25 year old Irishman Craig Breen today won the Rally Liepaja in Latvia, round 2 of the European Rally Championship at the wheel of his Peugeot 208 T16 R5. It was a comfortable victory in the end as rivals Alexey Lukyanuk and Kajetan Kejatanowicz both crashed out in their Fiesta R5 machines. That means Breen lies 2nd in the championship, 5 pts behind the ERC Ice Master Kajetanowicz. Next up in the series is the Circuit of Ireland in 2 months time, and Breen will be desperate to win his 3rd ERC event on his home event. Craig Breen is one of the top young drivers in international rallying, but his big break is yet to come. This has been highlighted by his team mate from last year Kevin Abbring being given his WRC debut for Hyundai on Rally Sweden. Breen first made his name in international rallying in 2011, when he contested the WRC Academy series. He had a close season fight with Estonian Egon Kaur, eventually winning courtesy to his greater number of stage wins only! This gifted him an SWRC campaign in a Fiesta S2000 for 2012. Despite a heavy crash in Finland, Breen swept up his second FIA title in as many seasons. 2012 though was a tragic year for Craig, as his co-driver and friend Gareth Roberts was killed whilst competing with Breen on the Targa Florio Rally in Italy. It was mightily impressive of Breen to even resume competing, but he wants to achieve his and Jaffa's dream.
However, that has been hard to come by. Despite having 2 feeder series titles to his name, Breen has never been given his chance in the WRC although has entered a few events in a privately entered car. He has competed in the ERC in 2013 and 14, netting his first victory at the Acropolis in 2014 in the 208 T16. 2015 is vitally important for Breen, as to really put himself on the map (especially with the arrival of Toyota in 2017 bringing more seats) he has to win the European Championship title. He has experience of all events and the car has done more or less a full season now so now really is his chance. If Breen can win the series, teams will take note and seriously consider him a worthy addition to their WRC team.
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April 2017
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