Nissan goes racing in Canada with Micra Cup

Nissan Canada’s new Micra Cup series in Quebec is up and running with respected journalist and racer Jacques Deshaies at the helm—and that's a good thing.

It is an entry-level series that will see six weekends of double races at various Quebec tracks—another good thing.

Among the events penciled into the calendar are stops at Quebec’s big races, including the Canadian Grand Prix and the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres—yet another good thing.

(Are you seeing a trend yet?)

I ventured to Mont-Tremblant, Que., on media day to try the car for myself.

Basically it’s a bone-stock Micra with a number of safety and performance upgrades, including a NISMO S tune suspension kit, FIA-approved racing seat, five-point harness, fire extinguisher, modified exhaust, high-performance brake pads, safety cage, driver protection net, front and rear tow hooks, and stylized Fastwheels wheels wrapped in Pirelli performance tires.

You get all that, it should be noted, for $20,000 including the price of the car.

Nissan says you could do the entire series for $40,000 all-in, though that doesn't include crashes, and, as anyone who has ever been around spec series races knows, there will be crashes—lots of them.

At the very least you will need to buy mirrors by the box load.

I got only five laps in the car—in the rain—but it was enough time to share some important highlights.

First, Jean-Francois Dumoulin’s 35+ hours of on-track development time has paid off in a well-balanced, responsive car.

Power, or lack of it, makes the Micra Cup car slow—like really, really slow.

The good news, however, is that all the cars are equally slow, making the series more about driver skill than who has the better equipped car.

Deshaies and his crew have a good handle on the series from being around racing for some time.

They understand it is a cheating heaven, but they are ready.

First offence and you're hit with a fine; second and you’re banned (I think it's for two years).

The only part of the series that I really question is Nissan's choice to bring in two guys: Thanaroj Tanasitnitikate, 19, and Abhinay Bikkani, 25.

Not exactly household names, but they are both winners of Nissan's GT Academy, a program that takes gamers and makes racers out of the best of them.

Not convinced these skills translate well from video game to race track?

A GT Academy winner has won the last three rounds of the Pirelli World Challenge, meaning they are no slouches, which brings me to my point: The Micra Cup is billed as an entry-level series, so if I was looking into it, and I saw what essentially are not one, but two Nissan "factory drivers" in cars being run by Nissan, I might think it's a bit unfair.

They both seemed like nice enough guys when I met them in Mont-Tremblant, and I like seeing guys get chances behind the wheel, but I hope it doesn’t cost them entries in the future.

Nissan says it has a three-year deal with Deshaies and his management company, with an option for three more and there is already talk of the series expanding to Ontario in the future.

Stay tuned to Motoring TV and MotoringTV.com for a closer look at the Micra Cup and the car itself.