Nicole Drought

Catching up with Nicole Drought at her Tipperary home, we are immediately struck by how driven and focused she is in pursuit of her dual careers as Ireland’s top female racing driver… and an Accountant. She is the first woman to win a race in the Irish Touring Car championship and this trailblazer is passionate about involving more females in Motorsport.

Formula 1 Dreams

Describing this ambitious Irish racing driver as “an absolute inspiration for young girls”, the late John Campion, founder of CJJ Sports recalled the day he put a select number of young drivers behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car. “Then we had this girl, Nicole Drought… and she absolutely killed it.” On that day at the 2019 Historic Festival at Mondello Park, Nicole joined the small group of Irish drivers to have ever had this privilege. “Every race driver dreams of getting to take the wheel of one of these cars which is at the pinnacle of the sport worldwide… but not many ever get the chance. And it wasn’t any old F1 car either, it was the ex-Derek Daly Guinness sponsored March 811, one of the most ‘Irish’ racing cars ever.” Not only that, but Derek Daly, who raced the car in the World Championship back in 1981, was on hand to offer Nicole support and guidance.

“I have to admit that I was petrified when I climbed aboard, in front of a large crowd, with no previous practice. Thankfully, the car was beautiful to drive and as soon as I pulled away, I was in heaven. You could really feel the force against your body once you put the foot down. It's a memory that will stay with me forever. It was absolutely insane." Nicole subsequently drove another Formula 1 car, the Jordan 193, at Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida in February 2020.

John Campion and Nicole stayed in touch too and he signed her to his CJJ Motorsport Initiative. “This has given me three years, fully funded, to forge out a career in Motorsport”.

UL Racing & Motorsport Club

When Nicole, from Roscrea in Co Tipperary, narrowed down her list of college course options to accounting and finance during her Leaving Cert year, she felt the pressure of picking the right University. “I knew this would be the foundation of my career”. She remembers being in a restaurant in Lanzarote back in 2013 when she received an email confirming her first choice of a BBS at UL.

The unexpected cherry on top for Nicole was the opportunity to marry her educational dreams with her passion for motorsport. “It was quite daunting coming from a small school in a small town to a large college campus in the city, but I quickly became accustomed to the buzz of college life. And I really started to feel at home when I joined ULRM (UL Racing & Motorsport) at the Clubs & Socs recruitment drive. Motorsport has always been my lifelong passion and finally, I could mix my education with sport.”

Elite status

While she wasn’t the only girl there at the time, she was one of the few club members to have her own helmet and recalls completing her first drive at the ULRM Club’s endurance karting event at a nearby track. Her fellow club members could instantly see how quick Nicole was! The club competed at Intervarsities in karting against other colleges around Ireland and Nicole was chosen for each round to represent UL. “I was very proud of that!” It wasn’t until her second year in college that she started to competitively participate in the sport. “I was very lucky to have a University with such sporting facilities. I used to spend my time running to the Sports Arena for a swim or workout in between lectures.”

In true UL fashion, John was very supportive of my potential career and I am still in touch with him”.

By her final year, the commitments to study and motorsport became trickier to balance. “It was then I was lucky enough to become an Elite Athlete and my Accounting Lecturer John Heneghan was great with advice. Any graduate who knows John will know you had to be on time for his lectures!” Academically-minded Nicole had received a letter from the UL President in 2nd year in recognition of her high grades but found herself struggling in 3rd year to stay on top of her studies as well as honouring her commitments to motor sport. “There were times when I had to fly up to Mondello to test a car, but then I had to catch up on any missed lectures. John really helped me with advice on how to balance my studies and outside commitments. In true UL fashion, John was very supportive of my potential career and I am still in touch with him”. Nicole says that this support gave her the confidence she needed to work hard on both aspects of life. “It was almost as if my two aims had blended together, as opposed to one hindering the other.”

Nicole also points out how her business education and training helped when it came to the commercial aspect of motor racing and with the right team around her, she has attracted commercial support. “The Kemmy Business School mission states that it is committed to excellence in teaching and to fostering knowledge and understanding of business and society within a diverse, research active and socially engaged environment… well, these are all hugely relevant in the commercial end of the business of sport.”

Trailblazing

In 2016, Nicole became the first woman to win in the Irish Touring Car Championship, taking victory in the Production Class in her Honda Integra. She was inducted into the Murphy Prototypes Young Driver initiative and travelled to a number of ELMS rounds with the Irish-owned International Sportscar team. In 2016, she was voted Irish Sportswoman of The Year at sportswomen.ie.

Nicole subsequently raced in Global GT Lights, Stryker Sportscars and the UK-based Citroen C1 Challenge. She is the first and only Irish Ambassador for the International Sean Edwards Foundation, which promotes safety for drivers and circuits worldwide, and with whom she tested a Porsche GT3 Supercup in Le Castellet, France in 2016.

She is also the reigning Class 1A Endurance Trial Champion, having taken the title in both 2018 and 2019. She raced in the Irish Stryker Championship and many top results were accompanied by her first championship victory. In 2019, she dominated at Strykers, with six wins from six starts to make it two Championships in a row. Having tied up the title before the final round, she elected to move up to the main class and took a class win there too.

I got a Simulator from Digital Motorsports in Mondello Park and used it to learn all of the circuits as best I could.”

