21 March 2025 / By DAVID FERGUSON
Co-driver Hannah McKillop has enjoyed rallying all over the world but this season will take on a full British Rally Championship (BRC) – with European and US dates added for good measure.
Alongside fellow Borders-based driver Garry Pearson and others, the 31-year-old navigator from Northern Ireland has enjoyed a decade progressing up the ranks of the rallying world. A World Monte Carlo was a major highlight last year, but events in Austria, Mexico and the USA all now feature in the scrapbook.
This season has already featured a rally back in Ireland, a slide off the opening BRC event in East Riding and a victory in the Malcolm Wilson Rally in Carlisle. Next up is a return to Carlisle for round two in the BRC, and Hannah admits she is becoming more excited by the day.
“I’ve done a few rounds of the British before,” she said, “but it’s first year of going in knowing that I have the full championship ahead of me which is really exciting and I’m really pleased to do it with Garry.
“Garry’s a good friend of mine. I’ve worked with him for about three or four years now, with the odd event here and there, but to do a full season with him is really, really good, and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Hannah is from the village of Broughshane, just north of Ballymena in Northern Ireland, and, like many rallying enthusiasts, Hannah’s interest was piqued by her father, who was a car mechanic and regular at events across Ireland and the UK.
“I was always at events when I was younger, from literally from I was a baby, right the way up. When I was 19 I met my now husband, and he was a really good co-driver.
“I always wanted to compete, but I was always kind of too scared to throw myself into it because I didn’t know what I was doing, so my husband taught me everything and said ‘just go and do it’.
Celebrating 100th rally with victory
“That was 11 years ago and the recent Malcolm Wilson Rally was my 100th event, so it was extra-special to win.
“You learn something in every event, no matter how many you’ve done, and from different drivers and how they see things and what they need from their co-driver. I’ve just kind of built up my knowledge and I’m really grateful and privileged for the position that I’m in now.
“Nothing comes without hard work, though, and sacrifice. That’s how I’ve kind of got to where I am now, but it’s been brilliant.”
Monte Carlo or bust – how did that happen?
In 2024 Hannah found herself competing in the Monte Carlo WRC event, alongside Chris Ingram, the Mancunian who ended the UK’s 52-year wait for a European Rally Champion in 2019. So, how did that come about?
“I was at a test with Willie Paterson, of Asset Alliance Group, who sponsors Garry and the Scottish Rally Championship, because he needed a navigator, and Chris was also there doing some tuition,” Hannah explains.
“He took a liking to how I went about things and that was in April 2023, and he kept in touch with my progress after that, and then, when his co-driver couldn’t make the Roger Albert Clark Rally in Wales, he rang me and asked if I could do it – so I went.
“His co-driver it turned out was taking some family time out, and so Chris asked me to do a rally in Austria and then the Monte Carlo, and it was amazing to compete at that level. It just made my hungrier for more, and so I’m really looking forward to working with Garry and having a good go at the British this year.”
Hannah is an events manager, and has run a rally school in Wales for eight years. But when Josh – who hails from Northumberland – headed back north for work she came with him, and, with many friends in the Scottish Borders, they settled in Scotland’s oldest inhabited village, Newstead, near Melrose.
It helps that Pearson is just 20 miles away in Duns, and the shift from odd events to a full championship campaign.
But she has other business to attend to this year as well – as she has hooked up again with Ireland’s top female driver, ‘Galway Girl’ Aoife Raftery, in the European Rally Championship and some American Rally Association events.
Role model for females in motorsport
Flying the flag for girls and women in motorsport is something that Hannah feels passionate about.
“I competed in the European Championship last year and it’s nice to be going back there again this year with Aoife. We both love promoting the sport for women. I recommend rallying to girls I meet all the time, and I’ve helped a few now get into it.
“The Scottish Championship is fantastic for female competitors with female drivers, co-drivers, marshals, everything. But us females are still a bit rare in the British Championship’s, so there’s a bit of work to do there.
“To be honest, I never intended rallying becoming my job or career, so, to get to this point where it’s part of my job is pretty special in itself. Of course, I’d love to do more European Championship and maybe World Rally Championship events, but who knows where we’ll end up.
“Few people realise that there’s so much more than just reading notes. No-one sees the weeks and weeks of work behind the scenes, the late nights and early mornings, gym training to keep yourself fit and everything in between.
“But when it all comes together and you’re in that stage, the adrenaline’s pumping, there’s nothing else in your brain in those minutes other than the road ahead … there’s just no feeling like it!”