Kris Meeke will compete in the Portuguese Rally Championship for Hyundai in honor of Craig Breen.
Breen began a planned season-long campaign in the championship last month, competing on behalf of Team Hyundai Portugal.
After Breen’s tragic passing on a pre-event test for Croatia Rally, Team Hyundai Portugal has deliberated long and hard about the best way to honor Breen, and has decided to invite his longtime friend and former team-mate Meeke to contest the remainder of the season, including the WRC’s Rally Portugal in May.
“My decision was not made lightly,” said Meeke. “I first accepted because it was my desire to get back into racing, but I also thought what Craig would tell me, and I know he would tell me to accept.
“This is how I will honor him. I’m just going to keep racing like he always did, winning and enjoying.”
Meeke’s last competitive event was last year’s Qatar International Rally in a Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo. He has also been conducting development work on the Fabia RS Rally2 but hasn’t contested a rally at world level since his 2019 campaign with Toyota ended.
Meeke’s first event will be the Rali Terras d’Aboboreira this weekend. He will be co-driven on the event by Andreas Mikkelsen’s former co-driver Ola Fløene, with whom Meeke has been conducting Škoda testing.
The news means Hyundai Portugal will continue to field two cars in the championship, with Ricardo Teodósio driving the second i20 N Rally2.
