On Thursday, the sports world was met with shocking sad news. An Irishman who competed in the Hyundai team in the World Rally Championship Craig Breen33, died during his team’s tests before the World Rally Championship in Croatia.
Breen’s car veered off the road and hit a wooden pole head-on. The accident happened at 12:40 local time. Croatian authorities are investigating the accident involving the Hyundai.
Tommi Mäkinenthe four-time rally world champion, is understandably deeply shocked by the news.
– A terrible shock. Can’t understand. It feels like it’s not real. There is nothing else to do but to wish strength to all loved ones and also to the entire Hyundai team, so that life continues. A terrible event, says Mäkinen on the phone.
Mäkinen does not know the background of the accident, so he cannot comment on that.
– It is very rare that something like that happens, which causes such a thing. The cars are made very hard, but when you have the worst luck in the world, anything is possible.
“A sensitive and nice guy”
Mäkinen was closely involved in rallying after his World Championship drive ended in 2003. In 2017–20, he was Toyota’s team manager. Mäkinen says that he knew Breen well.
– A moderately sensitive and very nice guy, a skilled driver.
– We also discussed at one time whether he would have come to Toyota. However, it never happened, but I knew him well.
Mäkinen believes that the event will leave a very deep mark on the rally series.
– Everyone understands how serious it is to talk about. It even affects such things that there may be withdrawals. One of the worst things that can happen to a car factory, says Mäkinen, considering Hyundai’s point of view.
The World Rally Championship in Croatia was scheduled to be held on the 20th-23rd. April. Mäkinen says that driving the rally will certainly be discussed in the near future.
The sad news reached Markku Alén in Sardinia
Finnish rally legend Markku Alén drove as the unofficial World Rally Champion in 1978 before the actual World Championship was established.
He was on a cruise ship in Sardinia today, eating with the group organizing the World Rally Championship in Sardinia, when the shocking news reached him.
– Really dumbfounding news, absolutely unbelievable. A rough thing for a rally.
– Quieted the whole group. It has been many years here that nothing like this has really happened and everything has gone well. Couldn’t even fathom something like that would happen. Cars have become very safe. That’s bad luck. When you go in from the right place, a log or whatever it was.
The last fatality in the main class of the World Rally Championship was in 2005, when Markko Märtinin map reader Michael Park died in a crash in the Welsh Rally. Breen lost his cart by Gareth Roberts in the 2012 Sicilian IRC rally crash. In the UI section, a metal railing penetrated the car from the karter side.
Alén reminds us that even though the teams and drivers are fighting for victory in the rally, everyone is the same family.
Alén says that in his own career, he lost three teammates within a year. At that time, things were not discussed much.
– Everyone retreated to their own conditions and home. Then we thought about how to continue. Death is always a terrible thing. Even now, the safety of the rally has developed tremendously.
– A harsh word, but life goes on. Surely everyone is thinking about what to do and whether to continue the rally next week. The situation is absolutely shocking and also that (Breen’s) map reader died in Sicily in 2012 in a similar way.
Alén says that he doesn’t know Breen that well, but has met his family once in Ireland. Alén knows that the whole family followed the rally closely, and also the father Ray Breen your competition in the rally.