Waterford driver Craig Breen made a super start to his bid for the World Rally Championship Academy title today at Rally Great Britain in north Wales.
Breen finished the first day leading the event, 26.8 seconds ahead of Alistair Fisher in second, but more importantly he is over 50 seconds ahead of championship rival Egon Kaur who is down in sixth position.
The young driver was just 20 points behind championship leader Kaur from Estonia going into today’s first day of the final event of the season. With 25 points available for the winner and another point available per stage won, there is 42 points up for grabs.
Breen started well on the first stage in Great Orme, finishing second overall, just 1.1 seconds behind leader Brendan Reeves from Australia, with Breen’s title rival Kaur back in 12th place, over 11 seconds off the pace.
It was on SS2 that Breen started to make his charge, coming home fastest over the 4.7km stretch and in turn earning himself his first point of the weekend for winning the stage, with Reeves coming in second place.
The 21-year-old also increased the distance between himself and title rival Egon Kaur to 25.3 seconds, with the Estonian in 13th position.
On stage three, Breen continued his impressive start, winning the stage by 20 seconds ahead of Fisher and in turn gaining another point for a stage win.
More importantly, the Waterford man increased his lead over championship leader Egon Kaur to 53.7 seconds at the end of day one.
Tomorrow’s second day will consist of eight stages in the Welsh forest, with the final six stages of the World Rally Championship Academy taking place on Saturday.
