ARMSTRONG AIMS TO GAIN AN EDGE OVER HIS JWRC RIVALS WITH AZORES RETURN
Northern Irishman enters mid-Atlantic Ocean gravel showpiece in Ford Fiesta Rally3
Jon Armstrong is hoping to gain the upper hand over his Junior World Rally Championship rivals by contesting the European championship-counting Azores Rallye this weekend.
Northern Irishman Armstrong heads the Junior WRC order following his class victory on Rally Sweden last month, only his second outing in a Ford Fiesta Rally3, the new JWRC base car for this season.
He’s entered the Ponta Delgadabased rally, round two of the 2022 ERC season, to build his experience aboard the M-Sport Poland-built machine on lower-speed gravel stages, which are similar in nature to some of the roads he’ll experience on the JWRC rounds in Portugal and Greece later this year.
“Given there’s a lot of gravel events in the Junior WRC and two slower, technical, events in Portugal and Greece, the Azores is a good way to get into the swing of things early on in the season and get my head around that style of driving,” said the 27-year-old, who will be co-driven by Irishman Bryan
Hoy. “Maybe it will give us a little bit more confidence for the remainder of the year.”
Armstrong failed to finish on his last visit to the Azores back in
2015, retiring his Peugeot 208 R2 with a mechanical failure.
He’s hoping for a more productive trip second time round. “It’s new for me driving four-wheel drive in those conditions and on those style of roads so there will be lots of things for me to learn and lots of things for Bryan to learn as well. It will be a big challenge, it’s a very tricky event and the weather conditions can change very quickly between each stage so it’s going to be a case of just trying to get to the finish if the conditions are bad. But it’s a good opportunity that we’ve been given and our sponsors have been very good to try to help us out to get more seat time and try to prepare better for the rest of the season.
“The new ERC format looks really good and it’s an exciting time to try an event in the championship.”