Last weekend at a rain-soaked Lydden Hill in Kent, Nikita Donaghue became the first-ever female to win the BSSO Scooter Racing Championship.
Trophy haul
Not only has the 33-year-old from Leeds won the 2024 BSSO Scooter Racing Championship but she also won the LCGB Production Class, BSSO 6a Class and became the ACU Stock Scooter Champion. She did it in true style as well, winning eight out of eight races at the final meeting of the year.
Yorkshire lass
The girl from Leeds has hardly put a wheel wrong throughout the season, with one crash at Anglesey being her only mishap. She was back on form at Cadwell though, with four wins out of four and enough points to be assured of the overall title before even getting on her Lambretta (and Piaggio Zip in 6a) at Lydden.
Nikita with dad, Maca larking around at Cadwell
Downtown Customs
Nikita Donaghue (formerly McNally) is the daughter of the man behind a myriad of scooter custom paint jobs under the DTC banner. Maca is a name we’ve all grown up with. When we asked him how he felt about Nikitia’s racing success, he said “Nikita gives 110% in everything she does. I love her to bits; she’s a superstar.”
We asked Maca about his own race career, he admitted his iconic DTC Rosa Bianca Group 4 Lambretta GP “Only won a few trophies for 10th place and a few club trophies but nothing like the kids!”
Not only is Nikita a talented racer, she’s also following in the old man’s footsteps by learning to spray. A scooter she painted won Best Ridden Lambretta at the final National of 2024 in Llandudno. The DTC Scuderia-themed sprindrift blue SX may have gained Nikita her first paint trophy but I doubt it’ll be her last…
Even in dad’s old cast offs she still looks cool…
How old were you when you started racing MX? I was 12 when I started racing motocross, my first bike was a CR85 small wheel.
How old are you now? I’m 33.
What made you give scooters a try? I’d just had my appendix out and I was being a grump because I couldn’t go out riding, so my pops suggested going for a day out to watch some scooter racing at Cadwell. Chris Cook was racing that day and I enjoyed watching the battle royals going on throughout the pack. And being the competitive demon that I am, I was eying up how many of them out there I thought I would be able to beat.
When we went over to see Chris and Martin (Cook) in the paddock they said ‘What do you think of it?’, I said ‘Yeah it looks mint, I recon I could do at least 4 of them…’ Martin said ‘If you want to have a go I’ve got a scooter you can ride.’ The rest is history, I’ve ridden a CST engine ever since.
Did your dad’s involvement have any bearing on the decision? Of course it did yeah, when you grow up racing, it’s not just the racing you love it’s the family outing, the paddock family, the BBQs. Basically, every race weekend is a bit of an adrenaline-filled holiday. So when my motocross career was just about done, which was around about when I stopped bouncing out of a crash and started just sort of splatting into the ground (too many bones were broken). I thought why not go see what all these stories of scooter racing “Back in the day” “When I was a lad” were all about. That way I still got the adrenaline rush and mental therapy you get from twisting a throttle, as well as the family time that you realise is everything and becomes more rare the older you get.
You started in BSSO on a Zip for Chiselspeed, what year was that and how did you do? My first go out on a proper track day was 28th March 2018 at Cadwell Park. I think it was a Time Attack day, I was wearing my dad’s old leathers, someone’s old blue boots (Martin acquired for me) and a Shark helmet purchased a couple of weeks before for my ACU licence day and as luck would have it, it was raining.
2019 6a auto Championship
I didn’t race that whole year, just a couple of meetings at Cadwell. I remember the last one, I qualified pretty good but got put to the back of the grid so I wouldn’t get in the way and mess up anyone’s championship. I still rode well and managed to finish in the position I originally qualified in, so it didn’t go too bad at all.
My first full year of racing was in 2019. I rode an 80cc Zip in the Stock and a 90cc Zip in the Supers (my dad and Martin keeping me on a steady 10cc increase each year!
That year I got my first-ever pole position at East Fortune and went on to win the 6a Championship, only narrowly beating John Woods for it at the last round of the year at Lydden Hill.
