THE Princess of Irish motorsport, Nicole Coffey, has returned from Bahrain where she competed in the CIK / FIA Karting Academy Trophy, coming a credible sixth in her final.
Nicole may only be 14-years-old but she is already starting to make a name for herself in Irish motorsport. At the recent Irish Karting Awards she came home with trophies for the All Ireland Karting Championship, the Munster Karting Club Championship, the Southern Karting Club Championship, Irish Karting Club’s Young Driver of the Year and 2nd place in the Motorsport Ireland Championship.
The young Dublin driver was one of only two female competitors in Bahrain and the only Irish representative who lined up in a field of 50 of the world’s best young drivers. The event was part of the FIA’s premier kart competition to showcase the sport’s top talent.
With some of the world’s greatest drivers such as Michael Schumacher, Sebastien Loeb, Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton all excelling in the karting ranks before becoming world champions, this was a perfect opportunity for Coffey to test her natural talent at an international level.
And Nicole is well used to competing in a male dominated sport.
“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 quick driver they had to get used to it,
? she said.
Nicole managed to get through the qualifying sessions without too much trouble, going on to finish sixth in her final.