From riding in her Dad's rally car aged 12, school girl Bella Haggarty is now co-driving in some of the country's biggest events.
Bella Haggarty is on a fast track to success.
The 15-year-old from Rangiora is a Year 11 student at St Margaret’s College in Christchurch, but away from that, she is speeding into the distance with her motorsport ambitions.
Haggarty is a co-driver across various rally events in New Zealand, having started alongside her father, experienced driver Sean Haggarty.
“I sort of got an idea [I wanted to do it] when I was around 11. I wasn’t even allowed to sit as a passenger in a car until I was 12. When I turned 12, because Dad was already doing it before I ever came and sat with him, he had a different co-driver, I always had this thought, it was kind of an ongoing joke that I was going to kick his old co-driver out of the car; little did I know it was ever going to happen,” she says.
Bella achieved her R Grade licence at 13 and in her first year, she was Sean’s co-driver as they won the Classic 4WD category of the New Zealand Rally Championship 2021 Group A Rally Challenge.
Bella has taken part in four rallies so far this year. In March, she was the co-driver for Troy Twomey in the Targa Bambina, part of the two-round Tarmac series. She has also been the co-driver for Australian Stewart Reid in two rounds of this year’s New Zealand Rally Championship, at Otago Rally at the start of April, and the Whangarei event in May.
“Stewart had been following my progress last year with Dad, and then he got in touch with Dad at the start of this year. He flew over from Australia to do stuff with his car and so we went and had dinner one night and it all fell into place,” she says.
The primary role of the co-driver is to read the route instructions to the driver from a road book which contains information on intersections and any hidden hazards on the course.
“It’s definitely a significant role in the rally team. You have to be a very organised person and you have to be calm. Organisation is a massive thing. You’ve got to know where you’ve got to be, at what time, at what place, for each different day of the rally. It’s a hard job. There’s so much going on,” she says.
“For a few weeks before, I’m preparing everything. I’ve got to fill out an entry form two or three weeks before, read all the regulations which are normally about 50 pages long. It’s a lot to take in and then I make notes about things so I can really implant things into my brain.”
In April, Bella competed in her first event as a driver, switching roles with her father, driving her Ford Ka in the Zig Zag Gravel Sprint in Canterbury.
“It was definitely scary because I’ve never driven on gravel in a rally car like I did, but I wasn’t going particularly fast and I wasn’t trying to hit record speeds, but it was a lot to learn and so much to think about,” she says.
“I had Dad next to me in the car and because we’ve got intercoms we could speak to each other and I could hear everything he was saying. It was really fun though, I enjoyed it a lot, and it was really cool to be able to sit in the other seat and see what it’s like.”
For Bella to compete, she needs support, not only from her family, but her sponsors. Sean, mum Patsy and younger brother Liam are her biggest fans, but she also receives sponsorship from John McCallum at Dunedin Goldsmiths and Josh Rufford at Team Cabling. The Haggartys are extremely grateful for their ongoing support -without it, competing simply wouldn’t be possible.
“She’s pretty much sponsored for all her travel, all of her accommodation and anything she does anywhere pretty much worldwide by these people, so they believe in her, which is a massive help and they also fund the running of my car which is a huge thing to have helped her get to where she is. People have got to realise it’s a massive undertaking, this sport financially, and time alone is a massive thing to work these cars. There’s so much goes on that people just don’t see,” says Sean.
With Bella often by Sean’s side, he is well positioned as a father to understand her progression in the sport and support her hopes.
“She started in the car when she was 12. She told me she wanted to be in the car and in she went and she started running from there and she’s never looked back. She’s still got a fair bit to learn as regards management of the teams so to speak, but her in-car stuff is bloody good. She does a good job. She’s clear, she’s clinical, she doesn’t stress, she doesn’t panic, she’s very much down to earth. You’ve got to remember she's still a kid,” he says.
“I think any father seeing their kids growing up and following what they love to do, it’s pretty special, you know? Everybody has dreams and without dreams you don’t have anything. You have to keep chasing what you want and you don’t get it unless you go hunting for it, it’s not going to come to you.”
So, what does the future hold for Bella, both inside and outside the car?
“When I leave school, I want my career path to be involved in rallying, preferably co-driving, but if that leads to driving at any stage then that's something I’d be keen to do. I think my main goal is maybe to get into any sort of WRC (World Rally Championship) co-driving, maybe WRC2, WRC1. It’s quite a big goal but I’m still only young, so I’ve got a while to work towards it, but time will move fast,” she says.
“I want to get into any side of mechanics or engineering, something along those paths. I know it’s something I’m interested in. I know that I could probably get somewhere with that if I tried. Not putting to shame anyone who works in an office, but I just can’t imagine working in an office all day.”
Bella teamed up with her Dad for the Canterbury Rally at the weekend.
Next it's back to NZRC duties as co-driver to Stewart Reid at the South Canterbury event on June 17.
A life lived in the fast lane, but Bella wouldn’t have it any other way.
