Story: Staff Writer
Picture: www.rallyprint.com
The Topaz Donegal International Rally, Round Four of the Citroen Irish Tarmac Rally Championship came to an abrupt end on SS10 when Shane Buckley and Thomas Maguire crashed heavily, with Maguire dying in the accident and Buckley sustaining injuries. This report focuses on the event, with a review on Craig Breen.
Breen’s fearless attack at the Topaz Donegal International Rally ended in dramatic style on SS8 when he and co-driver Gareth Roberts crashed heavily, destroying their Kick Energy Ford Fiesta S2000. At the time Craig was lying in third place overall, 10sec behind Tim McNulty in second place and 1min 13sec behind rally leader Gareth MacHale.
The accident happened on the first run over the “Fanad Head” stage, and Craig reported afterwards: “We were on a fast section and I don’t know what happened just before we went off, but when I tried to take the turn the car went straight on and we crashed at high speed. It’s hard to determine whether a part failed or I picked up a puncture, because there was so much damage sustained to the car.”
Both Breen and Roberts were able to get out of the car, but Craig did suffer an injury to his thumb and elbow.
The rally got under way at midday on Friday with a four-stage loop based in Malin Head and the centre piece of the event, two runs over the 1,1 km town stage, set in the town of Buncrana. Breen was seeded eighth and got off to a flyer on the opening stage. He was up to fourth overall as the cars reached first service after SS2. He was very happy with his start, but did state that his tyre compound was a too soft. Breen upped the pace over the rerun of both stages, and on the return to second service the Kick Energy Ford Fiesta S2000 was holding second place overall.
On Friday evening the town of Buncrana came to a standstill as huge crowds lined the stage in glorious sunshine, and Breen put on a great show to thrill the thousands of rally fans when the S2000 crew ended the opening day in a superb second place overall.
Eight stages set the scene for Day Two, with the action taking in famous stage names like “Fanad Head” and “Knockalla.” SS7 got proceedings underway, and Breen was overhauled on the test by a charging Tim McNulty (Subaru Impreza) to take second overall, with Breen slotting in at third 10sec down.
Next up was the first run on “Fanad Head” and it was here that disaster stuck for Breen. After the accident Craig was devastated: “I was shocked by the way the accident happened, everything was fine just before but I don’t know if we picked up a puncture or a part failed and this caused the crash. The car sustained a lot of damage and finding the answer will take time. I was initially gutted to be out of the rally after going so well on day one but a short time afterwards all this was put in total perspective upon hearing the tragic news of Thomas and Shane. I would like to offer deepest sympathy and condolences to the Maguire family. I would also like to wish a speedy recovery to Shane who sustained injuries in the accident.”
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