Waterford rally ace Craig Breen enjoyed a great start to the season when scoring a 14-second win in the weekend's Corrib Oil Galway International Rally, heading a clean sweep of the top four positions by Ford Fiesta drivers.
Breen, not included on this year's Citroen World Rally Championship team, with his Killarney co-driver Paul Nagle, dropped some time on the opening stage. Overshooting a junction, he was left behind double Galway winners, Garry Jennings and Rory Kennedy, who were the early leaders in their Impreza.
Stage two then saw Alastair Fisher and Gordon Noble set the best time in their Fiesta, briefly giving them the lead, but Breen took over top place at the end of the first loop of three stages, just three tenths of a second ahead of Jennings.
The Fermanagh and Waterford rivals swapped positions twice more in quick succession before Jennings slid off the road and out of the rally.
Breen was never overtaken for the rest of the day, Fisher finished as the runner up, wand defending Irish Tarmac title holder Josh Moffett was third, another 34 seconds down. His elder brother Sam, another former Tarmac champion, was an early casualty when he too went off the road in the slippery conditions.
