MOTOR SPORT Can Breen Knock on the Door in Mayo?

Craig will give the "Kick Energy" Ford Fiesta S2000 its second competitive outing on tarmac this weekend as he competes in the Mayo Stages Rally. This will be the second event in seven days for the Waterford driver as he builds up for the Circuit of Ireland over the Easter weekend.

The rally is the second round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship and is based in the town of Claremorris with the headquarters in the Mc William Park Hotel. Craig is seeded at number six and for this rally he will be partnered by Dai Roberts, brother of his usual co driver Gareth Roberts.

Craig will face stiff opposition as he comes up against Aaron MacHale who is the number one seed. Last time out in Galway Craig held the upper hand by taking second overall on the Safety Direct International and Aaron finishing third. Aaron will be looking to put the young charger in his place but I'm sure Craig will have something to say about that. Both Aaron's Ford Focus WRC and Craig's Fiesta S2000 will be prepared by the one and only Tom Gahan which will add some more flavour to the battle. Between Aaron and Craig in the top six are a foursome of Subaru drivers. Seeded number two is Melvyn Evans, who took victory on the opening round of the National Championship at the Birr Stages Rally on the 14th of February.

Evans put in a storming performance that day and will be eager to keep his winning run going. In third and fourth we have Niall Maguire and Kevin Barrett. Maguire finished fourth at the Birr Stages and will now want to get his season back on track with a good result. Barrett suffered bad luck in Birr when a wheel nut sheared off one of the front wheels of his Subaru but put in some good times and will want to improve. In at fifth we have Derek McGarrity in the ex-Eamonn Boland Subaru S12B. Derek could be the dark horse as he is still getting to grips with the Impreza and finished second on the podium in Nenagh.


The rally gets underway with a ceremonial start on Saturday evening 22.00 hrs at the Square, Claremorris. The rally action gets under way on Sunday morning with the first stage scheduled for 9.37 hrs. The rally has a nine stage layout, using a three stage repeated format.