Jean-Michel Isabelle scores first win in Micra Cup

It was the opening two rounds of the third year of the Micra Cup, a single-make series based in Canada.

Stefan Gauthier put his No. 96 Micra on pole position with a time of 1m46.391, beating Kevin King, Australian Keishi Ayukai, Jean-Michel Isabelle et reigning series’ champion, Xavier Coupal. Olivier Bédard, the 2015 Micra Cup champion qualified seventh.

The field got the green and Kevin King jumped into the lead while Gauthier unexpectedly lost positions. At the end of the first lap, King led from Jean-Michel Isabelle and Ayukai.

During Lap 2, an accident occurred, forcing a full-course caution. At the restart, King led again from Isabelle. However, Isabelle found a way past King and took the lead.

A second crash

However, the yellow came out again shortly after. This time, rookie driver Samuel Rowe and Frederic Bernier came together. Rowe’s car rolled several times and landed on top of the concrete safety wall. Luckily, no one was injured, but the two cars were heavily damaged.

After having covered several laps behind the safety car, the race reached its time limit of 30 minutes and the race was called.

Jean-Michel Isabelle was declared the winner. Kevin King took second place in front of rookie Keishi Ayukai.

“I’m really happy with my first win in the Cup,” said Isabelle. “My best result before that was a second place at Mont-Tremblant two years ago. I would have liked to run more laps under green, but that’s racing. I got a good start and when we exited Corner 2, Kevin [King] and I were running 1-2. I then passed him on the outside of Corner 8. It was a bit tricky because it was full of marbles. But Kevin acted like a gentleman and left me room.”

“It was important to score point early in the season,” said King. “The team is happy with the result. It’s a great start.”

Race 2 will be staged Sunday afternoon.