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 practice session before qualifying to get used to the car.
Undeterred, Nicole set fastest time in practice 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 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.
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.