Nissan announces Ontario Micra Cup races for 2016

The Micra Cup, a race series created by Nissan last year to showcase its smallest model, will expand outside of Quebec next year with the addition of three Ontario race weekends, the automaker announced last week at a gala dinner to celebrate the series’ inaugural season.

Nissan hasn’t revealed the locations for the Ontario races, but the three additional weekends (each of which will feature two races) bring the total to eight, a move Nissan Canada says “will allow us to demonstrate the Micra’s fun and affordability to more Canadians.”

That’s not as much of a stretch as it would be in many racing series; Nissan’s Micra Cup cars are nearly the same as those sold in showrooms, differing only in the addition of safety equipment, racing seat with five-point harness (and the deletion of most of the rest of the interior), NISMO suspension, and aftermarket wheels shod with high-performance tires.

At that same Oct. 30 gala, Nissan crowned Terrebonne, QC’s Olivier Bedard champion of the first season; Bedard placed first in five different races.