Topping the ERC times “really cool” for Armstrong

The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy member was quickest of all through SS12, the 17.84km Spencer Quantum Hafod test, in his Pirelli-equipped Ford Fiesta Rally2. ERC tile rivals Hayden Paddon and Mathieu Franceschi were joint second fastest, 2.4sec adrift of the flying M-Sport driver.  

“It’s something we’ve been trying to get all year,” last season’s FIA ERC3 champion during the Welsh Tarmac event. “Obviously the level has been really high but to finally get it is really nice and on a proper stage like that. I think that’s maybe one of the best of the rally, over the full year, especially at the start with all the crests. It’s really narrow then you go out on the wide road and you have to get all your racing lines, a bit like Catalunya and then back onto a slippery narrow road again. A beautiful stage and really cool to go fastest.”  

Armstrong, who’s co-driven by Eoin Treacy in the ERC, continued: “We’ve struggled to get onto that front pace but here, almost at home, we could show what we can do against really good drivers from Ireland, the British championship, but also Hayden, Franceschi who are really fast on Tarmac so it’s really cool.

“These are proper stages with a lot blind corners over crests, rhythm changes, width of the road, really narrow places but you’re still going flat out and you really have to trust the car and the tyres.  

“The last two events weren’t so good, we were scratching our heads a little bit where the pace could be got from. But thankfully we are much closer here and it’s a lot more where we wanted it to be.”  

Armstrong is one of 25 drivers to have won a stage during the 2024 ERC season, which concludes in Poland next month with Rally Silesia from 11 - 13 October.