Ideal Academy Warm Up for Breen in Carlisle

The perfect practice session for Breen at the Pirelli International ends with Fiesta SportTrophy honors, 2nd in the R2 Class and third in Formula 2. The Irish driver was in a class battle all the way to the last stage and got the ideal warm up just a week before the resumption of the WRC Academy in Sardinia. "It was a tough event, the stages were brilliant and we were fighting all the way to the last stage, just what I needed before we head to Sardinia." said Breen at the Carlisle finish

The Pirelli International Rally, round three of the British Rally Championship (BRC) got underway with the event recce on Friday morning and before the official start on Friday evening Craig reported "The stages looked great, the event would be fast and furious with those famous killer Kielder ditches to watch out for."

The rally began on Friday evening with a double run over the 11 kms of Newcastleton. The expected dust was not the issue over the opening stage but the loose gravel surface was. Craig slotted in 14th overall, 5th in formula and third in the R2 class. Breen did hold a nine second lead in the Fiesta SportTrophy over John Mac Crone and as the event unfolded this advantage steadily extended during Saturday.
On to the rerun of the stage and with the cleaning of the initial run the times tumbled. Craig capitalized and turned a five second deficit into a three second lead in the R2 class. His stage time was also enough to lift him to third in formula 2 and 10th overall.

As the event restarted on Saturday morning there was little between the top crews in the two wheel drive section. After stage 4 and remote service at Kielder Waters Craig was 13th overall and holding a 4.2 second lead over Craig in the R2 class was Finnish driver Jukka Korhonen. Korhonen also held the lead in formula 2 from Martin McCormack, Craig in third. The trio were separated by less than five seconds.

Over the rerun of the two morning tests there was little quarter giving between the Irish and Finnish driver. Korhonen took 3.7 sec from Breen on SS5 but Breen hit back on SS6 by taking 1.7 back. Breen had also taken second place in Formula two as he had been quicker than McCormack, in the Citroen.
During the midday service at the Carlisle Racecourse Craig said "I was a bit slow to start with, but definitely getting quicker and I want to keep my confidence in place for the Sardinia Rally next week."


On to the afternoons stages and it was nip and tuck over the six stages. Craig started well by taking 1.8 off Korhonen on SS8 but Korhonen hit back on the next by taking 10 form Craig. The afternoon's stages suited the Citroen of Martin McCormack and he had moved back into the lead in Formula 2.

On the penultimate test and Korhonen extended his lead to 14.1 over Craig. Craig still tried all the way to the finish and even suffering a puncture on the final test he still took four seconds back to end the day just 10.1 seconds behind Korhonen.

Finishing 7th overall and having the a hotly contested class battle, the event served as the ideal shakedown before Craig's trip to Italy for round two of the WRC Academy. There was no time to relax for the Irish driver who is already on his way the Sardinia where the action commences next weekend.