Late surge from Greer sees him continue winning start to Rally Championship Crown

In no mood to settle for second Jonny Greer gave a more commanding performance and topping the time sheets on the final trio of stages he secured his second win in the current series.

MOTORSPORT: Jonny Greer/Niall Burns (Citroen C3 Rally2) won the Race and Rally Stages in Bishopscourt. Picture: nirallychampionship.com.

Carryduff’s Jonny Greer (Citroen C3 Rally2) maintained his winning start in the defence of his McGrady Insurance Northern Ireland Rally Championship crown with a late surge in the Race and Rally Stages Rally in Bishopscourt, the second round of the campaign. After the day’s eight stages and co-driven by Sligo’s Niall Burns, they had just 3.7s to spare over the VW Polo GTi R5 of long-time leaders Donegal’s Aaron McLaughlin/Darren Curran. Another Ulster crew, Kyle White/Sean Topping (Hyundai i20 R5) were 36.8s further behind in third.

On the opening stage McLaughlin (VW Polo GTi R5) eked out a 3.7s lead over Greer with White just 0.4s behind. He extended his lead to 5.3s on SS2 where the top three remained unchanged. On the stage that followed Stuart Biggerstaff, who was fourth, retired after he ripped a wheel from his Ford Fiesta R5. Greer was best on SS3 and 4 to reduce the deficit to 3.5s but a good run though SS5 saw McLaughlin push the margin between them to 5.5s.