Top Irish racing driver bounces back from big career setback to forge new path

Irish Daily Mirror

11 hours ago

Laura O'Connell was primed and ready to go and, just a week before her dream race, it was snatched from her grasp.
The 26-year-old was one of only two Irish female racing drivers - Hanna Celsie was the other - drawn from 25 countries worldwide, who competed in the Formula Women Nations Cup Finals qualifier in Dubai last December. O'Connell successfully made it through the process and everything was booked for a return to the finals in May.
They were to be a part of the Formula Woman Festival - an event set to be attended by over 60,000 enthusiasts and broadcast to over 120 countries - with Formula Woman established to provide a pathway for female drivers to climb the ladder towards Formula One involvement.
"Unfortunately the week before we were all informed that Formula Woman would basically no longer be in business and that the Nations Cup was not going to go ahead," explained the Clare-born driver.
"So, major disappointment. We had everything booked. My whole family had flights and accommodation and everything was ready." Formula 1 testing at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi (Image:)
The O'Connells went anyway and Laura got to drive on the Yas Marina F1 circuit in Abu Dhabi through the former Formula Woman CEO Graeme Glew and also Golf Sport, who brought the cars up to the venue for six of the women due to compete.
She got to have three 20-minute sessions on the track as the sun set from late afternoon to evening. "That was kind of a plus for all the stuff that had happened," said the 26-year-old. "It was very cool, actually, to see the track at night time and to see what the actual F1 drivers are seeing, because that's a night time race.
"It was just a surreal thing because it's one of those bucket list tracks. It was definitely the coolest track I've ever been on, especially when the hotel there at Yas Marina started to light up at night time and changed colour. It wasn't a totally wasted trip, I suppose!"
O'Connell grew up in Broadford as a F1 fan with posters of Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher on her wall. Her father, Pat, was a rally driver who also helped to organise the Galway Rally, and she grew up going to karting tracks with him.
She played underage Camogie for her county but racing is in the blood. So while she loved her Yas Marina experience, missing out on the Nations Cup finals was a body blow and she took almost a month off afterwards to come to terms with it, then returned to the track. Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher in 1992 (Image: Bongarts/Getty Images)
"The FW cancellation was kept very quiet, it kind of disappeared without any sort of trace, so it's definitely been hard to take," O'Connell said. "But we'll keep moving anyway and try to forget about it.
"I got a sports psychologist to help me through that disappointment and to kind of mentally prepare for what was to come next.
"I was watching a lot of other sports, even hurling and rugby, they all have them. So does racing - all the top racers will have them, and there's obviously a reason for them to have them. So I sought out a sports psychologist myself and yeah, they've really been helping get me in the right mindset. It's been really helpful."
She went back racing in June after joining the new Racing Women team founded by Glew and O'Connell's new team-mate was Jorden Dolishka - who won that Formula Woman Nations Cup qualifier in December.
Together, they won the Radical UK Cup championship team event in that same month, with O'Connell and Dolishka taking one race each before swapping halfway in the endurance race.
"It was great to come out with a win after everything that happened," said the Irish driver. "I was mad to get back out so I was just trying to figure out where to go. And I was lucky that Racing Women was formed and I was able to join them straight away." Laura O'Connell and Jorden Dolishka celebrate their team victory (Image: Laura O'Connell Instagram)
She will race with the team - now expanded to 10 drivers - again next month in the same UK championship, although this time it will be a mixed event involving men and women.
That will take place in Donington Park and the prize on offer is a fully sponsored drive in the Radical World UK finals, which will take place in Virginia in November.
"So hopefully I'll make the top two and I'll have a free ride to America. But we'll see how it goes," smiled O'Connell, who will be in Donington Park on Wednesday for a test day.
"I'll basically be up against all these racing women and I'll kind of get a good idea of my competition and how I stand next to them. I do feel like I'll be in with a good enough chance."
The ultimate goal with Racing Women, O'Connell confides, is to get a team into the 24 Hour Le Mans in the coming years. A big step up, she admits, given that the longest race she has done is 45 minutes. Laura O'Connell behind the wheel (Image: Laura O'Connell Instagram)
"But it's one I'm working towards," she added. "And hopefully in the next year or so, if I get the sponsors that I'm hoping to get, I'll be able to kind of do it full time and work my way towards Le Mans."
O'Connell is a biochemist who works just 10 minutes from home for Beckman Coulter and she is hugely grateful that the multi-national company supports her in terms of time off when she needs it to pursue her dream.
Gym work is vital to her cause, as is the sports psychology aspect and working on the simulator she has at home where she can get a feel for what the car will be like on the Donington track, while using an online coach to help her look for the marginal gains.
It's all about making further progress up the ladder. "Especially as a woman, it's so much harder for us anyway to get sponsors, to get the coverage and the results that the men are getting because we're kind of treated a little bit differently outside of the actual race," O'Connell said. "Once we put our helmets on, we're all treated the exact same.
"But outside of that, it's definitely not harder for a woman. So I felt like when the Nations Cup was cancelled, it was just another kind of punch in the gut for women in sport. But I've been very lucky with all the opportunities that have kind of been thrown my way since and hopefully they don't stop."