Nicole Drought to Test Porsche GT3 at Le Castellet

Irish Touring Car racer Nicole Drought will test a GT3 Porsche for the Sean Edwards Foundation this weekend at Le Castellet in France.

The Motorsport Ireland/Ireland Sports Council Young Driver of the Year nominee has been invited to test with the Sean Edwards Foundation. She will travel to Amsterdam today to do some simulator work with the team, then on to Le Castellet for sports psychology and fitness evaluation on Friday before testing on both Sunday and Monday. The Sean Edwards foundation run a number of initiatives including a Mentorship Program via their Fast Track Racing School and it is through this initiative that Nicole was invited to the evaluation and test.

Nicole Drought: “This is an incredible opportunity for me. We received a call a few weeks ago but when the second call came earlier this week I realised this was actually happening! The car is way ahead of anything I have driven before so I am not expecting to set the world alight. It will be a wonderful experience for me though- and one I intend to grab with both hands!”

The Sean Edwards Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on raising safety awareness in Motorsport. They work directly with drivers, teams and tracks to conceive and implement risk mitigation initiatives throughout all levels of racing.

Like many Motorsport-focused charities before it, the Sean Edwards Foundation was born out of tragedy. Sean Edwards was killed in Australia on October 15, 2013. He was coaching a rookie driver from the passenger seat when the car left the track and hit a concrete wall. Sean was just 26 years old but had already achieved an impressive career including back-to-back Dubai 24h wins, triumph in the Nürburgring 24h and was on the cusp of taking the Porsche Supercup championship, having been Vice Champion of the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany in 2011 and 2012. Several factors contributed to Sean’s death, but had better attention been paid to simple safety procedures he may still be racing today.

In just over a century Motorsport has grown to become one of the most popular pastimes in the world. But that runaway success has also created fundamental problems where safety is concerned. Racing is inherently dangerous and SEF’s objective is to minimize the risks outside of drivers’ control by:

• Promoting critical issue awareness
• Creating safety education programs
• Providing professional mentorship opportunities
• Advocating for needed changes or regulations
• Implementing standardized safety assessment tools
• Lobbying stakeholders to create mutually beneficial solution

Nicole Drought, 21 is a race driver from Roscrea in County Tipperary. In 2015 she made her race debut and scored 5 podiums in the Irish Touring Car Championship.
In September 2015, she was named by Motorsport Ireland as their Driver of The Month, an accolade which includes a nomination for the Young Driver Of The Year Award. She was the first female nominee in the history of the award.
She is a student of Accountancy in the University of Limerick