MEEKE AND BREEN TO BELGIAN EVENT
WRC battlers to join Hirvonen in competing in Legend Boucles Bastogne this weekend
World Rally stars Kris Meeke, Craig Breen and Mikko Hirvonen will all contest this weekend’s Legend Boucles Bastogne, the biggest such event in Europe.
The three aces will head a star-studded entry for the historic rally, which often runs in snow and ice in the Bastogne region in Belgium.
Meeke, who recently called time on his WRC career, will drive a Ford Escort Mk2 while Breen will campaign a freshly-built BMW M3 with regular co-driver Paul Nagle. Last year’s winner Hirvonen will return to the rally in another Escort Mk2, although Thierry Neuville will not compete this year due to pressure of his factory Hyundai commitments.
Breen, who will drive a Group A car from the van den Brand team in the Netherlands, said: “Paul and I are looking forward to this unique event and continuing our historic journey. Don’t worry though, we’ll be back to modern machinery before too long – but I am going to enjoy the soundtrack from this era in the meantime!”
Meeke and his co-driver Seb Marshall will use a car from the Rallying Solutions stable of Belgian competitor Christophe Jacob, while Hirvonen will again be co-driven by Jarno Ottman.
Event promoter Pierre Delettre said: “Obviously, there will always be some who will regret the absence of Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul. During the weekend Thierry and Nico will call in to say hello. Having said that, we can be proud of our 2020 entry, which is quite superb. It’s quite simple, no other event on the historic scene can do it as well.”