McLaughlin and Curran off to winning start in Rally Championship

The pair came out on top at the Race and Rally Stages at the Bishopscourt Race Circuit. 

Carndonagh's Aaron McLaughlin (VW Polo GTi R5) and his Redcastle co-driver Darren Curran took a start to finish victory in the Race and Rally Stages, the opening round of the Brown & Brown Motorsport UK Northern Ireland Rally Championship at the Bishopscourt Race Circuit, County Down. Picture: courtesy of William Neill.

Donegal's Aaron McLaughlin and Darren Curran took their VW Polo GTi R5 to a start-to-finish victory on the Race and Rally Stages at the Bishopscourt Race Circuit that marked the beginning of the Brown & Brown Northern Ireland Rally Championship. Upon the completion of the eight-stage event they were 15.9s ahead of the Ford Fiesta R5 of Down's Stuart Biggerstaff and Stephen Jess with multiple NI champion Glengormley's Derek McGarrity (Ford Fiesta Rally2) and co-driver Conor Duffy a further 12.8s behind.

Having lost out narrowly some 12 months ago to Carryduff's Jonny Greer, McLaughlin was on the pace from the start and eked out a 2.6s advantage over McGarrity on the first stage where a light rain shower prior to the start made the grip level unpredictable.