Craig Breen ready to fly in Finland

When Peugeot Rally Academy driver Craig Breen was in his first full season of rallying in 2009 at the tender age of 19, the Kel-Tech team packed up their humble two wheel drive Fiesta ST and set off to take on the world over the mighty gravel jumps of WRC Rally Finland.

Since then like every aspiring driver Craig (pictured) has always dreamed of going back there in a full spec world car and later this week the Kel-Tech crew after progressing through the ranks using R2 and S2000 cars over there since will do just that.

Fresh from a win on his home Ravens Rock Rally Craig and his co-driver Scott Martin, while on a break between rounds from their regular FIA ERC duties with the Peugeot Rally Academy team, will use the same Fiesta RS WRC that they used back in February on WRC Sweden where they took 9th overall on Craig’s first event in the car. This time the pair will use the all gravel rally to further evaluate their pace up against some of the world’s top drivers on another road surface.

After a short shakedown test that morning the event gets underway on Thursday (July 31st) evening when the drivers will tackle four of the rally’s twenty six stages including the 2.2kmJyväskylä city centre mixed surface “Harju” test being used for the first time in 15 years.

During Friday the crews will cover 132kms of Classic smooth gravel stages amongst the forests and lakes south west of the host city, while a similar distance on Saturday will see the crews take on the famous big jumps on some of Finland’s legendary stages where good pace notes are vital because the crests often hide corners so leaving absolutely no margin for error.

Taking up a new format this year in that where WRC Finland has traditionally finished on Saturday it will now have the added edge of a Sunday showdown hosting the final three stages including the power stage before returning to Jyväskylä for the finish podium in the afternoon.

You can keep up to date with Craig’s 2014 season by visiting: www.craigbreen.com  orwww.peugeot-sport.com