Competing in ERC1 and ERC4/Junior ERC respectively, Irishman Armstrong and Scot McRae plan to capitalise on their experience of stages that are more familiar than others that feature on the ERC schedule.
“It is only a three-hour drive there from home, so I’m really looking forward to my ‘home’ round,” said Armstrong, who is based in Warwickshire, central England and drives a Pirelli-equipped Ford Fiesta Rally2 for M-Sport. “We found a good base to work from during Barum Czech Rally Zlín and will try to bring that into this event and push on. It should be an amazing event and I’m looking forward to the buzz.”
McRae, who’s currently third in the Hankook-supplied FIA Junior ERC Championship, said: “It’s almost like a home event for us. Okay, it’s still a fair drive down from Scotland, but Cam [Fair, co-driver] and I both feel comfortable in the lanes. I haven’t done the event before, but watching the onboards it definitely has a similar feel to the roads we’ve driven in Ireland or on the Jim Clark. They look quite cresty and flowing.”
He continued: “One of the nice things about this event is that none of the [Junior ERC] championship regulars have done it before, so we’re all in the same boat – it’s a level playing field.
“The championship is a little bit out of my hands. All I can do is drive my event. I think the pressure is probably more on the shoulders of the two guys ahead of me in the championship [Mille Johansson and Calle Carlberg] – I’ll just do my own thing. Of course, I want to win again, and to win what’s going to be a fairly historic event for rallying in UK would be great. But I’m not going to get drawn into any of those kind of predictions.”
JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion takes place from 30 August - 1 September.
Monaco
Spain
Turkey