Craig craving a fortune shift in Switzerland

Craig Breen, FIA ERC Circuit of Ireland Rally 2014

As the 2014 FIA European Rally Championship reaches its penultimate round this week at Rallye International du Valais in Switzerland, Peugeot Rally Academy driver Craig Breen will be very much hoping that this luck of recent months is about to change for the better.

The land of four languages will witness a thrilling race between four of the FIA ERC's top drivers to clinch the 2014 FIA ERC title over the rally's three days from October 23-25.

Based in Valais in southwest Switzerland close to Lake Geneva this will be Craig’s second time to take on the mountainous twisty terrain that the rally has to offer as he finished third overall here last year when he overcame some penalty and power steering issues using the old Peugeot 207 S2000 to end his first Peugeot Rally Academy season with another vital podium finish.

Celebrating 55 years as the most important event in Swiss motorsport, Craig and his co-driver Scott Martin will take on 19 asphalt stages over a competitive distance of 260.20 kilometres using their ERC Acropolis winning 208T16. Following qualifying on Thursday morning, the opening leg starts in Sion that afternoon in the Upper Valais region for the first time and a new stage through Varen, Inden and Leukerbad.

Craig Breen

Friday’s route includes two visits to the Caserne military barracks stage in Sion before the event relocates to Martigny for day three when the monster 32.13-kilometre Les Cols test will be one of the highlights. Craig will have plenty of competition for the win not least from within his own team in the form of fellow 208T16 driver Kevin Abbring but also a host of FIA ERC regulars, including last year’s winner and championship leader Esapekka Lappi. Olivier Burri will also be there to mix things up and has won the event eight times so can’t be ignored.

Also up for grabs this week will be valuable ERC Asphalt Master points, an initiative from ERC promoter Eurosport Events to recognise surface specialists in the European championship and in the mix to become the inaugural ERC Asphalt Master are Lappi who leads with 238 points followed by Abbring (195), Craig (134) and Sepp Wiegand (124). Points are awarded to the fastest five drivers on each stage on a basis of 10-6-4-2-1.

Craig recently took a trip back to his Karting days by competing on an event in Co. Louth and said it was a great opportunity to practice clean driving for Tarmac, also hoping it will help him in Valais.

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