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“You could really feel the force against your body once you put your foot down. It’s a memory that will stay with me forever. It was absolutely insane.”
Eddie Irvine, Derek Daly, Joe Kelly, David Kennedy, Tommy Byrne: Only a handful of Irish motorsport stars have competed in Formula 1, and now 25-year-old prospective Nicole Drought has experienced a brief snapshot of what life is like inside of the latest driving machine
Tipperary’s native drought has been breaking barriers, metaphorically, of course, on the Irish motorsports scene for the past five years, while becoming the first woman to win a race in the Irish Touring Car Championship.
This year was shaping up to be the best of all, as Drought had signed a three-year contract with CJJ Motorsports of John Campion and was planning a seasonal race at the prestigious Britcar Endurance Championship at world-renowned venues such as Brands Hatch, Donington and Silverstone. – The spectacular Porsche 718 GT4, the car chosen by the team.
The drought recently spent time with his new team in Florida and he enjoyed those rarer privileges as he was able to sit behind the wheel of a Jordan Formula One car.
See how Nicole Drought tests Irish sports stars and journalists on the Mondello Park track
Rubens Barrichello drove the car for Jordan in the 1990s, but now Drought was in the same seat as the 11-time Grand Prix winner, albeit just two laps from the Palm Beach International Circuit in Florida.
“I would say it is crazy to compete with those cars properly, I am still speechless thinking about it and it was my best experience in a car,” said Drought, speaking to RTE Sport.
“I really had to stretch the car’s legs as there were two long straights, and the downforce on the car is incredible. The car stuck to the ground when it hit the corners, the grip on the wheels is incredible.”
The drought was born in the motorsport fraternity, since her father, Owain, used to compete in rallies across the country, and although she was immersed in cars all her life, she arrived relatively late on the competitive circuit.
A variety of part-time jobs and personal savings during his teens finally allowed Drought to take the plunge and invest in his first race car: a Honda Integra.
And she can vividly remember that first weekend at Mondello Park, where she took her first tentative steps in sports.
“I can still feel the nerves in my stomach, I can still feel how that day went, it was absolutely petrifying”
“At first I wanted to rally on the road, but it got too expensive. My father made the transition from the road to the tracks and somehow it fit me. I’ve stuck with circuit racing and I love it.”
“In my hometown a car went on sale, so I went to the bank and took out the money I saved over the years and bought my first race car.
“I can still feel the nerves in my stomach, I can still feel what that day was like, it was absolutely petrifying,” Drought said of his debut in the Irish Touring Car Championship.
“We did a couple of days of testing, and while it was nice to be on the track for the first time, it was very nervous because I was not used to having so many cars around me and I was thrown to the bottom.”
“We qualified in the front row of the grid, which was very good for my first weekend, and a great memory on my first start in my Honda Integra.”
The drought came off the podium that first weekend at the home of Irish circuit racing.
But success would soon come when she enjoyed two great years running in her Honda.
That first car would have to be put on grass during its sophomore year, but Drought’s track record stayed on an upward curve when he received the recognition he deserved for driving, opening his eyes to opportunities in the sport and opening doors to future projects. .
“I had Integra for two years and was leading the championship in 2016, but then we had horrendous mechanical problems and we had to park the car.”
“After that, I was able to drive a Porsche with the Sean Edwards Foundation, which promotes motorsport safety, and then I was able to compete in the Global GT Lights championship in Wales. I qualified second and finished fourth, so it was a good debut.” “
The standard had been set and Drought’s “up and down” year in 2019 shows how ambitious it is and the levels of expectation it is setting.
“It was a year of ups and downs, as I was doing two different disciplines, endurance tests, where I won the championship and on the track I was competing with a Stryker.”
“I was third in that championship, but we had mechanical problems and they were getting too much. There was no point in having the practice pace and the qualifying pace and then having an unreliable car and not being able to advance in the race.”
“It was tough, but at least we had the experience in another championship and it was a great experience.”
“It is a difficult pill to swallow and I struggled with it for a while, when you have prepared yourself to the best of your ability and then the machinery disappoints you.”
