m. On Saturday, July 9th, the first race will begin at of 9:20 a.m. On the following day, Sunday, June 10th, the Nissan Micra Cup will be centre stage with a second race, also 30 minutes in length, starting at 2:30 p.m. Close to 200 Nissan Canada employees will be on- site at the event to support the series drivers.
For more information, please visit the Nissan Micra Cup website: www.nissan.ca/micracup.
Overall championship standings after six races:
http://www.micracup.com/Results_2016_ClassGen
Nissan Micra Cup 2016 Season Calendar :
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