She is one of the rising stars in Irish motorsport but she won’t be thinking about that this weekend when she takes to the track in Bahrain for the CIK/FIA Karting Academy Trophy Race.
Nicole Coffey will have her eyes firmly set on coming in first and showing the boys how it’s done as one of the two female competitors taking part. She will also be the only Irish representative in the line-up of the 50 best young drivers in the world.
Speaking about how she has found competing in a male-dominated sport, Nicole said: “I was the only girl racing in the cadets when I started, which was hard in the beginning as the boys don’t like a girl beating them, but because I was a quicker driver they had to get used to it.”
Nicole will be hoping to add to her, already impressive, trophy collection.
The Dublin lass has already accomplished so much in the sport, recently coming away from the Irish Karting Awards with a number of trophies including the All Ireland Karting Championship and the Irish Karting Club’s Young Driver of the Year.
But Nicole wants more. In fact she said she wants to be the best: “I want to drive for Red Bull or Ferrari in Formula One and hopefully become the first girl to win in F1.”
And what better way to make this dream come true than to follow in the footsteps of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton who both flourished in the karting ranks before becoming world champions.
We’re sure you’re with us when we say good luck to Nicole for the weekend and we look forward to hearing how she gets on!