Nikita on the CST endurance bike at the first-ever BSEC event in 2019
When did you first ride a geared scooter? It was September 2019. CST had put together an endurance team for the BSEC race at Teesside. It was me, Chris, Mick and Russ on a Quattrini 218. We went up to the track the week before so the team could do some mad fuel calculations, and I could figure out the twisty thing on the left-hand side of the handlebars.
Needless to say there were a lot of screaming neutrals to be taken the piss out of. I just looked at my dad when I took my lid off and said how the f*ck am I meant to race that next week! I think he was pretty shocked at how bad I was… but I went out in my next session and it all seemed to click. I just had to go down to change up (my crosser was one down and the rest up). We weren’t doing too bad in the enduro but the rain came and we were on slicks and trying to fight our way back from a mechanical issue earlier in the day. I went out and sadly ended our hope with a crash that destroyed the headset bottom. It’s not nice ending your own race with a crash but ending yours and three other people’s and the teams felt really, really crap! I remember Chris screaming “Pick it up!” so I did, then as the throttle dangled on one side and the gears on the other I shouted what now? And he just ran over to tell me it was buggered and we were out. Sorry team!
This season has been an amazing one for you, was it just one crash and the wins in every other race? It really has! I’ve really had luck on my side this year. Yes, I won all of the Proddy races except the last one at Anglesey where I totalled my trusty Proddy bike. Luckily it was the last race and I only had one more race to do on the Super scooter before I let the whiplash kick in.
CST team boss Martin Cook
We asked Martin what makes his top rider so special…
Her determination to win, her positive attitude even when the chips were down and her riding skill, especially in the wet have all come together this year to make her an unstoppable force. Apart from one worn-out tyre which resulted in the only DNF/monster crash she has had a perfect storm of a full set of 1st places in the Production Class. On the CST Zip 100, she just gels with that bike and when the two of them are in alignment she’s unbeatable as was the case at Lydden. Even an off-track excursion dropping her to the back of the field (after she was the first person to find the river at the bottom of the hill) didn’t stop her from coming back through and winning. What a girl! We’re all mega proud of her.
Chiselspeed’s Martin Cook almost cracked a smile at Lydden…
How did it feel to win the BSSO Championship and to be the first-ever woman to win it? It felt amazing, my cheeks were hurting I was grinning so big at Lydden Hill. To do it as a woman is class, when I see stuff online and in the magazines there is a pretty big female following in the scooting world as a whole, so it’s cool to do it for them in the racing too. The best bit for me is that little fire I’ve seen my racing put into my niece’s eyes and her little paddock tribe. When we’re on a scoot around the track after racing and she’s jabbering away asking me what flag does what and how old till she can race (every race weekend). Her buddy keeps asking me “What is a racing line?” It’s just given me a special kind of humbling feeling, like I used to be that little girl running around the paddock doing my brother’s head in and asking my dad ‘Can I have a go yet?’
Any tips to help the boys keep up with you? This year I just tried to use my head a bit more and take less risks, don’t get into battles with scooters in other classes where I didn’t need to. Ok the riding isn’t as impressive to watch but if you need to then you always feel like there is some left in the tank. I tried to do what I watch Hammy do in the Proddy class when he won the championship, he used to get a mega start, hang on to the 4e’s and then ride his own race out front away from the scrapping. That’s pretty much how I executed this whole season (other than the first Lydden back of the grid ordeal)
A bit of rain didn’t spoil the weekend for wet weather maestro, Nikita at lydden…
Last season was rumoured to be your last, will you be defending your title in 2025? Yeah, last year was really tough, I felt like I had the speed but it just wasn’t meant to be for me right from the first race meeting. I think at the end of the year I was just about going to get 3rd overall, carrying all zeros in as my drops but I had to keep it rubber side down and I didn’t. I got hurt and me and my husband really want to get started on making our own family, so it felt like “That’s it I’m done”. But I just really, really wanted that Proddy Championship right from when I started in the class, just desperately trying to stay with Steve Wright for a couple of corners! I never expected the Stock Championship and what a treat to have it. But no, I won’t be defending it. I mean I would love to, but it’s not a ‘baby on board’ sort of a deal.
