MOTOR SPORT Breen 12th Overall and 2nd in SWRC on World Rally Great Britain

"It's slowly starting to sink in" were the first words from Craig Breen as he removed his helmet and began his interview on World Rally Radio at the end of the final Margam Park stage on World Rally Great Britain. 2nd in SWRC and 12th overall, gasping for breath Craig continued "Tremendous result, Friday morning and only three stages in we suffered a puncture on Myherin and I thought this is not going to be my weekend but we pushed on and kept the faith. I had a real good push on Resolfen (special stage 19) to stay ahead of Patrick (Sandell) and in doing so I managed to pass Xevi (Pons). I'm absolutely over the moon."


Seeded at 22 for his second outing in the Kick Energy Fiesta on a World Rally, Craig quickly moved up to 17th overall and 5th in the SWRC Class on Thursday evening's super special in Cardiff. The real action then got under way on Friday morning with six stages based in mid Wales. After stage 3 (Sweet Lamb) Craig was up 16th but on stage 4, the first run over the Myherin, Craig's Fiesta picked up a rear puncture. Craig drove on to the end of the stage, the puncture dropping him down to 22nd overall and back to 6th in SWRC. The afternoon loop of stages were very difficult as heavy rain began to fall and grip was at a minimum. Craig fought to finish the day in 17th and his afternoon times also gained him a place in SWRC, in service he reported "It was a tough day with mud on the first loop of stages and then over the second run lying water and heavy rain turned the forest roads into an ice rink but we're still here and I'm looking forward to the Saturday's stages."


The Kick Energy Fiesta Driver consolidated his position over the Saturday morning loop and during the remote service he reported "I was pleasantly surprised when we traveled out to the first run over Radnor, we new the conditions were very slippy and the stage was never going to dry fully. But all in all this morning's stages have been very productive. At that point Craig was in 15th place overall and was 4th in the SWRC. Over the rerun of Radnor, Monument Hill, Four Ways and Halfway Craig moved up one place in the overall standing to 14th and remained 4th in the SWRC. At the end of Halfway (SS15) Craig reported to World Rally Radio "That only for the puncture yesterday things could have been better. Stage 15 was very difficult as we didn't have the corner light pods fitted to the front of the car, we struggled a bit when changing direction but I'm pleased to where I am, It's a very difficult event". When asked about his pace over the opening two day's he replied, "I'm trying to keep it relatively safe, Andreas (Mikkelsen) is on a serious pace but I'm must be happy, I still have a lot to learn."


So on to the final day and what a final four stages it turned out to be. The Famous stages of Resolfen (29.99) and Margam Park (8.08), both run twice complete this year's Rally GB and the 2010 World Rally Championship. 4th in SWRC and 14th overall Craig was 1:19.6 behind Xevi Pons and had 59 seconds in hand on Patrick Sandell so the Waterford driver looked safe but as always in rallying there's drama all the way to the finial time control. Pons was in a fight for the SWRC championship with Finnish driver Jari Ketomaa and during the Resolfen 1 (SS 17) Ketomaa hit trouble, crashing out. This took the pressure off Pons but on that stage Craig cut the gap on Pons to 57.9 seconds. Behind Craig, Sandell the Swede put in a fantastic time and as the cars came off the stage Craig advantage was down to 34.3 seconds. Both Craig and Patrick pushed on Margam Park 1 (SS18), Patrick set the pace with fastest time with Craig just 1.6 seconds away but more importantly Craig was 14 seconds faster than Spanish driver, Pons. So two stages remained, Resolfen the penultimate was up first. At 29.9 Km, Craig knew from his first run he'd have to up his game and the Kilmurry native did so in fine style. Setting 17.05 he cut 33 seconds off his first run. As he came to a stop at the end World Rally Radio were on hand to get their customary interview. Craig knew from the split times during the stage he was fast enough to stay ahead of the hard charging Sandell but "This is just a dream" were the words from him when he was told that he had moved ahead of Pons to take 2nd in the SWRC. As Craig pulled away we heard him say, "We need to keep it going, just one to go."

Margam Park, special stage twenty rounded the event off and there were still a few anxious minutes before Craig and the team could relax. His advantage over Pons was only .4 of a second so he still needed to keep the hammer down right to the end. All eyes were on the computers screens to watch the split times. At the first split Craig had extended his lead to 1 second and as split two popped up he had gained another 3 and the pressure was off. As he rolled up to the final time control the young Waterford was ecstatic with the result and to round off the season with his best World Rally Result. Afterwards he stated "I'm just delighted, after my win in the Pirelli Star Driver Global Shootout a month ago, I wanted to end the year on a high but to get this result is unreal. 12th overall is my best world rally result but to finish 2nd in the SWRC class is even more important. I now want to build on this".