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World Rally Championship driver Craig Breen will return to defend his 2015 Circuit of Ireland win following a last-minute deal to drive a Citroen DS 3 R5.

Breen and co-driver Scott Martin will drive a David Greer Motorsport car, testing it for the first time in the week leading up to the event - which is the next round of both the European and British Rally Championships.

He headlines arguably the strongest ever Circuit entry, with 38 R5 cars on the list for the April 7-9 event.

"That's more cars with a theoretical chance to win a rally than I can ever remember before," Breen told Autosport.

"Last year we had the European Rally Championship competitors and guys like Robert Barrable and Alastair Fisher to worry about - this time around we've got three series [ERC, BRC and Irish Tarmac Championship] converging and those championships are all at the top of their game and bringing some serious competition."

Breen is unlikely to register for BRC points as he does not expect to contest any further rounds of the revived series and "it would seem a bit unfair to potentially take points away from other drivers".

For the full story of Breen's deal and the rest of the Circuit of Ireland entry, see this week's issue of our sister publication Motorsport News on Wednesday