Scottish Championship bike racing star Nicola Booth overcame debilitating Bell’s Palsy condition and changed her job to lorry driving to be able to compete at Knockhill and East Fortune circuits
You won’t find many 22-year-old females who will become a lorry driver to follow their passion for motorbike racing.
But Nicola Booth likes to break the stereotypes, and it seems nothing can get in the way of her sporting obsession.
Not even being diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy, a condition which normally weakens facial muscles but crucially for a biker led to losing grip in her right hand, could bring her off track for long.
Intense rehab led to Nicola’s return to the Scottish Championship bike racing at Knockhill on her ‘pizza bike’ - the joke name given to the Honda CB500 that gives her high speed thrills.
A relative newcomer to the national motorsport, she was one of only four females among 100 competitors at the last Knockhill meeting.
And when her last job with Royal Mail began to interfere with the time off she craved to take part in her sport, Nicola took up an option to become a lorry driver, where her hours were more flexible.
The determined Elgin woman even sleeps in the trailer she bought to transport her bike to events, and does much of her own maintenance and prep on her vehicle - all part of the cost-cutting she needs to do in a highly expensive sport.
“I was five-years-old when I first went on a bike,” Nicola recalls. “My mum had a cruiser and she used to take me on the back of it, to school or other places.
“I've still got my suit to this day, a tiny wee thing. It was a habit to mine to fall asleep - always.”
Nicola attended Cullen Primary as a youngster before moving to Elgin.
Her childhood memories of being on motorbikes stayed with her into her teenager years, and bike racing eventually overpowered her strength and passion for other sports.
She rode horses, and was a sharpshooter in archery who won a Scottish barebow title, but a need for speed was burning inside her.
“I decided to try a bike, and I got a (Honda) CBT, a wee 125. I ended up travelling down to Alton Towers and back on it. That was a two-day journey down and a two-day journey back, because you’re not allowed on motorways.”
Nicola built up her miles on the smaller bike, and did her two years before progressing to an A2 license and a bigger motorbike.
Eager to get a race license and explore some of Scotland’s circuits, she needed a race bike and advertised for one, with her bike instructor coming up with the goods.
“He told me ‘I've got a spare bike, you can just use mine’. And it was a CB500,” she said. “ I thought, I'm not going to like this bike, but I just fell in love with it.
“I did eight laps around the track on it and that was me hooked.”
The CB500 was discontinued around 25 years ago, so the newest bikes you can buy were made before 1999 and all parts have to be from a bike that was sold from factory. This makes for one of the fairest races possible, as effectively every bike in a CB500 championship is the same, not benefitting from any modifications.
“People call them pizza bikes because that’s the ones used to deliver pizzas,” Nicola added. “But they’re really fun to race.
“Through the corners, they're really quick. Some 600cc bikes are going the same speed through the corners as the CB500, even though it's half the power.
“Top speed at Knockhill going up the straight is maybe 110mph, a little bit quicker at East Fortune. So they're not quick on the straights, but through the corners, they're amazing.”
Nicola was just getting the hang of Scottish championship racing when in her second season she was floored by illness after discovering she had Bell’s Palsy at the age of 21.
Sufferers tend to have stroke-like symptoms such as paralysis down one side of their face but in extremely rare examples it affects the arms - and that’s what happened to Nicola.
“ I noticed one day I was struggling to blink, and that night, I don't know why but I was sitting on the couch and I tried to whistle - but I couldn't.
“My partner then noticed my face so he got me to do the fast checks, and I had to go into hospital. It's quite scary, because you think it’s a stroke which, especially at my age, you don’t expect.”
Nicola was told she had lost 40kg of grip strength in her right arm. “I couldn’t raise it fully, and it was a case of trying to build everything back up to be able to race again.”
She was put in contact with physiotherapist Claire Houston, whose business CLH Physio has now become one of her two main sponsors.
“She actually worked at a Bell's Palsy clinic, so she knew all the exercises and stuff to do. There's quite a few people that have completely lost the use of a part of their face.
“But we managed to get everything back fully functioning.”
