BREEN TO DRIVE METRO 6R4 ON THE KILLARNEY HISTORIC RALLY
Citroen WRC driver will perform zero car duties in newly-purchased car
Citroen World Rally Championship driver Craig Breen will drive his family’s Metro 6R4 for the first time at next month’s Killarney Historic Rally.
The Metro 6R4 has been a favourite of Breen’s since watching his father Ray compete in the national championship 20 years ago. The 28-year-old will follow in his father’s footsteps in sending a 6R4 down the lanes and across such Killarney classics as Moll’s Gap as the zero car on the December 1 event.
“It’s just perfect,” said Breen. “I’m looking forward to it so much. I’ve driven some 6R4s on a track, but I’ve never done anything like this before. My dad took the car out last weekend and did a rallysprint close to home in Waterford, he absolutely loved it.
“There’s not been a lot of time with the car since we got it, but I drove it away up the lanes just close to home and the noise of the thing is just fantastic. We’ve got the high-compression 2.5-litre engine, the three-litre [engine] was banned, but it really is something special. I have to say a big thank you to Pierre [Budar, Citroen team principal] for allowing me to use the car.”
The car is the same one Kris Meeke used in a demonstration run for Rally Ireland in Donegal in 2008, in Clarion livery.
Meeke’s ex-co-driver Paul Nagle will return to sit alongside Breen. The pair competed in an S2000 car in the WRC and ERC in 2012 and ’13, but haven’t rallied together since. Nagle hasn’t competed since he and Meeke were dropped by Citroen in May.
Breen’s regular co-driver Scott Martin is ruled out of the rally – he returns from his honeymoon the day before the event.
“It’ll be a fairly emotional event,” said Breen. “Getting out on an event like Killarney, on some of those unbelievable stages. It’s going to be fantastic, the roads around there are all amazing.”
While his day job involves driving Citroen’s C3 WRC in the World Rally Championship, Breen is no stranger to the historic side of the sport, having competed in his own Ford Escort RS1800 on numerous occasions. The Metro, though, will be something special.
“It’s an original car that was rebuilt 10 or 15 years ago,” said Breen. “And that’s just the way I wanted it. We might have some different dampers, but the engine and gearbox are just the same as they always were and that’s how I want it.”