Browne bows out with his head held high with Volkswagen in WRC

KERRY World Rally Championship engineer Richard Browne may not know what the future holds but he can look back on his last four years as a member of the highly successful Volkswagen World Rally Team with pride.

The German team bowed out of the World Rally Championship after last weekend’s Rally Australia after its parent company pulled financial backing following the internationally reported diesel emissions fixing scandal that rocked the automotive world in general.

It was a bitter blow for Browne and his team mates who achieved so much in their four years at the fore-front of world rallying and many seasoned observed feel they were the unjust victims of the company-wide cull directly linked with multi-million lawsuits in America.

Team officials have already said that all 200 employees will be re-deployed to other arms of the company, the Firies-native has yet to learn his ultimate fate.

Regardless, he won’t be too worried this week as he celebrates his driver’s Andreas Mikkelsen and co-driver Anders Jaeger’s victory in Australia. It was the Norwegian’s third win at World Rally Championship level and on all three occasions Browne was the engineering mastermind behind the victory. Previous success had come in Poland earlier this year and in Spain late in the 2015 season.

Following his maiden victory in Spain just over a year ago, Mikkelsen and his co-driver Jaeger heaped praise on his Kerry engineer and publicly thanked him for his efforts.

It was no different in Coff’s Harbour on Sunday, when the factory number three crew drove their Polo over the finish line 14 seconds ahead of teammate and four-time world rally champion Sebastien Ogier.

The Norwegian said: “What a fantastic weekend, and what a wonderful result at the end of our season.

“Today has been a very special day, as it was our last appearance as a team. I was so desperate to win this rally for Volkswagen (which) is the team that gave me the opportunity to step up into the top class of the WRC. They put a lot of faith in me and made so much possible for me.”

The result secured him third position in this year’s title race and will make him a hot property with other teams ahead of the mid-December deadline for 2017 driver line up confirmations.

Mikkelsen added: “On the one hand, it is a bit of a shame that we just missed out on second place in the championship.

On the other hand, that is not so important. If I had been given the choice of winning our final rally together or finishing runner-up in the world championship, I would always have chosen the win.”

The Triton Showers National Rally Championship awards took place in Athlone on Saturday night with Killarney co-driver Damian Fleming picking up second in Class 15.

Meanwhile London-based Killarney man Mick Smith will contest his final rally of the year when he contests the historic element of the Kortrijk Rally in Belgium on Saturday and Sunday in his Chrysler Avenger.