Kyle McBride winning beyond his wildest dreams in 2025

It will come as no surprise if young Donegal rally driver Kyle McBride pinches himself a number of times as he sits down for this year’s Christmas dinner.

For the 22-year-old from the Isle of Doagh, Inishowen, 2025, was that kind of year in which he and his co-driver Darragh Mullen had many pinch-me moments in the course of the season just gone in their Peugeot 208.

The winning of the Junior British Rally Championship was one. The prestigious Motorsport Ireland Billy Coleman Award for the Young Rally Driver of the Year was another high point of the year for the Inishowen driver.

As was winning the Stellantis Cup for the best young rally driver in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

“It has been a brilliant year, and way beyond my wildest dreams,” Kyle told DonegalLive.

“To win any of the three would have been brilliant and a big achievement. But to win all three is unbelievable, really. I have dreamed about winning all three at some stage, but never all three in one season.

“The British championship was the priority and was special and brilliant to win. I am the first Irish driver to win the championship, which is also something,” added Kyle, who is part of Motorsport Ireland’s Rally Academy for young, up-and-coming driving talent. He has been in the academy for the last three years.

The championship ran over six events in the course of the season, and the title race came down to the last rally of the championship, in the Cambrian Rally in Wales, at the end of October.

It was an all-Donegal race off for the title between Kyle and Joe Kelly, from Mountcharles.

“I was a point ahead of Joe going into the last rally, which meant all I had to do was finish ahead of Joe.

“It was a strange position to be in because if we went flat out from the start and had an off or something happened that we lost time, we could have blown the chance.

“Likewise, we could not take it too easy either, so as not to open the door for Joe.

“Joe set a fast pace from the off and led by over 11 seconds late in the rally. But he got held up by a slow car and lost a lot of time, which opened the door for us to slip through to win.

It was hard luck on Joe and his co-driver Kilian McArdle because they made a great championship of it.”

That was at the end of October, and a couple of weeks later, Kyle was in Dublin at the Motorsport Ireland annual awards picking up the prestigious Billy Coleman award.  

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“The Billy Coleman Award is also special and is the top award for young drivers. I was runner-up last year and also in the running the year before, so it is a case of third time lucky.”

“It is the top award for young drivers in Ireland, and when you look at past winners like Craig Breen, Keith Cronin, Callum Devine, Josh Moffett and Stuart Darcy, all leading drivers.

“It is something I always dreamed of and hard to believe at first. 

Billy Coleman has a prize fund of up to €100,000 to compete in rallies both here in Ireland and internationally in 2026.

“It works something like I get €50,000 up front, with the remaining €50,000 performance-related, and it depends on how you do in the course of the season.

“The Stellantis Cup is also huge because it secures me free entry in the European Junior Rally championship next season and also has a prize fund of £40,000, which goes towards the tyre budget for the European season.”

Kyle stresses that the success is not all down to him and that it is a team effort with a lot of people rowing in behind him and showing faith in him, from his co-driver Darragh Mullen, and to all who have got behind him to get him where he is today, as the best young driver in the UK and Ireland. 

“Darragh has been brilliant over the last two seasons since we first got together. He is a brilliant navigator and is absolutely unbelievable on the notes, which makes my job of driving the car a lot easier. He is as much a part of the success as I am.  

“A huge thanks also to my support team, my sponsors, Motorsport Ireland and to my parents and all of my family over the last few years. They have all been terrific, and I cannot thank them enough.”  

Kyle makes no bones about after conquering the UK and Ireland, he has now set his sights on the European Rally Championship and a European Junior Rally championship title. 

The European Rally Championship, like the British championship, is run over six events with rallies in Sweden, Italy, Poland, Czechia, England and Portugal, running from May to October.

“The European championship has to be the target now. It is a step up again from the British championship against all the top young drivers in Europe.

“It is a huge challenge, but that is why you compete against the best. It is now a matter of putting the finances in place to give us a fighting chance.

“We've had a good start with the money from the Billy Coleman award and the Stellantis Cup, but we still have to collect a substantial sum. The budget for competing in all six rallies is €220,000.

“The focus at the moment is on raising the finances required, and the earlier we can do that, the better, which will give us more time to concentrate on the championship and the opening rally in Sweden at the end of May.”

Kyle will once again be in his Peugeot 208 next season, with Darragh Mullen calling the notes.