The €200,000 dream - why Ireland’s most exciting female driver can’t get on the grid

When Kayleigh (Kayls) Cole came downstairs on Christmas morning 2016, she was wearing her dad’s rigger boots. She shuffled out to the shed in the dark, and there it was, wrapped in paper, unmistakable. A go-kart. Nine years later, she is one grid spot away from making Irish motorsport history.

Cole (22) from Dripsey, Co Cork, did not follow the traditional path into motorsport. Most drivers start karting at six or seven years old. She found her way to it at 13, after years of trying and failing to fall in love with other sports. School clubs, hurling, football. None of it stuck. She laughs about it now. “I used to actually run away from the ball rather than trying to catch it.”

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