Claire does a joint sponsorship for Nicola and fellow Moray racer Daniel Cooper, whose father Mike has been an integral part of both their race careers, providing crew support.
The Lossiemouth-based physio gives Nicola and Daniel a fitness regime, bringing in a personal trainer to work with them both as well as providing massage therapy to help with the regular muscle strains associated with bike racing.
Nicola is also backed by Forres-based motorbike sale and repair business Mr Moto, whose owner was the first to offer Nicola a day on the track - igniting her passion for racing.
She not only changed her job to follow that passion, but also had to give up her beloved gold VW Golf R when she had to buy a bike trailer for race weekends.
With Knockhill race entry fees being £285 and East Fortune £240, and Nicola racing at both every month, cost-cutting became an essential.
Having borrowed trailers to transport her bike to race weekends, being able to buy a small one at relatively low cost had added benefits - as it also meant not having to pay for two nights of hotel accommodation each time.
“It's just seven-feet long and four feet tall and it fits a CB in diagonally,” she said. “I go down with all my stuff in the trailer and unpack everything.
“Now I put a wee blow-up bed in the back and put a sleeping bag down and sleep in the trailer with my spare wheels.
“At times I was absolutely freezing, or far too hot. So I bought a wee heater off Amazon and it’s been a godsend as it’s got a thermostat and regulates the heat inside.
“It's a wee aluminium trailer so I get no signal. I've got to do all my messaging and then close the door and that's me.
“It came with nothing in it so I had to drill anchor points for the bike. I've also had to drill in some feet stanchions at the back so I can unhook it from the car and it can stay standing up, because it's only a single axle.”
Nicola would love to inspire more females to try motorsport if they have what it takes, and laughs off the reaction she gets from some of her friends.
“There's not many of us but it's good to see female racing, because it's a very male-dominated sport. But there's nothing that men in racing can do that women can't do really.
“At first my friends were really confused. They knew me on my bike and stuff, but when I started racing they'd say ‘I thought that was only for men’.
“With the lorry driving, they'll say ‘oh my god, how do you even manage to do that’ but I tell them it’s not difficult.
“With things like school lorries, they're just oversized go-karts, they're all automatic and really not hard to drive.
“That's why I don't understand why both of these things have been so male-dominated. I suppose if you go back, horses used to be male-dominated, and now it's female-dominated.
“I'm not afraid to eventually ask for help if I need it, but I’ll have a good shot at it by myself. If I say ‘I'm going to do it’ then I'm proving to myself, not to anyone else, that I can do it.
“I'm not the supposed stereotypical girl. I don't do makeup, I don't go out much, I don't dress up.
“I grew up with horses, so in that sense, I suppose that helps me, because horses aren't clean, and it wasn't like I was going to Pony Club. My auntie owns a trekking centre so I'd go there every weekend and help them out.
“My dad's a mechanic, so I always liked to help him out. I constantly knew how to change a tyre, but with race bikes, it's just been mainly observing people do something, and then trying it myself.”
So where will Nicola’s bike racing career take her next?
“People ask me if I will go up to bigger bikes, because some see it as me racing the CBs as I'm learning the race craft.
“But I'll probably stay in the CBs, I personally don't feel I have any hope or the money for going to the next massive step up.
“From the Scottish Championship the next step is the BSB (British Super Bikes) and you're speaking about 50 grand for full season all-in. I don't even earn that in a year.
“I like racing the guys in the CB500s. They’re all really nice and supportive, there’s no egos and they don't care much that a girl's overtaking them.
“Maybe on track days it’s different then and they hate me overtaking them when I'm on a CB500, they're on a 1000cc bike and I've got a wee ponytail hanging out the back of my helmet.
“With the CBs, it's not how much money you've got, it's your talent, it's how you can ride a bike, how you can keep your corner speed, and in that sense, that's what I enjoy.
“I just want to be able to move up the grid. At Knockhill on the CB500s, there was one weekend from 6th to 26th, there was two seconds difference between 20 places, and this is qualifying.
“I just love racing, and it’s definitely an obsession.”
