18 special stages, torrential rain, intercom woes and seven fastest stage times for Breen as “20” servers up a corker in the “Rebel County”. As Craig Breen drives onto the finish ramp outside the Silversprings Hotel headquarters of the Cork 20 International Rally on Sunday afternoon, the Waterford driver claims his third podium of the year, finishes third overall and secures second overall in the Citroen Irish Tarmac Championship. The happiness was easy to be seen as Craig exited the car and his smile underlined the joy as he end the season on a high.
Breen said: “The unreal conditions yesterday with torrential downpours, really tough stages and stiff competition made this one of the hardest event of the year but to finish third overall and claim second in the tarmac championship is great. We had some problem with the intercom in the car yesterday morning but to set six fastest stage times shows we were on the pace and is very pleasing. Today we bedded in over the opening stage and I then had a good run over “Fuhiry”. It’s a great stage and I could remember making gravel notes for Dad when he was competing, after that point we just consolidated our position, I wanted to finish the year in a good way taking second overall in the championship on my first attempt is great.”
Day one of the final event of the ITC season was made up of three loops of four stages, all based around the town of Millstreet in North County Cork. As the cars were about to start the opening “Mullaghanish 1” stage the weather turned nasty as the forecasted heavy rain started to fall. Craig slotted in at sixth with a time of 8:58.0, 20.6 seconds down on stage winner Aaron MacHale. At the end of the test the Fiesta S2000 driver reported a half spin and felt that he couldn’t really commit on the wet roads. On stage two Craig suffered from intercom problems and dropped about thirty seconds as Tim McNulty took over the top spot. McNulty then set the pace again on stage three “Mushera 1” but Craig was less than two seconds away and this with his windscreen misting up through the test as the torrential rain continued to fall. As the crews entered first service in Macroom Craig reported, “My only clean run on that loop was on stage four, the weather is just unreal.” Craig did get into the groove on that fourth stage and with that clean run he posted his first fastest time of the weekend. At that point Craig was placed sixth and of the four contenders that could claim the title he was third. The fastest time on stage four lifted Craig’s confidence and two more quickly follow on stages five and six and a hat trick of fastest times on stages eight, nine and ten as Craig ended the day in third overall. Day two was made up of a double loop of three stages with service again in Macroom. Craig pushed over the first run of “Fuhiry” where he collected his seventh fastest stage time of the weekend. In service the twenty year old showed his maturity as he stated during an interview “I enjoyed my run over Fairy, I could remember making gravel notes for my Dad when he was competing and the second half of the stage really flows but from here on my main objective is to consolidate my second place. This is exactly what transpired as over the final stages the Kick Energy Fiesta slotted in at third as Craig left the front two of Gareth MacHale and Tim McNulty fought it out for the win.
Now with this result under his belt Craig will concentrate on the British Pirelli Star Driver Shootout final which is scheduled for the end of the month. The British final will take place in the Sweet Lamb Complex in mid Wales and the drivers in the final will use a Subaru N15. After that Final Craig will travel to Spain for the Pirelli Star Driver Global Final Shootout where the R2 Fiesta will be his mount as he bids for glory.
– Credit: www.rallyprint.com