Emotional Craig Breen Interview Is WRC's Highlight of 2023
Being nearly two weeks into the new year, it might seem as if the time for looking back at 2023 is past. But we think you will appreciate this one. The World Rally Championship has just announced the results of its poll for the highlight of last season, the winner being the poignant interview that Craig Breen gave after setting the fastest time in one of the trickiest stages of Rally Sweden. Just two months later, the 33-year-old Irishman was killed in a testing crash.
Despite only having a brief time in rallying’s top flight, Breen had already established himself as a favorite of fans across the world thanks to his combination of driving skill and charisma. The professional career that brought him to the pinnacle was far from an easy ride. Breen won the Super 2000 championship in 2012, effectively the WRC’s junior series, but he then struggled to secure a full-time works drive, spending years doing part-time campaigns where he only competed in a limited number of rounds for Citroën and Hyundai.
In 2021, he finally graduated to a full season driving for the M-Sport team in a Ford Puma. He took third place on his debut at Monte Carlo, then second in Italy, finishing the Drivers’ Championship in seventh place. For 2023 he moved back to Hyundai and was soon showing front-running pace. At the snowy Rally Sweden, he led for much of the event and was a full 7.8 seconds quicker than eventual winner Ott Tänak during the second running of the 6.7-mile-long Brattby stage.
“I should probably be the mayor of Brattby,” he laughingly told an interviewer shortly after crossing the line—a clip that perfectly encapsulates his attitude to the sport he loved.
Rally Sweden would be Breen’s last WRC round, he died testing the Hyundai i20N WRC car in Croatia in early April. His second-place finish in Sweden would be one of six runner-up spots he took in the WRC during his brief career. Had he lived longer, it seems very likely he would soon have graduated to the top step of the podium.
For an indication of just what was involved in becoming the Mayor of Brattby, check out the in-car footage here:
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