17 year old Kayleigh Cole from Ballincollig in Cork is heading to UK’s Donington Race Circuit this weekend for the second round of the F1000 UK Championship sponsored by Swallow Hill Homes. Kayleigh’s race weekend, in the 1000cc bike engine powered single seater, will start with practice on Friday 21st May with qualifying and two races all taking place on Saturday , 22nd May.
Kayleigh recently joined the competitive F1000 UK Championship, following three years competitive karting in Ireland. She made great progress at her debut race weekend at Silverstone Race Circuit back in April. Kayleigh was named ‘Best Newcomer’ for the most progression in a single race weekend, winning herself a day on a Sim at the IZONE Performance Centre. Kayleigh finished P17 in Race 1, P18 in Race 2 & P15 Race 3, putting her in Joint 16th in the Championship and Joint 11th in the Clubman’s Cup.
Despite having had limited testing due to Covid travel restrictions, Kayleigh feels well prepared going into Round 2 at Donington as she had a successful test day at the famous East Midlands track in February. Cole feels a lot more confident in the car ahead of Donington, as she gained a lot of knowledge and experience at Silverstone, under the guidance of her driving coach, W Series driver Sarah Moore. The slicks and wings racing car, which is powered by a 1000c high performance motorbike engine, has excellent handling characteristics – drivers can find themselves going from 0-60mph in just 3 seconds, and onto 150mph, while revving to around 14000rpm!
Kayleigh commented “I’m really excited but also nervous going into the next round of the F1000 championship. We are a lot more prepared for Donington than we were for my first race at Silverstone thanks to a full day’s testing there in February. I’ve worked hard with my driver coach Sarah Moore on analysing data, building my confidence and getting up to speed so I’m really looking forward to racing this weekend.
“It’s a big challenge moving from karting to single seater racing nevertheless we are sure that racing with F1000 UK is the best decision we could have made. My main goal at Donington this weekend is to get great starts and then stick with the pack while continuing to work on my race craft, which will help me bring my times down lap after lap.”
Kayleigh continued “There is a great buzz around the paddock with this F1000 Championship – everyone is so friendly and helpful, and the 750 Motor Club do a great job when it comes to the running of their race weekends ”.
All races will be live streamed by the 750 Motor club on their YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/750MotorClubTVRace
Live timing and race results are available on https://www.theresultslive.co.uk/
