Marie-Soleil Labelle | Driver to the guts

“Just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you can’t drive. When we wear a helmet, we are all the same. »

At 20 years old, Marie-Soleil Labelle, nicknamed Sunny, has only one thing on her mind: car racing. In winter, she looks for partners. In the summer, she participates in races. It’s been the same experience since she was 15, the year she made the jump from karts to cars on the advice of a certain Raymond Tagliani…

We meet Marie-Soleil and her father, Maxime, in the ICAR parking lot in Mirabel. The tandem traveled to Gatineau with its imposing black trailer, in which Marie-Soleil’s car was hidden. When we arrive, the driver and her father wait for us patiently in front of the Nissan Sentra, well stocked with partner stickers. One of these partners, Evirum, also meets us on site.

Marie-Soleil is beginning her third season in the Nissan Sentra Cup. She represents the Gilles-Villeneuve museum team; It is also in honor of the legendary and late driver that she proudly displays the number 27 on her car. “He never gave up on a race, even if things were going badly,” she will tell us about him. He did everything to finish it. That’s an attitude that I have and that I would like to continue to have. »

Marie-Soleil wants to participate in NASCAR races as soon as possible. Nothing less.

It’s the story of a young woman who, thanks to motorsport, found a passion and was able to overcome her embarrassment…

When hobby becomes passion

Marie-Soleil Labelle does not come from a family that loves motorsport. The young woman’s love affair with sport began by pure chance the year she was 12, after a karting session with her father.

“Dad, could we go go-karting again?” “, she asks, again and again, in the days that follow.

“I found the speed fun. The turns, the noise, the gas, the smells…,” she remembers.

The father and his daughter therefore enter into a verbal agreement: if she does well at school, she will be rewarded with evenings at karting.

“I really saw it as a hobby,” his father explains. […]. But she fell in love with her hobby, which became a passion. His passion ensured that things went well at school. »

Seeing that Marie-Soleil was there day after day, the employees of Top Karting in Gatineau suggested that she sign up for a league for fun. The following summer, she began racing karts.

After two seasons, Marie-Soleil changed teams to join the Ben Cooper Racing Team, in junior Rotax, before making the jump to Shifter at the end of 2019. That year, Raymond Tagliani, the father of Alex, was his mechanic. It was he who advised him to leave karting and move on to the road circuit.

“He told me: get out of the kart because otherwise you’re going to be there all your life. I have the impression that you want to perform and grow in motorsport. »

When it comes from a Tagliani…

Defeat TDL

One thing led to another and Marie-Soleil, 15, became the youngest female driver in the Canadian Nissan Sentra series, in the Micra class. Her father clearly remembers his daughter’s first races, in Mont-Tremblant.

“She had just turned 16. There were Lamborghinis and Porsches overtaking her. There I said to myself: eventually, she will tell me that she has had enough. Me, I was on the side and I said to myself: oh my god, it’s big. »

“She was coming off the track, and she was saying: what time are we going back on the track? I said to myself: ayoye, it’s not going to stop today. »

What we haven’t yet told you is that the young Gatineau suffers from a developmental language disorder (DLD). “It’s neurological,” she explains to us. There is no little pill that will cure you. It’s really about reading, writing and understanding. Sometimes my friends at college make a joke. Me, I don’t understand the joke in the second degree. […] When reading, I can interpret something differently. When speaking, sometimes the words that are in my head are not necessarily the words that will come out. »

Finding partners, a necessity in the expensive world of motorsport, therefore proved to be a colossal challenge for the young woman. For her father, however, it was the perfect opportunity to “desensitize” her.

“At first, I was very embarrassed,” says Marie-Soleil. With my disorder, I felt like I had trouble expressing myself. At 15, go knock on doors to say: your company interests me, we have the same values…”

“My father helped me a lot. He showed me how to talk to people. […] Racing is more adult. I couldn’t look like a little baby. »

Same thing for interviews, which are frequent in this environment.

“At first, I hid in my trailer, I didn’t want to talk,” she says. Now I’m almost asking when it’s my turn, if I can talk soon! »

A 180 degree turn, absolutely. Today, Marie-Soleil is spokesperson for the Regroupement TDL Québec and the international committee Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder in order to show young people that “it is not because you have a small difference that you cannot succeed in life “.

From dream to reality

In just a few years, Marie-Soleil Labelle has taken a big step forward in the world of road racing. After a first year of learning in the Micra class disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, then a more successful second year, Labelle concluded its third season in 2022 at the 2^e championship rank in the Micra class.

It was also that year that she competed in the Canadian Grand Prix. She and Valérie Limoges made history by becoming the first two women in the same series during the Grand Prix. Marie-Soleil, who smiles toothily at this memory, even climbed onto the podium by virtue of a third place.

“In 2022, I am on the podium. It’s no longer me in the stands; I’m the one who puts on the show. »

Last season, in 2023, Marie-Soleil made the jump to the Sentra class. She went to the Skip Barber Racing School in the United States, where she gained experience in Mustang GT racing. She also started racing on clay. This year, in addition to the Nissan Sentra Cup, it will participate in the NASCAR Weekly Series.

In other words, things never stop going well.

“My goal, obviously, is to hold the wheel as long as possible. I’m aiming for NASCAR,” says the woman who is currently pursuing a double bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and information technology at the University of Ottawa.

“The tank doesn’t know it”

It’s no secret: motorsport is still dominated by men, even if mentalities are changing. Over the years, Marie-Soleil has faced a lot of adversity. She remembers her years of karting, when “the little guys didn’t like being overtaken by a little girl”. “It was a lot of elbow play. »

“When I took the leap [en circuit routier], I was very young. They are men. I was almost a child, a little girl who was going to play in the big leagues. At first, I saw their looks, I knew I didn’t belong. »

“Whether you are a guy or a girl, you have to make your place on the track and make yourself respected. »

That’s what she did. With brio.

And then, at the end of the day, as his father Maxime says, “the tank doesn’t know if you are a woman or a man”.