Irish Karter Kayls Cole Stars On Debut Senior Season

I’m Kayls Cole and I am 16 years old. I’ve only been karting nearly 2 years now. I have had great support from my sponsors: CB Tool Hire  (Colin Byrne who rallies an Escort!), Donal O’Brien Car Sales (Nicole and Sandra O’Brien) and Jason O’Brien Car Sales (Jason O’Brien)

Basically I was always on my dads shoulders watching all sorts of motorsport from Rallying to Autograssing and much more.  We never really would have known anything about karting but as the years passed as a young child,  I knew I wanted to be the person driving- not spectating! I did dancing from around the age of 6 to 12 and then started playing football and hurling with the school but they were never my things to do.

With so many Motorsport mad family and friends, it always held my interest.  My uncle did rallying and  my godfather was British Rally Champion, and I always looked up to people we knew who competed. For Christmas 2016, at the age of 14, my Dad finally agreed to let me follow my dreams! First, we thought it would all be a bit of fun and messing around on a Sunday, but in May 2016, a good friend of my Dad’s, Donal O’Brien, passed away in a tragic accident.  Dad and I decided to do a race in his honour, so I adopted his race number, and entered for my first race. I have never really wanted to start competing until then!

At the start of my racing, I wasn’t really accepted as I was the only girl in my category and obviously a bit slow at the start, but as I got braver and more confident it all started to settle. I did 2017 and 2018 in Juniors and last year I decided to move to Seniors.  To have come this far in such a short period of time,  I’m the happiest girl alive. So having started at 14 with my first race in May, turning 15 in the June, now I’m 16 and still pushing my hardest to make it up the ladder.

My aims are to make it to the W Series one day which is an all female grid in single seater Formula cars!!
I also would love to see myself on the F1 grid someday but the W Series is my dream.
Best wishes,

Kayls

In her first year in Seniors, Kayls won 2 championships in 2019, the Munster Championship and the Tullyallen Championship and was third in the Motorsport Ireland Championship too. She also was one of the recipients of the Formula Female €100 Star Drive awards and was awarded teh “Pride of Ireland Award” from Downforce Radio in the UK. She has already taken in a UK Round this year and sucessfully tested a F1000 race car at the end of last season, so we will be keeping an eye on the progress of this young lady!

Images from Graham Joyce Photography.