Craig Breen had mixed fortunes at the MJP Arena last weekend, scoring a brace of fourth place finishes, but having to contend with a fire on Sunday.
The Irishman, who has been one of the fastest drivers in the field every time he has competed, was dominating his Q2 heat until his car’s exhaust was damaged over the track’s first jump. The damage caused the carbon fibre bodywork around the exhaust to catch fire spectacularly.
Despite the fire he returned to the track in Q3 and once again schooled the field to win and solidify his place in the round eight semi-finals.
„It was interesting,“ Breen said of his fiery exit from Q2. „It’s a pity because it kind of put me on the back foot a little bit because I head reasonably good speed in the heats and everything was going quite okay [until the fire].“
Breen has qualified for the final in every round he has competed in, taking a best finish of fourth three times. Although he again advanced on raw speed in round eight, setup issues prevented Breen from claiming a long-awaited maiden podium in the category.
„I struggled a little bit in the semi-final with the setup to be honest,“ he said. „I kind of destroyed the tyres and didn’t really have much left for the final so it wasn’t so interesting to be honest just hanging of the back of the boys and just driving around, but I got around.“
Breen will sit out of the next two rounds due to World Rally Championship commitments, but he’s keen to return to TitansRX soon and string together a consistent weekend.
„I’d like, if a can, to get a whole weekend to flow the way I want,“ he said. „I think we could get a good result but for some reason it always kind of self-destructs on me.“
