[1] Nicoll began motorcycle racing at the age of 16 and received his first sponsorship from a Greeves distributor.
In 1964, he began competing in the 500cc motocross world championships for the Matchless factory racing team.
[1] In 1970, Nicoll defeated world champions Joel Robert and Jeff Smith to win the 1970 Trans-AMA motocross series, established by the American Motorcyclist Association as a pilot event to help establish motocross in the United States.
[2][3][4] After retiring from competition in 1978, Nicoll worked as the manager of the British Motocross des Nations team.
[5] After his son retired from competition in 1997, Nicoll was hired by the FIM to become the Clerk of Course for the motocross world championships.