Waterford’s Craig Breen is one of the favourites to land this season’s European Rally Championship title and is top seed for tomorrow’s Rally Liepaja event in Latvia using a Peugeot 207 S2000.

On their debut for the factory Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, Dungannon’s Kris Meeke and Killarney’s Paul Nagle netted a podium finish along with a bonus point from the Power Stage of Rallye Monte Carlo, the first round of the World Rally Championship.

Irish pair Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle in their Citroen DS3 WRC made a memorable start to the World Rally Championship and hold second overall after the opening day of an incident-filled Rallye Monte Carlo.

Over terrain that will be relatively familiar, Keith Cronin knows that any advantage he can accrue over Frenchman, Sebastien Chardonnet will be a bonus as they go head to head for the most lucrative prize within the WRC3 feeder category of the World Rally Championship.

The Waterford-based Raven’s Rock Rally, round four of the Dunlop National Rally Championship, was stopped after six of the day’s nine stages after popular Dungarvan driver, Paul Mulcahy was killed when his Toyota Starlet collided with a stone fence on the fourth stage near Kilmacthomas.

Having led the Tour de Corse, round five of the European Rally Championship, for the opening three stages, Irish pair Craig Breen/Paul Nagle in the Sainteloc Peugeot 207 S2000 are in recovery mode after a time-consuming puncture on the fourth of yesterday’s six stages.

Even with three British Rally Championship titles under his belt, Keith Cronin had not been able to progress his career due to a lack of funding.

Valvoline National Forest Rally Champions, Cork pair, Owen Murphy/James O’Brien (Mitsubishi) won the Mallow-based Jim Walsh Cork Forest Rally, the fourth round of the series after finishing 6.3 seconds ahead of Colin Britton/Arthur Kierans with former champions, Pat O’Connell/Mark Wiley just nine tenths of a second behind to complete a Mitsubishi top three.

THE performance of reigning World Rally Academy champion, Craig Breen, will be monitored closely on the Monte Carlo Rally, the opening round of the World Rally Championship that begins today.

NEWLY-CROWNED Irish Tarmac Group N champion, Garry Jennings headlines tomorrow’s Bailey NiteClub Redcastle Oceanfront Spa Hotel Donegal Harvest Rally, the penultimate round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship.

THE Valvoline Irish Forest Rally Championship could be decided in tomorrow’s Omagh-based Bushwhacker Rally, the penultimate round of both the Irish series and the Hankook Northern Ireland Rally Championship.

THE demise of Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge both here and in Britain is a major blow, particularly to the young drivers, as it provided a perfect launching pad to their careers.

THE DONEGAL Mini Stage Rally in Glenties fell victim to the weather conditions despite the heroic work of the organisers who salted the roads over which the event was to traverse.

TITLE contenders in both the Citroen Irish Tarmac Championship and the Dulux Trade British Rally Championship face similar tasks on this weekend’s penultimate rounds of the series, that while featuring the same stages, headquarters and service halts, will run under two different names.

HORSEPOWER of a different variety will reverberate at the Tralee Racecourse tomorrow for the Tyre Stop Kerry Rallysprint.