2021/06/27

Shannonville, Ont. – The Nissan Sentra Cup officially kicked off this weekend, with 24 competitors hitting the track at Shannonville Motorsports Park near Belleville, Ontario. This inaugural event was highly symbolic, as it was not only the very first race in the history of the new Canadian motorsport series, but also the racing debut of the Nissan Sentra.

The Sentras clocked faster lap times than in pre-season testing and were masterly driven by talented Canadian drivers from Ontario, Québec and British Columbia. In the end, Ontario's Gavin Sanders won both races.

Saturday's first qualifying session was disrupted by a brief rain shower but saw young Ontario driver Gavin Sanders display his great skills. The Sanders Motorsports / SPI Racing driver captured the pole position ahead of Jesse Lazare, Kevin King - the 2020 Nissan Micra Cup champion – and three of the 11 rookie drivers entered in the race, Owen Clarke, Kay Dalziel and Alexandre Fortin.

Saturday's race turned into a fierce battle for the victory between Sanders and King. Despite the intense pressure King put on him, Gavin Sanders did not make a single mistake and won the 40-minute race by a thin margin of 987 thousandths of a second. Former 24 Hours of Daytona winner Jesse Lazare rounded out the podium, while Valérie Limoges finished fourth, edging out rookie Alexandre Fortin and Éric Chaput, the winner of the Senior class for Sentra drivers 40 years and older. Rookie Nicholas Hornbostel was victorious in the Micra category ahead of veterans Frédéric Bernier and Sylvain Ouellet. The Micra class spices up the show by adding a "race within a race" to the series.

Gavin Sanders, Ontario's winning driver in the first Nissan Sentra Cup race, said "It was an awesome day for me with these new Sentras running so well. It's a great car to drive! But it was also about trying to win the first race in the history of the Nissan Sentra Cup and I'm so happy I did it. It means a lot to me. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season!"

During the heat on Sunday, it was an all-Ontario front row for race 2 with teammates Gavin Sanders and Justin Di Benedetto setting the two fastest times in qualifying. For majority of the race, Sanders and King resumed their battle from the previous day. This time Kevin King managed to pass his rival. The battle was intense, but unfortunately the race was shortened by a few minutes due to a collision between the Micras of Frédéric Bernier and Nicolas Barrette.

Since the race was not restarted, Kevin King was declared the winner. However, he was penalised by one position due to an avoidable contact with Sanders who therefore won both opening races of the season. Justin Di Benedetto took this place ahead of Jesse Lazare and the best placed rookie, Simon Charbonneau. Valérie Limoges, Alexandre Fortin, Kai Dalziel, Éric Chaput (winner in the Senior class) and Jesse Webb completed the Top 10. In the Micra class, Nicholas Hornsbostel claimed his second consecutive victory, ahead of André Lapointe and Sylvain Ouellet.

Kevin King - the last Nissan Micra Cup champion - was obviously disappointed with the penalty but delighted with his first races in the Sentra, "The new Sentra handling is amazing. It has a perfect power-to-weight ratio and it's obviously much faster than the Micra. All in all, it's a lot of fun and I think we're going to have a great season."

A rookie, Darren Graham finished 12th. The day before, he had completed the first race in ninth place. It was the first ever racing event for the British Columbia driver, who also owns three Nissan dealerships in the province. "I ran my very first laps only on Friday, the day before the first race. I'm a brand-new competitor, a rookie in motorsports. I'm facing a steep learning curve, but it was a great first experience with the series as a Sentra racer. The Nissan Sentra Cup is about pure driving, I still have a lot to learn with this car, but I really enjoyed this first experience."

In the drivers' overall standings after two races out of 12, Gavin Sanders is first on top of the point standings with 104 ahead of Kevin King, who is second at 96. Jesse Lazare is third with 80 points ahead of Valérie Limoges (68), Alexandre Fortin (62 points) and Simon Charbonneau (60), the latter two being on top of the rookie standings. Veteran Éric Chaput is seventh overall and first in the Senior class (54 points). In the Micra class, Nicholas Hornbostel is first ahead of Sylvain Ouellet and François-Angers Routhier.

The next event will take place in five weeks in Québec as part of the Summer Classic at Circuit Mont-Tremblant. For more information, visit the series' social media channels and the web site of the series at sentracup.com

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For complete race standings and championship positions, go to
https://www.sentracup.com/2021-Results_ClassGenOpens in a new tab.