Puncture snatches Junior WRC title from Armstrong’s grasp

Jon Armstrong narrowly missed out on the 2022 Junior WRC title despite showing incredible speed on notorious World Rally Championship event – Acropolis Rally Greece.

The Rally Sweden winner was forced to settle for second in Greece and runner-up in WRC’s Junior Championship after a puncture on Friday evening cost him almost two minutes to eventual champion Robert Virves.

Armstrong’s co-driver, Brian Hoy, was crowned 2022 Junior WRC Co-drivers’ Champion thanks to the Fermanagh duo’s year-long efforts.

“We are really happy with our own personal performance,” reflected Armstrong. “That makes it disappointing to miss out on the championship and the future opportunities it offers.

“Coming second in Junior WRC two years in a row is obviously tough for me but we just have to take the positives from our performances rather than focus on things outside our control.

“I was really happy with our pace. We were trying to be sensible in our approach to make it through the incredibly rough Acropolis stages.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid a few punctures on Friday, they came out of nowhere just because the surface, in general, was so rocky.”

---

Armstrong and Hoy made a perfect start to Rally Greece. Two fastest stage times on Friday morning gave them an early 10-second Junior WRC lead.

Two punctures for their Ford Fiesta Rally3 put them back in a battle with Virves but still, things were shaping up nicely as Junior WRC’s four-way title fight had now narrowed to a shootout between the Northern Irish and Estonian drivers.

Friday’s final 23-kilometre test, Bauxites, dealt a cruel blow to Armstrong’s hopes, though. The rocky bedrock punctured another of Armstrong’s tyres and this time it cost him one minute and 44 seconds to Virves. Despite Armstrong and Hoy’s best efforts to change the wheel mid-stage as quick as possible, they were now almost two minutes behind with nine stages remaining in Greece.

A spell-bounding fightback brought the Northern Irish crew to within 18 seconds of their Estonian rival, but it just wasn’t enough. Virves managed to complete the rally without any issues and there was nothing Armstrong could do to regain all the time required.

---

“We plugged away, kept a good rhythm, and tried to avoid any more issues.

“It was a balance between trimming Robert’s lead and making sure we stayed in the rally in case he got a puncture. In the end, we ran out of miles to catch him.

“But we have to take the positives from our performances this year, I definitely felt a good step inside the car this weekend, and I think our six fastest times over the weekend showed that.”

The fellow Northern Irish crew of William Creighton and Liam Regan battled through Rally Greece’s car-crunching stages to finish third, their second podium in Junior WRC.

---