RallySport Magazine November 2016

INTERVIEW: KIRRA PENNY
NEVER TOO
YOUNG
Kirra Penny is a 16-year old student
juggling her secondary schools
studies with an emerging co-driving
career in the Australian Rally
Championship.
Kirra Penny (right) with fellow
co-driver Rhianon Gelsomino.
We checked in with Kirra to see how
she manages the school vs rallying
conundrum, and what her plans for the
future are.
RSM: You’re a 16 year old co-diving
for Chris Higgs in the Australian Rally
Championship. How did you get involved in
the sport, and specifically, get to be codriving
for Chris at this level?
KP: For me, I have always been
involved in the sport and strangely,
really enjoyed the paperwork and
reading regs, etc. I never felt the need
to navigate until the day after my first
event.
I was always asked: “When are you
going to start racing?” and the response
was always the same, “Never, I am not
crazy. Until one day this conversation
just took a different direction.
I was told “That the real reason
I wasn’t competing was because
I was scared”. To me, I took that
as a challenge, and always being
competitive, I had to prove them wrong.
Three weeks later, I was competing in
my first motorsport event, a rallysprint
in Canberra. I competed along side my
Kirra Penny has had a busy
season co-driving for Chris
Higgs. Photo: Aaron Wishart.
28 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - NOVEMBER 2016
father, in his Subaru GC8 that he had
just bought a week earlier. We ended
up winning the event outright, which
was a scary thought. Suddenly I was
hooked.
I’m not exactly sure how the rest
happened, it all happened so quickly.
Four weeks later I was in South
Australia competing in my first ARC
event, Scouts Rally SA 2015, alongside
Chris Higgs, at the age of 15.
I met Chris through my father,
Andrew Penny, as Chris leased dad’s
second car for the National Capital
Rally in 2015. It was one of the hardest
events, I have ever done, but I loved
every second of it.
You’re in the higher years of your
schooling, so obviously this must make it a
difficult balance. How do you structure school
and rallying when they happen together?
The balance between school and
rallying has been difficult to find, and
something I have struggled with, but
with the help from my school and
teachers, I have successfully been able
to juggle this past year.
I would independently work ahead
before a rally to try to even out the
work load for when I return. I have
been lucky that my school supports and
works with a lot of athletes who take
large amounts of time out of school
during the winter months.
This means the majority our work
is independent, making it easier to
catch-up on. Once I return home, I work
to catch-up on the work I missed. This
means lots of late nights and anti-social
weekends studying.
Presumably this will get even more difficult
when you reach the final year of secondary
school. Have you thought that far ahead, and
will you be competing while you’re doing year
12?
Currently I have just started my year
12 studies and feel that if I work hard,
stay focused and keep doing what I am
doing, it will work out.
At this stage it appears that I will
be competing in selected events
throughout the duration of 2017, but at
the end of the day, school comes first
in 2017.
Throughout 2016 I have developed
strong support networks and look
forward to the challenge that lies
ahead.
What are your career plans after secondary
school, and do you plan to continue codriving?
Or do you have a desire to swap sides
and drive?
I plan to go to university after high
school to further my education, but am
unsure of what I would like to study.
I would love to keep co-driving and
am determined to make that happen. I
have never had the desire to swap sides
and drive, I love what I am doing, and
would love to make a career out of it.
Who have been your rallying heroes, and
which co-drivers have been the biggest help