HARD graft pays off, just ask Hannah McKillop. After happily taking a back-seat role supporting Garry Pearson and his squad on stage rally events the length and breadth of Britain for the past four years, the Co Antrim native is set to ride shotgun with him in the 2025 British Rally Championship.
It is a far cry from her first foray into the sport, which came in 2014 in a clubman-specification Ford Escort Mk2 after much encouragement from her driver husband Josh Davidson. She summoned up the courage to sit alongside Brian Neeson at the Bishopscourt Stages and finished 38th overall.
Like all motorsport love affairs, McKillop’s association with four wheels began through close family and friends, before her university studies in Events Management accelerated what was, initially, a hobby into full-time work.
“I was the operations manager at a Welsh rally school but after changes were made to the business it had to pause for a bit, so I was forced into making co-driving my job – it came to me and everything just aligned,” said McKillop.
“Alongside my co-driving, I am a freelance logistics, admin and organisation-type person, so that helps to fund my rallying and keeps me busy outside of the sport. It was also how I first met Garry; he brought me into the team off the recommendation of a mutual friend in 2021.
“He needed someone who could co-ordinate the team, make schedules, and organise all the logistics – really all the behind-the-scenes stuff – and from there our relationship has grown.”
Doors quickly started to open for McKillop and soon she began to play a more public-facing role at pre-event tests when Pearson’s regular co-driver was unavailable. Eventually, they got the chance to compete together, with their maiden win coming in convincing fashion in last October’s rescheduled Snowman Rally in Scotland.
“It is a seat that I have always wanted for the simple reason I have always been involved with Garry and the team,” said McKillop.
“And when he offered it to me for the year ahead it really did feel like an achievement because I have worked so hard for it, for so long. To get that first win together was so good, it was a relief, because we have come close on previous occasions only to be denied by a puncture, a mechanical issue with the car, or perhaps something else.”
For his part, Pearson – a title-winning driver in the Scottish and Welsh Championships whose journey in the British equivalent started in 2021 – has made no bones about how “delighted” he is to have the 30-year-old onboard, saying “the time is now right” to bring her into the car.
He is sure she can fill the void left by ex-co-driving team-mate Dan Barritt due to the number of starts she has made in the UK and Ireland as well as Europe, Mexico and the United States.
They form one half of M-Sport Ford’s official assault in the British Championship, which starts in Yorkshire next weekend at the East Riding Stages Rally. Running in the second Fiesta Rally2 on all six rounds, including four WRC2 events, is talented Estonian Romet Jurgenson – the 25-year-old’s reward for clinching the FIA Junior World Rally Championship crown two years ago.
In terms of competition for points and prizes, that comes in the guise of Meirion Evans, Max McRae, James Williams, Moira’s William Creighton, and four-time champion Keith Cronin.
“I’ve never done a full season in the BRC so I am really looking forward to it and being with M-Sport is a kind of pinch-me moment and definitely a highlight of my career so far,” said McKillop.
“I know they are a great bunch of people who work closely with you, who want you to do well. The goal over the course of the year is to secure as many podiums as possible; we have both worked so hard over the winter months to refine everything, to be in the best shape possible because being part of M-Sport, the pressure is bigger.
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“The flip side of that is they have people who handle everything for you, aspects you would have to do yourself if you were part of a smaller team such as pre-event prep, schedules, accommodation, tyres, literally everything. This season that all changes and I will be allowed to just concentrate on being a co-driver and all that it involves – time cards, recce, pace notes – and that is going to make a big difference.”
McKillop’s logistics background is also going to prove valuable as there is a strong possibility she will return to partner Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy-backed driver Aoife Raftery.
To date, they have made 10 starts together, and the pair are keen to do more, although in what car, in what class and in what championship is still to be announced.
“I feel lucky to be associated with two amazing drivers in Garry and Aoife who are also close friends,” McKillop said.
“Especially when you are at European events because you tend to spend the best part of a week away together – it is important to be a tight team for the sport but also to help your morale and everything like that.”
And what of the fact she is part of an all-female crew from Ireland potentially heading back to the European Rally Championship, and part of a mixed-gender line-up with a full factory team in the British Rally Championship?
“It is something that, in the beginning, I did not think of because I have been involved with motorsport from a young age – I was always the only female, or one of a few females in a team, so it has become normal to me,” she said.
“I don’t think being a female should be a barrier, there is no reason for it to be a barrier, so it is important that myself, Aoife and all the other girls – the drivers, co-drivers, mechanics and marshals – show that and even acknowledge the fact there are probably different aspects of the sport that we are better at.
“We have a lot to offer and being one of the only females in the British Rally Championship is again a special feeling.
“I feel it is important to be there and to have a presence at the top level. Of course, it goes without saying that we could not do it without all the help of our sponsors.”
