Victory in Spain moves Nicole Drought closer to UK title
Roscrea's Nicole Drought travelled to Navarra in northern Spain last weekend for the penultimate round of the 2024 MSVR Trackday Championship.
With usual team-mate Justin Roberts unable to travel, Nicole drove solo in the one pitstop 45 minute race.
Under glorious sunshine, testing went well on Friday with Nicole and her two title rivals close on times for most of the afternoon.
Come Saturday morning, Nicole set a blistering pace in qualifying, almost a second faster than the testing pace the previous day. She then returned to the pits for the remainder of the session but was pipped to pole by the Air Supply VW Golf by just .08 of a second in the dying minutes of the session.
When the lights went out, Nicole got a great start and briefly grabbed the lead but the Golf managed to power ahead on the run to turn one. Nicole was immediately on the attack though and grabbed the lead with a superb dive down the inside of the last corner.
On the exit though, the Golf drew alongside and the pair headed down the main straight side by side, with the Civic having to slot in behind as they crossed the line. A few laps later though, Nicole attacked again, making it stick at turn three to take a lead she would not relinquish.
Unfortunately, contact in the pit-lane entry as the top three cars pitted at the same time, eliminated the P3 car and subsequently delayed the P2, meaning Nicole just had to control the gap in the second half of the race to bring the EBC Brakes Civic home for yet another 2024 win.
All this means that Nicole holds a thirteen point lead in the Championship standings leading up to the finale at the famous Brands Hatch circuit in Kent in three weeks time
Nicole said: "As soon as I saw the calendar for 2024 I really wanted to take a win in Spain and I am delighted to have managed it. The times were really close all weekend and I would like to thank Motion Motorsport for pre race prep and setup, ProAM Racing and others for their help all weekend, and Donal Loughrey who helped so much with prep and strategy.
"I would have preferred if Justin was with us to enjoy the win but he will be back for Brands and we will be bringing our A game to try and win this title.
"Big thanks, as ever, to Siltex Safety, Gem Oils, Joe Mallon Motors and ITM Digital for their support."