Craig Breen Rallying: World Rally Sweden Event Preview

FIA, World Academy Champion, Craig Breen got his SWRC (Super 2000 World Championship) season off to the perfect start at Rally Monte Carlo taking a maximum 25 points. Now as the season heads north to the snow of Sweden for round two, Breen is eager to continue his good start to the year. "The Monte turned out to be one of the most difficult events of my career. Taking maximum points was a nice reward after a tough five days but we must now look forward to Sweden and consolidate our championship position."

Over the last week Craig has been in Norway to carry out some testing for the only snow event of the season. "Brushing up on my snow and ice driving was important, getting used to grip levels and just driving in what is called "white out" where the roads and ditches are totally covered in snow takes a bit of time to adjust. Up to Christmas there hadn't been much snow in Scandinavia but that's changed over the last few weeks and the temperatures are currently at record lows ranging from -25 to -35 degrees, so it's very cold. Our test session was broken into two parts, Tuesday and Wednesday was spent at John Haugland's (Geilo 300 km's North West of Oslo) snow and ice driving school and then I took on Finnskog here today. We retired on stage five, after hitting one of those famous snow banks but we were able to get some descent mileage under the belt. I was happy with our speed and I'm feeling very confident as we now head to Sweden", said Breen on Saturday evening.

Featuring 360 competitive kms over 24 stages, 11 of which will be run twice, Rally Sweden which gets underway with a superspecial stage at Karlstad's trotting track on Thursday evening (Feb 9).

The bulk of Friday's stages will take place in Norway with a remote service halt in the town of Kongsvinger. The visit to Norway will stir memories of the country's world championship qualifier, which last ran to great acclaim in 2009. Following a regroup in Torsby, back across the border in Sweden, crews will service in Hagfors before returning to Karlstad for a second run of the city's superspecial stage.

Day two's action includes classic stages such as Sagen, Fredriksberg and Vargasen, which features the famous 'Colin's Crest' jump, named in memory of the late Colin McRae.

Sunday's stages take place around Hagfors and include runs through Rammen and Hafors. The Hagfors Power Stage will bring the action to a close.

Looking ahead to the snow event Craig said, "We competed on the event last year and finished 15th overall but I won't be taking anything for granted. Every rally poses its own set of difficulties and Sweden is no different. Last Saturday (Rally Finnskog) starting out on the second loop of stages, I brushed a snow bank and damaged the suspension and was out. I also know that P-G Andersson, on his home event will be pushing hard and will be the favourite. This is also the first event where all the registered crews will be taking part."

In the last week the FIA (sport's governing body) have released the list of Super 2000 World Championship (SWRC) registered entrants and their respective nominated events and the second half of the season looks to be very interesting.
In the SWRC entrants must nominate seven events out of a possible eight on which they have to participate. While just three crews started the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo last month, all six registered runners will compete in Finland, Great Britain, France and Spain.

On the release of the news, WRC Academy Champion, Breen said, "The 'Monte' was the only event this season I hadn't competed on so our points haul and current championship lead is a great start. I need to continue that form in Sweden and Portugal. I won't be going to New Zealand but will then I'll be out on all of the events for the second half of the year."