Breen favourite to stay winning

Motor Sport/Weekend Preview: Having already won the Dunlop National Rally Championship, Ray Breen (Kilkenny) and co-driver Andrew…

Motor Sport/Weekend Preview: Having already won the Dunlop National Rally Championship, Ray Breen (Kilkenny) and co-driver Andrew Purcell will be amongst the favourites in Sunday's final round, the Marine Fastnet Rally, sponsored by the Marine Hotel, Glandore.

Jim Harrison and Harvey Bell started the season as championship favourites, but it all went wrong for the British crew as outsider Breen won four rounds, took top points in Galway and clinched the title with a second-place finish in Clare.

Harrison won the Fastnet Rally last year and another good result would see him finish in the championship top three. The Subaru driver starts in front of Breen in a Ford Focus WRC.

Top seeded local driver is West Cork winner Denis Cronin, who starts at number three, ahead of Patrick Elliott and Kevin Barrett. A fourth-place finish would see Barrett edging out Harrison for third place in the championship. Also in the top-10 are UK drivers Mel Evans and Tony Davies, Hugh Martin Doherty and Nigel Hicklin.

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Michael Curran leads the Group N battle from Alan Ring, Willie Fannin, James O'Sullivan, Kevin Kelleher and Kieran O'Callaghan. Newly crowned British and Irish Super 1600 champion Brian O'Mahony, Billy Coleman Award winner Eamonn McElvaney and Keith Cronin are in Peugeot 106's.

Irish crews Eamonn Boland/ Francis Regan in a Ford Focus WRC and Paddy White/Martin Brady in a Subaru are competing in the Rally Catalunya, which starts today.

Irish drivers Michael Cullen and Paddy Shovlin finished first and third, respectively, in the European Ferrari Challenge. Having previously finished second and twice finishing fourth, Cullen admits he thought he would never win the Ferrari series.

Next year the two Dublin drivers will race the more powerful Ferrari 430 models in the European championship.

Jenny Ryan (Athy) won this year's Fiat Punto Championship, and next year is contesting the UK Mini Challenge in a 200bhp Mini Cooper S.

WEEKEND FIXTURES

Sunday: Skibbereen & District MC, Marine Fastnet Rally, starts Skibbereen, Co Cork, 8.10am.