After a thrilling season finale in Mont-Tremblant, the Nissan Micra Cup released the final 2018 edition of its magazine, featuring exclusive interviews with the series’ most prominent figures. The weekend was highlighted by Olivier Bédard, who earned his third Nissan Micra Cup championship title in a dominant race win on Saturday. However, Bédard was not the only person who could chalk up this year as a success; Nissan Canada president, Joni Paiva and series promoter, Jacques Deshaies, highlighted the success of the 2018 season and projections for the future.
Pictured from left to right: Joni Paiva, President of Nissan Canada; Olivier Bédard, 2018 Nissan Micra Cup Champion and Jacques Deshaies, Micra Cup series promoter. Download image, here.
Though every championship is memorable, Bédard shared why 2018 was even more special than his victories in 2015 and 2017: the unique chemistry of his SolidExpert team. Bédard shared, “I must admit that my motivation was even higher than other seasons because I was fully happy with my team. I think that was the key to our success: the support and positivity of the team motivated me on the track and the results showed with victories coming one after the other.”
The season also saw many wins in other areas, including increased competition, more involvement from Nissan owners through the track parades and live online streaming of half of the races.
Paiva shared, “When we confirmed that the series would be back for seasons 2018 to 2020, we told ourselves we had to do better than the previous seasons. I consider the objective fully achieved this year, congratulations to all.”
Ever keen to improve, Deshaies is already looking toward 2019, focusing on the areas of opportunity for the Nissan Micra Cup. He sees expansion of Ontario drivers as the next big challenge for the series, “Ontario hosts 50 per cent of Micra Cup races so I would like to have more drivers in the series that come from the province. We met many Ontario drivers during last month’s NASCAR weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, who showed a lot of interest in the series and a few have already contacted me, so I am very positive.”
SOURCE: Nissan
