Yes, there’s a spec racing series featuring the current Nissan Sentra. In fact, it’s even backed by Nissan itself.
The series regularly attracts fields nearing 20 entries, delivering fierce yet surprisingly clean racing. It even gets TV coverage–not just on social media, but on a major network.
Oh yeah, did we mention that a brand-new race car costs only $47,000 Canadian (roughly $34K U.S.)? Welcome to the Nissan Sentra Cup.
How the Stars Aligned
Nissan Micra Cup. Photo courtesy Nissan Canada.
Since the 1970s, Jacques Deshaies’ life has revolved around motorsport. He’s covered the automotive industry as a journalist and has raced various cars, including in the Canadian Touring Car Championship and the renowned Targa Newfoundland. He even served as president of the famed Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières. He’s had his finger on the pulse of the racing scene in Quebec and beyond.
After the demise of the Honda Michelin series, a standalone tour for Civics, it left a void in Canada, according to Jacques. “I had a lot of guys tell me, ‘Hey, you’re the right guy to start a new, monotype, grassroots series,’” he recalls. “When I saw Nissan launch the Micra … and then they announced the price–$9995–I had to make a phone call to [Nissan Canada Director of Communications] Didier Marsaud. [I said,] ‘Hey, I got a good idea. We have to start a new monotype series with the Micra.’”
Enter luck.
Nissan Sentra Cup promoter, Jacques Deshaies. Photo by J.A. Ackley.
Keep in mind that not everyone at a car manufacturer understands the value motorsport can provide. Didier certainly got it. He rallied in his native France and worked for Renault; the French company’s Renault Clio Cup can be traced back to the ’60s and has welcomed racers around the world. (As an aside, Renault Clio Cup’s rule book inspired the one used by the Nissan Micra Cup.)
“The moment [Jacques] was talking, I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ But on the phone, I could not be too enthusiastic,” remembers Didier. “I had no idea if management would support it.”
The outgoing Didier knows how to build connections and, as a career PR guy, tell a story. He pitched the idea to the then-president of Nissan Canada, Christian Meunier.
A fellow Frenchman, Didier had known Christian for a long time back in Europe. While…
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