It’s been a truly amazing rallying season for Waterford youngster Craig Breen. After his sensational result on WRC Rally Finland several weeks ago, Craig wrapped up both the UK and Irish Ford Fiesta ST Rally Championships on last weekend’s Ulster International Rally. “I’m absolutely over the moon, to have tied up both championships. I didn’t expect too this weekend, but it takes a bit of pressure off us, and it means we can now really focus on the FST International series, with the next round, WRC Rally Catalunya.”

Just a weekend before the Ulster Rally, Craig and Welsh co-driver Gareth Roberts once again sampled the new M-Sport 1600cc R2 Fiesta, taking a class win and Junior Rally win on the Jim Walsh Forestry Rally in Cork. This victory puts them in the lead of the National Junior Rally Championship, but it wasn’t the easiest of victories for Craig. “I had a few grimaces along the way, as I had to have my appendix removed the week before the event, but thankfully it healed quickly enough for me to actually start the rally. I must say I really enjoyed the R2 again, and our times were coming down, really not far off the top 2 wheel drive times as the rally progressed.”

The main focus however for Craig and Gareth however was on the Ulster International, back in their familiar Dairwood Design 2 litre ST Fiesta. “I was happy with our recce, but I took a little time to bed in. The first stage was extremely slippery and I was very cautious, then on Glendun we speeded up a bit, got to within 5 or 6 seconds of the Fiesta leader Kris Hall, and then we took a second from him on stage 3 Torr Head.” On the second loop of the same tests, Craig dropped a second to English driver Kris Hall on Tardree, took 0.8 back on Glendun and a further 1.5 seconds back on Torr Head, to lie just 15 seconds behind his UK Fiesta rival going into the rallies second day, and with Matt Edwards, the other driver in contention for the UK Fiesta series crashing out in the early stages, it left it a race between Craig and Kris. “I started day two with 15 seconds to catch up and I was determined to catch up, and take the win, but it all happened in front of me on the start line of the day’s opening stage, when a wheel sheared on Kris’s car. He got moving and I was expecting to see him along the stage, but we didn’t, and he retired, so really with a minute and 50 seconds or so to the next Fiesta, we just had to make it safely to the end of stage 10 to seal the UK series.” After a never wrecking few stages Craig did the job necessary to seal the FST UK series and also the Irish Fiesta series, which gifts the 19 year old, two prize drives in the new Fiesta R2.

“It is just fabulous to be honest. For the UK series we get to contest the IRC Rally Scotland in the new R2 Fiesta which will be awesome, and for the Irish series we get a drive in the R2 on the Belgian tarmac Condroz Rally. Added to that we have a place in the FST International Shoot-out at the end of the season, it’s really been a season way beyond our expectations to date.”

But Craig had another job to do, and that was finishing the Ulster International. “I have to admit I was conscious that we hadn’t finished an entire Irish Tarmac event since Galway, and a few British rounds, and some of them were due to crashes, so I really wanted to finish out the Ulster. Also it may be my last drive in the ST Fiesta so we wanted to enjoy that on the last four stages, and there were great stages. The car was like the SS Titanic though on the second last loop, when a front Anti roll bar bracket broke, but we had a good go through the last two, and we were pleased at our times at the weekend on certain stages against the top R3 Clio’s in particular. On the final run over Slieve Gallion we didn’t get a proper run as we came across Matti Rantanen’s huge crash. We were glad the crew was ok, but it did unexpectedly hand us the lead in the R3 class in the British Championship, so we are unsure whether to take the Fiesta ST out once more on the Trackrod to see if we can hold onto that class lead.

We were considering using a Group N car on that event as experience for the Pirelli shoot-out, but we may consider other events for that.” Added to this Craig’s result puts him in the lead of the N3 class of the Irish Tarmac Championship, but he will not be attending the final round in Cork, due to his next big commitment Rally Catalunya.” Catalunya and Rally GB are left on the FST International calendar, but I really need to score a win in Spain and as many fastest stage times as possible. German driver Patrick Anglade leads the series, as he picked up wins on the events we didn’t contest, and also the Fiesta Shoot-out winner last year, Mattias Boon will be competing. He is a tarmac specialist and we cannot really afford for him to take points or fastest time bonus points from us. It will be a different challenge for me and Gareth, fast stages with so many lines and cuts, and there will be quite a few new R2 Fiesta’s to contend with, but I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s important to do well in Catalunya, because to be fighting for a championship on Rally GB, where there could be ice like last year, would be very tricky.”

For now however the Waterford drive has two championship titles under his belt, an excellent season alone, with potential for more championship success. “Things have really clicked so far this year, even with my co-driver Gareth Roberts, and now we must keep our concentration on the remaining events in our calendar.”