Fast track to glory for Carragh's Leah McManus

A Kildare teenager has taken Irish Rallycross by storm, with 18-year-old Leah McManus recently winning the 2025/26 IRX Mini Graduates Championship at Mondello Park.

Created in the 1970’s, Rallycross events take place over a combination of tarmac and loose surfaces, with the popular motorsport experiencing a massive resurgence in Ireland. This was highlighted in July, when Mondello Park hosted the historic return of the FIA European Rallycross Championship to the country for the first time in more than 30 years.

The Mini Graduates class is a support and developmental category run each year by IRX (Irish Rallycross) in conjunction with their senior race schedule. Just three years into her career as a rally driver, Leah – a native of Carragh – won the prestigious championship in remarkable fashion, cementing her place among the country’s most prominent rising stars.

The latest Mini Graduates Championship began with back-to-back races in October of 2025 at Mondello Park, with Leah claiming victory on both occasions to secure 20 points per victory and leaving her top of the standing on 40 points, six points clear of second-placed Alex Conlon.

When the drivers returned to Mondello in November, Leah showed incredible determination and skill to once again win back-to-back races, pulling further ahead of Conlon, with the gap between the two now out to 12 points.

The second half of the season saw Leah pull away from Conlon entirely; and after successful races earlier this year in March and May – also held at Mondello – the Carragh teenager was crowned 2026 Champion.

Before the job of preparing her car on Friday ahead of another busy race weekend, the Kildare starlet took time out of her schedule to tell The Kildare Nationalist how she got started in the sport.

“I was 15 and my dad always raced,” she said. “One day, I just went over to the garage and there was a Fiesta there – and I got thrown totally in the deep end; I didn’t really know how to even drive properly.” 

From learning to drive in January of 2023 to racing her Mini Cooper S to glory in Mondello Park just three years later is a magnificent achievement for a driver with incredible potential for the future.

Leah is very enamoured with her new car, telling us, “It was a good step up from our junior Minis, because I was so used to the way a Mini handles, and then I just basically got into a much faster Mini.” 

The Carragh driver also dismissed any immediate plans to try her hand at stage rallying, saying, “I would love to get into something like that, but not yet. We’re not pushing towards it; at the minute, I think we want to move up a class in rallycross before we start thinking about rallying around.” 

Leah is currently competing in the BTRDA (British Trials and Rally Drivers Association) BMW Mini Rallycross Championship. Unlike the IRX Championship, which is held solely at Mondello Park, the British Championship is held at four different circuits across the country.

Racing began in Blyton Park, Lincolnshire, followed by Lydden Hill in Kent. Last time out saw the drivers compete in Pembrey in Wales, with Leah finishing the September round in pole position. The final round of races will be held on October 18th in Knockhill in Scotland, with the very real possibility of Leah adding more silverware to her collection.