News from the Weekend

Waterford driver Craig Breen and his Welsh co-driver Gareth Roberts took top place in the SWRC section of the world famous Monte Carlo Rally yesterday, giving them the early lead in the S2000 World Championship, driving their Kel-Tech Ford Fiesta.

P-G Andersson of Sweden led the category for most of the five day rally, but in the closing stages, a fire on their Proton Satria forced them to retire, handing victory to the 21 year old Irish ace, the current FIA Academy champion and a former Young Rally Driver of the Year.

Breen said last night "This is unbelievable, I'm just delighted and so happy with this victory. We came here with a plan and it's worked perfectly.”

“Our task was made easier last night on stage 16 when P-G Andersson retired,” continued Breen, “It handed us the lead but this has been the toughest event of my career. We've had to contend with every type of weather imaginable, tyre choice has been a lottery throughout the five days, we were always making a compromise for the varying road surface on each loop of stages”.

“I lost a lot of time over the first three days with punctures but in the end our strategy to drive a controlled event has paid off. The Monte is just so technical, this is my first time to compete here, it's been repeated so many times that a driver needs to gain experience on this event, building a good set of pacenotes, building on what they learn from tackling the stages and I've learned so much over the last week. This is a great start to the season, we have 25 championship points heading to Sweden in February and having already done the event in an S2000 last year, hopefully there we'll be able to push from the start.”