11 June 2021
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
17-year old Kayleigh Cole (a.k.a. Kayls) is all set for a triple header at the famous Brands Hatch Race Circuit (South East of London) this weekend, where she will be competing in Swallow hills F1000 Championship biggest grid of the year.
The Ballincollig, Cork native has not been to Brands Hatch before however she has put in a lot of hard work in at home by watching onboard videos as well as learning the track through invaluable Sim work.
Kayls’ race weekend gets underway on Saturday morning with a 15-minute qualifying and 15 minute race on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday there will be two 15-minute races in the morning and afternoon.
Kayls faced a number of challenges during her second race weekend at Donnington Park four weeks ago, learning the highs and lows that comes with competing in motorsport. After qualifying in her highest position P16 since the start of the year, she suffered mechanical issues all weekend, leaving the 17-year-old come away with two heart breaking DNF’s.
Thankfully the issues with the car have been ironed out and the Cole family-run team is very grateful for the great support they have received in making sure the car runs faultlessly for the weekend in Brands Hatch. Kayls said “It’s been a tough 4 weeks following the 2 DNF’s in Donnington Park. I came away from the weekend feeling pretty down. But I have to remember that this is my first year racing in single-seaters and that not every weekend will run as good as the race before. We had high expectations going into Donnington as we had a solid test day there, but it just wasn’t meant to be for us. As a family-run team we are still learning as we go along and facing lots of challenges together. It’s certainly all character building!”
“I’m very happy to have W Series driver Sarah Moore back coaching me this weekend and hopefully we can get a lot out of testing. I have competed in some Sim races with friends at Brands and have learnt a lot from that. Although going through Paddock Hill Bend, one of the world’s scariest corners on a simulator will never ever be close to the real experience on track. Known as the most impressive bend of all the UK circuits, the downhill bend on the track excites me and I cannot wait to get to grips with the roller-coaster feeling in an F1000, added Kayls.
Races are not live streamed for this weekend, however there will be live timing with commentary at https://www.theresultslive.co.uk/
