Aaron McLaughlin recorded one of the biggest winning margins in the history of the Turkey Run Rally to successfully defend his crown alongside co-driving team-mate, Darren Curran.
McLaughlin was in sparkling form at the traditional end-of-year event, which was organised by Maiden City Motor Club and held within the confines of Ballykelly’s Shackleton complex.
The County Donegal native was fastest on three of the five short speed tests to complete the meeting with a 29.4-second cushion aboard his heavily reworked Volkswagen Polo GTI R5.
Given the compact nature of the single venue rally, the difference between the top two places is never more than a few seconds — but on Saturday, McLaughlin rewrote the history books.
“It was great to get the win and make it back-to-back victories,” he said. “We had a new engine and turbo, much more power than 12 months ago, and new dampers that really helped, too.
“The car needed the work doing to it, the engine especially as we had clocked up around 4,000km on it following the Donegal International Rally back in June,” he added.
“It’s a strong end to the year and sets us up nicely for 2025 when the priority is going to be the Northern Ireland Rally Championship with a handful of Irish national rounds and the Manx.”
At the wheel of an older specification Ford Fiesta R5, Daniel Doherty — with son Tiernan on the notes — made it a brace of crews from The Forgotten County in the top two.
He succeeded in getting the jump on Derek McGarrity’s Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 on the second special stage and kept it neat and tidy in tricky conditions to record one of his career-best performances.
On his Rally2 debut, former Irish Tarmac Modified title holder Kevin Eves finished third overall as he outpaced a number of more experienced Rally2 drivers, including eight-time Northern Ireland champion McGarrity, and Alan Carmichael in a right-hand-drive converted Hyundai i20 N Rally2.
In the two-wheel-drive battle, Joe Hegarty was a narrow victor with David Turkington in a Class Six Ford Escort Mk2; only 6.2 seconds separated them and the similar machine of Mac Walsh.
Meanwhile, Robert and Zara Robinson were triumphant at Ulster Automobile Club’s It’s Not The Boxing Day Rally from Chris Hillis and Oran Baird and Aaron Kennedy and Ashley Boulton.
The deficit between the Robinson’s Toyota Yaris and the Toyota MR2 of Hillis and Baird after 14 tests stood at a second.