“But I’ve been working with a performance coach, Alan Heary, and he has helped me try to work through frustrations and control controllers and things like that.”
“You can only do what you can do, so that’s what I try to focus on when things go wrong.”
The drought is part of the 20×20 initiative for women’s sports, while she has also served as an ambassador for Formula Female, a project created by Irish hockey star Nicci Daly, working with schools across Ireland to introduce motorsports to women youth through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education.
An unlikely combination, you might think, until you discover that Daly’s uncle Derek was one of the aforementioned Formula One drivers.
And Drought’s recent excursion to Jordan was not his first experience in Formula One, as he has also enjoyed a ride through Mondello Park in Daly’s old race car.
“I drove Derek Daly’s car and he was there that day, so it was great to have his support. We laughed before we got out in the car, and we laughed when I got back, it was fantastic.”
“I am a Formula Female ambassador. It is an amazing initiative and I really wish I had those options at school as I probably would have done something different.”
“It shows girls what other kinds of races there are and we hope it will increase the number of women in motorsports.”
In fact, Drought admits that much of her inspiration for the sport comes from one of the leading pioneers of Irish and European women’s motorsports, the Dublin native and former full-time international rally driver Rosemary Smith, who left a mark on the scene of the sixties. .
“Rosemary Smith is definitely someone that inspires me and that I admire,” said Drought of the 82-year-old Irish sports legend.
“I did an event with her a few months ago in Mondello Park and she was absolutely fabulous. She had her old Rally Imp and we did a couple of laps together. She was still shooting the car, she still has it and it has to burn inside her, and it was great to share a song with her.
“She was the one who made way for women and went through all the difficulties when men thought that women should not compete in the sport.”
“I ran against women for the first time last year. There are more girls coming, so I hope we will see much more in the coming years.”
The 2020 drought campaign could have ended before it begins as motor sport, as the rest of world sport, as a consequence of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
A full-time accountant by trade, Drought spends her Covid crisis days at the family home in Roscrea and, despite a lack of sports action, is still very busy trying to work as an accountant, stay fit and strong, while keeping a Minimal driving experience in the form of a racing car simulator.
“I’m pretty busy. I get up and go for a walk. Breakfast and work. I will exercise at my lunch and then after work, I could go jogging or biking and then go back to the sim.” Said the drought.
“You don’t have the real feel of speed, the G-Force or the feel of the car in the rear,” Drought explained, regarding the pros and cons of the simulator.
“But we do have feedback through the steering wheel so we can feel the car start to loosen up, while you kick the pedal the same way you would in a car.”
“It is a tool to maintain sharpness and to learn the tracks [in Britain], which is very beneficial since I have only run on two of them, so it is a good way to learn them. “
Formula One is probably not a realistic goal unless your father is a billionaire
It’s a case of waiting and seeing Drought as he looks beyond the restrictions that keep the sports calendar idle at the moment, but he is hopeful that there will be races in the second half of the year.
“We have to wait and see what the restrictions are like. We are still waiting, so I’m just working on a simulator and my physical condition.”
“They will try to race the championships from August to November, depending on restrictions, so hopefully we will have a couple of races to spend some time in the car.”
And looking ahead, one of Drought’s goals would be to compete in the prestigious Le Mans European Series, as he feels that the path to Formula 1 has narrowed in recent years due to the money that is involved in the sport a that level. .
“Formula One is high-profile and the pinnacle of motorsports, but for young people, it’s probably not a realistic goal unless his father is a billionaire.”
“It really doesn’t depend as much on talent as it used to in the past.”
“The European Le Mans Series is of a very high standard and you will find some really good professional drivers participating in the championship.”
The next logical step in the European series would be to compete in the world equivalent, which could result in a full-time driving career, but just like these days of waiting for a Covid cure, Drought will wait for his time and see where the journey carries it.
“The World Endurance Championship is the ultimate goal. It is a truly high-class championship with an incredible profile.
“If I were there as a paid driver, it would be amazing, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
“I have to do some things that I thought I could never do. I drove two Formula One cars, one at Mondello and one at Palm Beach International in Florida.”
“The way things have gone, anything can happen.”
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