Nicole Guests in Irish Strykers – and Wins!

Nicole Drought’s incredible 2025 season continued at the weekend as the Tipperary lady took full advantage of a guest drive in Michael Cullen’s Beacon Hospital Stryker sportscar to add yet another win to her impressive tally.
Nicole’s main focus for 2025 is defending her 2024 MDV TDC UK title, and this has started superbly, with pole position, fastest lap and wins at both Snetterton and on the Silverstone Grand Prix Track. With a two month gap in the Championship calendar though, she was keen to look at some other options to increase her seat time.
A recent addition to Nicole’s commercial partner list was the Beacon Hospital Sports Clinic who will be monitoring and managing Nicole’s personal training programme to increase performance, a service they offer to athletes from all sports. With this came the offer to take the wheel of Michael Cullen’s Stryker for the annual Bishopscourt race meeting in Northern Ireland.
All of Nicole’s racing in recent years has been in front wheel drive machinery, but she had raced a Stryker back in 2019 so had a reasonable idea what to expect. With no testing available at the rarely used venue, she would only have a short practise session before qualifying to get used to the car.

Undeterred, Nicole set fastest time in practise and repeated the feat in qualifying, only to learn on returning to the paddock that she had received a track limits penalty, which dropped her to third on the grid for the opening Bill Griffin Motors Stryker race. Nicole battled her way to the front, but a small mistake at the first chicane mid race sent her wide and the resultant spin dropped her down the order. She got back on track and charged back to third by the flag, setting fastest lap in the process.
With the top six finishers reversed to form the grid for race two, the Beacon Hospital car would start in fourth but a determined Nicole was in the lead before the end of the opening lap. From then on it was a hectic battle with many lead changes all the way to the flag, but Nicole was in front when it mattered to take her third win of 2025 and incredibly, her eleventh consecutive podium finish.

Incredibly, Nicole’s win was the fifth in five different classes in 2025 for the Kildare based LOH Motorsport squad. They had already scored wins in Fiesta Zetec, Fiesta ST, SEAT Supercup Ireland and Formula Vee.

Nicole Drought: “I have a big gap in my racing in the UK at the moment and Michael Cullen suggested that I drive his car this weekend. Bishopscourt is a great track and I like the Strykers so I jumped at it. I thought I would struggle a little initially with no testing but the car was great and LOH were fantastic with information, data and support. To come away with a win and to be fastest in all four sessions is a great result. Big thanks to Michael and also to Kevin and his team at LOH Motorsport”

Nicole returns to the UK TDC Championship at Donington Park on July 19th.

The Bill Griffin Motors Irish Strykers Championship is an Irish race class for two seater sportscars. t has been running at Mondello Park for over 20 years and the cars have been gradually developed to be faster and more enjoyable to drive. They weigh just 660kg and the Zetec engine produces circa 170bhp, and this enables them to lap the Mondello National circuit very close to the magic minute. The class is very friendly and always welcomes newcomers, with cars available to rent or buy. You can find out more about the class on their website HERE.

Header Image: Nicole takes the chequered flag at Bishopscourt to take her third race win of 2025. Image from Barry Cregg