sportswomen.ie Irish Sportswoman of The Year Nicole Drought announced her plans for her 2017 campaign.

Having just finished her final year exams at University of Limerick, where she studied Business and Accountancy, the 22 year old Roscrea native will compete in the New Millennium Series in the UK. She will drive a 300bhp Ginetta G50.

Nicole tested the car at Mondello Park recently and came away hugely impressed. She will test the car again a number of times at the Kildare circuit in the coming weeks ahead of her first UK campaign.

The Ginetta G50 will be tended to by Connaire Finn’s OPH.ie concern, with the hugely experienced Finn also sharing driving duties with Nicole in the 40 minute two driver races. Details of Nicole’s commercial partners and full calendar will be announced shortly.

“I have only done one test in the OPH G50 but already I love it. It’s one of the quickest cars I have ever driven and is really responsive. It was great to be back behind the wheel again after the long winter break and the plan now is to get as much mileage as possible before the first race.”

Nicole Drought, 22, is a native of Roscrea in Tipperary. A former All Ireland winning Camogie Captain, she made her motor racing debut in 2015, driving a 250bhp Honda Integra in the Irish Touring Car Championship. In 2016, she became the first Irish Ambassador for the Sean Edwards Foundation and accepted their invitation to travel to Le Castellet in France to test a GT3 Porsche 911. Also in 2016, she became a member of the Murphy Prototypes Young Driver programme and attended an ELMS race in France with the Irish based European sportscar team. 

In December 2016, Nicole was voted sportswomen.ie Irish Sportswoman of The Year, taking a massive 20% of the public vote- the first for a racing driver against far higher profile sports.

The RSV Graphics New Millennium series is designed for post year 2000 cars. RSV Graphics New Millennium attracts great grids with a wide variety of makes and models competing. Marques including Ginetta, Porsche, Lotus, Ferrari, Vauxhall, Honda, BMW, Audi, Ford, Renault, TVR and Porsche all compete in the series.

The series visits Croft, Silverstone, Donington, Oulton Park, Castle Coombe and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. Races are 40 mins long with a mandatory pit stop and a 30 minute qualifying session. Entries may be either a single driver, two drivers sharing a single car or as a two car team.