“We signed up for the 2020 Britcar Endurance Championship, where I was to drive a Porsche 718 GT4. The car was new, the circuits were new and I had a lot to learn, to put it mildly!” Nicole applied herself to the task “in the same manner I had done in UL” She adds “I studied, I learned and I practised. I got a Simulator from Digital Motorsports in Mondello Park and used it to learn all of the circuits as best I could. When Sean Doyle and I managed to win our class at the first race of the season, I can still hear how excited John (Campion) was when he rang, having watched every lap on live timing from his home in Florida.” At the end of the season, Nicole and her colleague had three wins and five podiums in their class and only missed out on the Championship by 8 points. Nicole describes these as “results I hadn’t dared to dream of at the start of the season.”

Becoming a Role Model

In addition to the Sean Edwards Foundation, Nicole is an Ambassador for the 20×20.ie, the first movement of its kind in Ireland championing women and girls in sport and creating a cultural shift. She is also an Ambassador for Formula Female, the initiative set up by Irish Hockey Star Nicci Daly which works with schools to attract more females into Motorsport. Nicole explains “Our mission at Formula Female is to encourage more females to play a role, both on and off the track, and to promote the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), the role it plays in Motorsport and the career opportunities available through STEM. We believe the formula for this success is to ENGAGE, EDUCATE & EMPOWER our younger female generation. Formula Female shows girls what other sort of careers are out there and hopefully it will boost the amount of women in motorsport." Last year, we got 1,000 girls into karts, they did pit-stops, they built a data logger, they used their maths skills to find the quickest way around the track. And for girls who weren’t interested in getting into the karts to drive, they could consider roles as data technicians or engineers.”

"Rosemary Smith is definitely someone who still inspires me and I look up to her. She was the one who broke through for women and went through all the hardships to be allowed to compete in the sport.” For Nicole, growing up a couple of generations behind the Irish racing legend, she says things have been different for her. “I was never made to feel, as a girl, that this was a boy’s sport. And at Christmas time at home, I would get presents of tractors or overalls the same as my brothers would. I never felt different to them.” As for the sport today, Nicole says “Definitely, in 2021, there are a lot more women coming through.” And she is conscious of her own role as a role model for others. “Visibility is a huge thing. I want to be that person within my sport. More and more, I get requests from parents whose daughters are interested in racing, they want to see you race so they can see a direct path to follow.”

First Car

I was only 8 or 9 at the time, but I thought I was the head of the team!”

And where did it all start for young Nicole? She tells us she grew up around cars. “My father has a car sales business and he had been rallying too. I was following him around the country. My Mam would make up a picnic and I’d set off with my uncle for the day, hanging out in ditches, watching the races.” Car-mad Nicole imagined a role for herself beyond waving the cars on. “When the cars would come in between stages, into the service area, to get checked over and make changes if they weren’t happy with the set-up, I was there. Not just keeping the sandwiches and cups of tea going… I would be there sussing out the car, asking questions about any sort of damage, asking how the stages were, were they slippy and so on.” Nicole laughs now at the memory “I was only 8 or 9 at the time, but I thought I was the head of the team!”

Fast forward a decade and Nicole invested in her first racing car, a Honda Integra. "A car came up for sale in my local town, so I went to the bank and took out the money I had saved for years and bought my first racing car.” She had wanted to do rallying on the road at first but it became too expensive. “I have stayed with circuit racing and I love it.“

Motivation

What Nicole has also stayed on is her path to becoming an Accountant and she joined the practice of fellow UL graduate Shane Somers in Limerick in 2018. “Because of motorsport opportunities, I had to push my Accountancy exams out at the start, but I have come a long way in my three years with Shane and am keen to get fully qualified. That goal is as important to me as everything else.”

And the racing dream continues. “Unfortunately, John Campion had been diagnosed with leukaemia and despite a brave battle, he succumbed to the condition in October last year. This was a massive blow. Not only had I lost a supporter, I had lost a mentor and a friend. One thing you learn in life, and in sport, is to turn your misfortunes into motivation and my team and I are currently chasing commercial backing to return to the UK Britcar Championship for 2021. I will never forget John Campion and intend to race on in his memory.”

In the meantime, with racing on hold, Nicole is making the most of life under Covid. “It actually gave me more time to prepare for future races”. And while hopes of getting back out to her favourite tapas bar in Lanzarote are on her mind too, she is focusing on her fitness. She stresses the physical and mental demands of endurance racing, the need to be able to drive for long periods in a car with 400-brake horsepower, with 20 other cars also competing for space on the track. “There’s a lot to think about when you’re out there.”

Now, I do a lot of visualisation and other mental exercises. I find it really beneficial and I actually think everyone should do it.”

“At my age, I am only getting stronger. But I also know that the further up the ranks you go, the fitter you have to be.” In addition to using the Simulator at home - “now I know the tracks in the UK” - she is also running, is on a bike and doing weight training. “The lighter you are and the lighter your car is, the more of an advantage you have”. Of particular benefit, Nicole says, is having a mental performance coach. “That is something I struggled with at the start of my career… sometimes you are your own worst enemy. Now, I do a lot of visualisation and other mental exercises. I find it really beneficial and I actually think everyone should do it.”

Nicole concludes: “Yes, I have been lucky – very, very lucky - but as they teach you in any good business school, the harder you work, the luckier you get!”