Drury is heading to Norway with Craig Breen Foundation

It was joy and delight for young Kyle Drury on the recent Jim Walsh Cork Forest Rally as not only could he celebrate a first ever Junior 1000 victory, but the result also saw the Cavan star guaranteed himself a place amongst the 2025 Craig Breen Foundation Prize winners, which includes a trip to Norway in January.

At fifteen years of age, Kyle Drury is a star on the rise in the sport of rallying, and his success this season, on what is only his second-year competing, has been incredible to watch. Hailing from Bailieborough in Co. Cavan, the youngster has finished on the podium of every round so far of the 2025 Irish Forest Rally Championship, and the recent Cork event saw him and navigator Karle Egan finally clinch a breakthrough victory.

Drury competed in the Junior 1000 class of Irish Rallying, a massively successful feeder series that is unlike anything else in world rallying. Open to competitors from the age of 14-18, the series introduces future stars to the sport from an incredibly young age and allows youngster to compete on full length gravel events, racing across up to 70km of high-speed loose surface stages in Coillte forest complexes.

Winning the class in Cork was extremely special for Drury as it was against the biggest field of J1000 crews ever seen on an event in the history of the series, with 30 crews leaving the Kanturk based start line.

A huge guide for Kyle, and all his fellow J1000 crews, is the Navigator and this year he has been joined by the incredibly experienced and successful Karl Egan. At J1000 level the navigator role goes further than just directing their driver during the stages, they act as a responsible and mentoring presence within the car for these youngsters and they also uniquely swap roles on the road sections with the Nav taking the wheel for the drive to the next special stage.

With the win in Cork, Drury has done enough to guarantee a Top-2 finish in the Championship standings at a minimum but knowing the hunger and determination of this crew than rest assured Drury & Egan will be aiming to take the title outright on the season ending Donegal Forest Rally on Nov 8^th.

What the guaranteed second place at minimum in the standings does do for now though is see Kyle Drury become the first recipient of the Craig Breen Foundation prize packages for 2026, with his ticket stamped for a trip to the John Haugland Winter Rally School in Norway in early January.

Seeing the success of the Junior 1000 series and the talent it has produced, Irish WRC star Craig Breen came on board to sponsor the series in 2023 as a way to support the grassroots of the sport and develop talent right at its infancy. Following his passing, the Craig Breen Foundation has worked with partners like Hyundai Motorsport, Sports & You, Hyundai Portugal, Hyundai Spain and Motorsport Ireland to continue his legacy.

Since 2024, the foundation has given vouchers to J1000 competitors across every event, branded merchandise for the drivers, funding packages to the championship top-3 as well as a number of truly special once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Craig, and numerous stars of world rallying, have learned hugely from the mythical John Haugland and his Winter Rally School, and the Foundation have to date taken three J1000 stars, Tommy Moffett in 2024 and Oisin McShane & Ross Ryan in 2025, to Norway. For 2026 one of those adding their name to the incredible guest book is Kyle Drury!

Beyond the Norway trip, this summer saw last years champion Oisin McShane also travel to Portugal to become a part of the Sports & You team on a round of the Portuguese championship as well as getting a day testing a Hyundai i20 Cup car under the guidance of Kris Meeke & Eamonn Kelly, while McShane & Ross Ryan had a Pacenote development session with 5-time WRC event winner and all round legend Paul Nagle before the Cork Forest Rally.

The success of the Craig Breen Foundation has been evident to everyone this season. Tommy Moffett, the inaugural recipient, has been setting remarkable times in his Ford Fiesta Rally4, Ross Ryan has had numerous class wins in his Ford Fiesta R2T and Oisin McShane made his debut last weekend in a Peugeot 208 R2 and set a fastest stage time on his first ever tarmac rally!

While Kyle Drury now knows he has at least booked his ticket for Norway, the race to join his is now firmly on between James McShea (Letterkenny) and David Travers (Kilkenny) for the much-coveted place amongst the 2025 Craig Breen Foundation prize winners.

Find out more about the Craig Breen Foundation.