Finaghy driver Kyle White climbs the rally ladder this season with a new car after winning the British Junior Rally Championship last year.
I had the chance to catch up with the 27-year-old just days before the big reveal of his new livery at the Autosport Show held at the NEC in Birmingham. Unveiling his 2016 Hyundai i20 R5 on the British Rally Championship’s stand at this prestigious show this morning, I can confirm that Kyle plans to campaign this championship once again.
The season ahead will be a steep learning curve as, having never driven four-wheel-drive in competition before, Kyle’s crosshairs are not so much on the silverware, but rather getting to grips with this new-to-him Hyundai R5 which is a vast leap up the ladder from the Peugeot Rally 4 car which he drove to junior victory last year.
So how does a young man from the outskirts of Belfast become a British champion?
Well, for anyone who has been around local rallying for a couple of decades, they’ll remember the name White climbing to second overall in the Northern Ireland championship when Kyle’s dad, Gary, proved a force to be reckoned with in his Ford Escort Cosworth.
So, in Kyle’s case the answer is very simple, rally is in the veins!
“I started rallying when I was fifteen years old,” explains White. “I started in the Junior 1000 rally series that Jim Crozier and Brendan Crealey at the time had started up. It was great incentive to obviously get younger people into rallying.
“My first ever rally was Kirkistown and going forward into this R5 car, Kirkistown will be the first rally I’m now doing in the R5, which is real good experience.
“In the junior 1000 series, I was in a Peugeot 107 with bolt-in roll cage and standard engine and gearbox. The only thing changed was the suspension. We had done really well in the first year, I think finishing second overall.
“It took me a while to grow into it as I had never driven a car before this really. I had only been used to Kart racing, so it was a great learning experience. The year after, I think we were leading the championship up to halfway through, but then we found out that there was a problem with the suspension in the car.
“They [suspension manufacturer] sent us out updated suspension to cure the problem of struts breaking, which happened at Bishopscourt, and from we put them in, the car was just boaty. You know it was too soft. It wasn’t working. So, we eventually fell down the order and I think I ended up just getting nipped on the last round of the championship to the first place. So that was disappointing, but it was a great learning experience as I said.”
Kyle then moved to a more powerful Citroen C2 that had been built locally and was bought with zero miles, which saw White move into the Northern Ireland rally championships junior ranks. Picking up the junior accolade twice in this car, Kyle showed huge pace and determination with many class wins as well as putting big pressure on some time served drivers in their much quicker Ford escorts.
From here, White made the move into a much more modern, factory-built car, when he bought Jon Armstrong’s Peugeot 208 R2. Remaining on local events, Kyle added another Northern Ireland junior Rally Championship win to his trophy cabinet.
But it was his pace against British championship contenders who visited the province that year, that set Kyle’s sights higher as he looked at the competition across the pond and elsewhere. Driving somewhat outdated machinery, taking on any other championships would require an updated car.
“We bought James Wilson’s 2019 Peugeot 208 with all the latest evolutions,” states White, “And we went the first round of the Irish Forestry Championship, having never been on gravel in my life. And after two stages, we were leading the rally, but then it blew the engine.
“We ended up coming home and then COVID hit, so once we were about to get the engine sorted, the world shut down. I think it was maybe later that year that we got an engine sorted from Peugeot Sport and we put our name in for the 2021 British junior Rally Championship.
“Nobody really knew who we were. At that stage we didn’t know who we were either.”
Navigated for a long time at this point by Sean Topping, the crew headed into the opening round at Oulton Park with high hopes, given Kyle’s previous track experience. Coming out of stage one as the fastest junior crew, they had stamped their intentions firmly on this new-to-them series.
As the day progressed, the stages opened up and became faster suiting their rivals aboard turbocharged Rally 4 machinery. White dropped down the timesheets, but still clinched second junior overall such was his early pace on the twister stages. The Northern Ireland crew led the championship after the Nicky Grist Stages, but lady luck denied them any glory at season end.
“We moved to a Peugeot 208 Rally 4 for the 2022 season, and it was an absolutely massive step. Probably the biggest I’ve taken; we couldn’t believe the speed of the car initially. OK, it only took me two corners to put it a ditch on my very first rally in it, but we’ll not get into that.”
Standing on the podium of the opening two rounds, with his first JBRC win on the Nicky Grist Stages in 2022, White said, “It was a great car. We obviously had great, great results in it. But we found out that there was a translation error in the setup sheets from Peugeot Sport. They were printed in French and then translated to English, but nothing translated right. It was all back to front.
“So, the first year, we had the car OK on gravel. It was absolutely incredible. We were the quickest on gravel, I would like to say. But on tarmac, we just couldn’t get the car working. It just felt like a boat and the back end just wanted to pass the front all the time, especially in the fast sections.”
After a quick chat with Raymond Moore at Race & Rally, who supplies all of the new Peugeot and Citroen Sport rally cars, he got DGM Sport involved to bring the car in to double check it all. Soon after, they confirmed that the setup was all wrong.
So, they took the car, sorted it over winter, and Kyle headed off at the start of last season with Sean on the pacenotes for their third stab at the British junior Rally Championship in what now felt like a completely different car.
White and Topping took a commanding victory on the opening round at the Malcolm Wilson stages, before adding another win at the Jim Clark rally to lead the series early on. It was off to Belgium for round three, where the crew finished third on the Ypres rally despite finding their way into one of the events infamous ditches.
The championship brought Kyle home for the Ulster rally, which he took maximum points from. A feat that he would repeat at round 5, Rali Ceredigion. Missing round 6 at the Trackrod Rally Yorkshire, Kyle added massive pressure to himself heading into the final round, with nearest rival Kyle McBride wanting to take advantage of the double points on offer.
White’s maiden JBRC title looked distant early on at the Visit Conwy Cambrian rally, as his Peugeot 208 rally 4 suffered a boost issue on the first stage. But with just a finish required, the car was nursed back to service, where an ECU reset ensured, the car was back to full health for the afternoon loop.
A steady and calculated drive resulted in Kyle and Sean getting their hands on the coveted Junior BRC trophy for the first time. “I can’t really put it into words at the moment” said an emotional White at the final round, “it might just make me cry.” Highlighting just what it meant to the crew.
Moving up into the R5 Hyundai for the season ahead will be a thoroughly enjoyable challenge for the Belfast man who works as a mechanic in his father’s business, Gary White Car Sales.
“We are basically going into the unknown,” stated White, “And look, there’s no expectations this year. The only expectation I would like, I would like to maybe try and get third overall in the British Championship simply because we’ve got third overall this year in the junior car. So, it can’t be any worse in the four-wheel-drive.”
You can expect to see Kyle at the helm of the i20 at the Kirkistown stages rally in a couple of weeks’ time, where he will acclimatise to the Hyundai with former navigator and longtime team member, Alan Purdy calling the ‘notes.
Kyle White’s achievements wouldn’t be possible without the support of the following partners – Gary White Car Sales | LA Distribution NI Ltd | Finaghy Cleaning & Support Services Limited | Jetvent Limited | Baize Craft | Carmichael Transport.
