Irish rally aces carry their rivalry to BCIC RB26

The top two finishers in the 2025 Northern Ireland Tarmac Rally Championship will renew their rivalry in four months’ time 4,000 miles from home in County Donegal when they rally in the Caribbean for the first time. Champion Aaron McLaughlin and runner-up Conor Wilson will face one another once again in BCIC Rally Barbados 2026.

  While McLaughlin and co-driver Darren Curran won the title in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, they have switched cars for BCIC RB26. They will campaign the Ford Fiesta WRC formerly owned by Jamaica’s Jeff Panton, the five-time winner of the event who enjoyed seven podium finishes in the island in the car, including third in Sol RB20.

  BCIC RB26 will run from Friday to Sunday, May 29-31, with The Auto & Rally Show and King of the Hill, the final shakedown and seeding event, the previous weekend. Since BCIC became title sponsor in 2024, the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event has broken all previous records, with 121 starters last year, including a record 13 crews from Ireland.

  McLaughlin is looking forward to the trip: “It will be good to race Conor in neutral territory were none of us has raced before. Hopefully we get to keep the bragging rights on the way back to Ireland." While this is his first rally outside Europe, he has twice competed in rounds of the France Cup, most recently with Curran in 2024, when they won their class in the Fiesta, finishing seventh overall.

  Curran has experienced a World Rally Championship event as well, having competed in the Central European Rally in 2024, co-driving – ironically - for Wilson on his second participation in the event, rallying in Ireland being a close-knit family.

  Wilson, who was Northern Ireland Junior Champion in 2023, drives the same car as in Ireland, a Hyundai i20 R5, like his father Kevin: “My father and sister did BCIC RB25 and I went to watch and help look after the car with the whole family. It was fantastic, so I had to put an entry in for this year.”

  England’s Steve McNulty, who has competed in the island since 2014 with two class wins and a best of sixth overall in Rally Barbados, will co-drive. Wilson added: “I'm very glad to have Steve on board. Besides being an extremely experienced navigator, his knowledge of the island and the experience he has of the event will bring a great level of comfort to the team. I only hope my driving ability can match his co-driving skills.”

  Wilson’s father Kevin and sister Katie are entered again after finishing 40th last year, one of six Irish crews who entered Rally Barbados for the first time in 2025 and are making the return trip. These include father and son team Paschal and Larry O’Shea, 25th in their Fiesta last year, who will compete against the Wilson family’s two Hyundais in the FIA R5 class.

BCIC Rally Barbados (May 29-31, 2026) is a tarmac rally with around 20 special stages run on the island’s intricate network of public roads, under road closure orders granted by the Ministry of Transport, Works & Water Resources; King of the Hill (May 24), run under a similar arrangement, features four timed runs on a roughly four-kilometre stage, with the results used to seed the running order for the main event.

For media information only. No regulatory value.

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