Drought competes in US Endurance Races

Nicole Drought made a stunning US debut at the weekend as she competed in two 8-hour races with the American Endurance Racing series at Summit Point Circuit in West Virginia.

The Roscrea native received an invitation to join the HC Autosport Team in their BMW and flew to Washington on Thursday.

Despite not having seen the circuit or driven the 3.0 BMW (below) before, Nicole was just three tenths off the pace in her first run on Friday morning, and in qualifying, which took the form of a race, she was fastest in the team and second overall, meaning they would start the first race from second on the grid.

In race one, the team ran strongly with Nicole holding second for her stint. Just after they had pitted, a torrential rainstorm briefly stopped the race. With subsequent lightning strikes close to the circuit, the decision was taken not to restart, leaving the team classified an unrepresentative fifth.

In Sunday’s second race, the team led early on but a stop/go penalty, which the team disputed, dropped them well back in the 20 car class. Strong stints from all three drivers and some good strategy calls had them back in contention as Nicole took the wheel with an hour and a half to run. She forged her way to the front and was managing the gap to her pursuers but a last minute pitstop for fuel to get to the finish dropped her to third.

Having expected one podium, Nicole was delighted with three, as the qualifying race also counts for points, and the team were also third on amalgamated results of all three races over the weekend!

“Those were the hardest races I have ever driven” Nicole said.

“Flat out in that heat for 90 minutes took a lot of concentration. I want to thank HC Autosport for a great car and their hard work all weekend.

“Also to my team mates Ricci and Brian, who were fantastic and gave me lots of tips. It was a great weekend and I am very happy with my performance.

“We had the pace and strategy to have won both races if it wasn’t for circumstances out of our control, but that’s how Endurance racing works! I made plenty of connections on the paddock and everyone was so supportive.

“My main focus is the UK TDC championship, which I am leading, but if I get another opportunity to race stateside, I will be over there.”