Breen, Fisher in Portugal bid

TWO of Ireland’s most talented drivers, Waterford’s, Craig Breen and Fermanagh’s, Alastair Fisher compete in the WRC Academy series that begins this weekend alongside Rally Portugal, the third round of the World Rally championship.

They are amongst some 20 drivers from around the world (all under 25 years of age) that will campaign identical two-wheel-drive Ford Fiesta R2’s supplied and maintained by M-Sport.

Both featured in the recent Carrick on Suir Forest Rally where Breen finished fifth but Fisher retired with a broken sump.

Breen and co-driver, Gareth Roberts, carried out an extensive test on Saturday at a location in Portugal.

“I felt it important to get in a test session out here as the stages are very specialised. During the test we concentrated on car setup, tyres and our pacenotes. We were delighted with the way it went.”

The ceremonial start and opening spectator stage took place in Lisbon last evening with the cars and crews returning to their base in Faro. Fisher has abandoned plans to contest the British Rally Championship as he feels the new Academy series offers a better opportunity in terms of a career in rallying. With identical machinery creating the “level playing field” it will be interesting to see how they perform against each other.

Meanwhile, with a victory apiece — Mikko Hirvonen in Sweden and Sebastien Loeb in Mexico, Rally Portugal should be a good indicator as to the fortunes of Ford and Citroen.

Citroen team boss, Olivier Quesnel reckons that leaving Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier to fight for outright victory should benefit the team’s chances of a fourth consecutive manufacturers’ crown. They were on course for a one-two finish on Rally Mexico until Ogier crashed out on the final day. Ulster co-driver, Chris Patterson, will partner ex-World champion, Petter Solberg (Citroen DS3 WRC) while Michael Orr contests his 100 WRC event, he co-drives for Nasser Al Qassimi (Ford Fiesta WRC).

Donegal’s Declan Boyle (Ford Escort) is the top seed for Sunday’s, Midland Moto Rally in Rooskey, County Leitrim. Last year’s winner has strong opposition from Monaghan’s, Daniel McKenna, Lisburn’s, Wesley Patterson, both in Ford Escorts along with Sam Moffett (Mitsubishi Evo9) and Maurice Moffett (Toyota Starlet).

Also on Sunday, the Munster Car Club’s 4x4 Trial will take place in Kilbrittain at 11am. Meanwhile, the National Hillclimb Championship gets underway with a double header at Fethard-on-Sea, County Wexford tomorrow and Ballystraw, Duncannon on Sunday. Tomorrow night’s, Carbery Navigation Trial will begin from Drimoleague in west Cork just before midnight.

Despite continued speculation, there’s been no official confirmation of Derry’s, Marty McCormack and his Cork co-driver, David Moynihan, being committed to a programme of events in the British Rally Championship and some WRC events in a Citroen DS3.

Organisers of the forthcoming Donnelly Group Circuit of Ireland Rally have confirmed that reigning BTRDA rally champion, Steve Perez will drive his Lancia Stratos in the National section of the two day event that will be based in Armagh. Competitors will tackle 16 stages (including a town stage in Lisburn) across counties Down, Tyrone, Antrim, Armagh and Monaghan.

Former Dunlop National rally champion, Niall Maguire (Niall Maguire) is amongst the line-up for next week’s Tralee based Carlton Hotel Circuit of Kerry Rally, the second round of the Top Part West Coast Rally Championship. Winner of the recent Mayo Rally, Kevin Barrett (Subaru WRC) along with the Group N Mitsubishi’s of Alan Ring and Thomas Fitzmaurice, Shane Maguire (Subaru) and the Mk. 2 Ford Escorts of Ed O’Callaghan and Mike Quinn are some of the other competitors. The organising Kerry Motor Club will implement a new format for the Junior and Historic categories.

Unlike other rallies, both categories will compete over the first six stages of the rally and will be seeded amongst main entry. The respective winners will be presented at the finish ramp prior to the overall rally winners.

The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, that begins next week, has confirmed a record entry list ahead of its 2011 season with ten makes of cars (13 different models) representing Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Proton, SEAT, Toyota, Vauxhall and Volkswagen – on a packed grid. It is the highest number of different makes and models in two decades.