DOWN THE PUB
It is a family thing “I’m Ken Nicholls’ daughter and he built all the Nikes. We used to spend a lot of time at hillclimbs and sprints with dad: he wouldn’t come out of the workshop unless it was to go and watch something racing. Between 1960 and 1980 we think he built 100 cars. I’ve been trying to do a register of his cars.”
He built a lot of cars “We were based at Bideford in Devon then. There was a Formula Junior, which is still running, a sports-racer, then Formula Vees and then he went to Formula Ford. The Mk4, the Mk6 and Mk10 were all Formula Fords. There was a one-off Formula 5000 and more sports-racers.”
This is in his memory “He was a clever guy and it was his death that finally prompted me to start competing. I decided to find one of his cars and go racing in his memory. I found this car racing in France and brought it back in 2016. He died in 2014 and I spent all of 2015 looking for a car. John Bladon, who used to own this car, told me about it.”
She has a full programme “I did about four speed events in 2016 and this is now my second full season. I’m really trying to pack the events in this year and I’ve got about 30 planned: all sprints and hillclimbs. I’m not brave enough to race yet and I like competing against myself on the hills and if I have an off, it’s my own fault. We do most of the general fettling and I take it to Terry Van Der Zee at TT Motors in Dorset for anything major. He also owned the car at one point.”
She travels a lot “I do quite a few events at Loton Park and I’ll go as far as Harewood. Prescott is the closest for me and I’m doing seven Prescott events this year. I’ve been to Wiscombe and Werrington in the south-west and I’ve done some sprints as well. That’s a different challenge.”
Her dad was a big influence “I’m loving it and every time I miss a gear I can hear dad tutting behind me. He would be chuffed to bits but he wouldn’t say much as he was a man of few words, but he’d stand there with a wry smile. I’ve got a photo of him on the dash.”