Success in snowy Sweden for Armstrong and Hoy
ON Armstrong and Brian Hoy made the perfect start to the Junior World Rally Championship in Rally Sweden this weekend.
The entire Fermanagh crew was involved in a titanic battle with Finnish Lauri Joona throughout Saturday and Sunday before sweeping in honor of the final stages of an exciting snow-covered event.
The victory was especially sweet for Kesh-born Armstrong, who suffered a heavy crash last time he competed in Sweden in 2020 and missed the junior WRC crown in the final round in Spain in 2021.
“When I heard that I had won, my first reaction was surprise more than anything else, but also a great feeling of joy and satisfaction to take the win on snow,” beamed Armstrong.
“There is a good feeling of redemption also because it is total redemption from Sweden 2020. I have come back next year it is held and I have won it, so I can not do better than that.”
After entering the event due to absolutely no tests at all, Armstrong had thought that Sweden could be his interrupted round when the season is over. But he reversed these doubts throughout the weekend as he got stronger and faster all the time.
“It’s weird but I just had a good feeling and thankfully when we ended up in the shakedown the basic setup was pretty good from the start,” he explained. “Everything just seemed to work pretty fast with Brian as well, so it was just a matter of bringing it to the rally.”
After finding their rhythm and comfortable pace on Friday, Armstrong and Hoy finished the opening day’s seven stages in second place, 7.7 seconds behind Joona.
An incredible time on Saturday’s first stage allowed Armstrong to jump into the Rally Sweden lead for the first time, but the lead then swung back and forth with the Fermanagh pair leading by 3.5 seconds at the end of day two.
Joona got the hope of Armstrong on Sunday’s first of four stages to lead by 0.5 seconds, but the former eWRC champion responded to the next test to turn the difference to 0.5 seconds in his favor.
A second stage win in a row for Armstrong and Hoy gave them a lead of 2.5 seconds with one ride Sarsjoliden left. Despite Joona’s best efforts in the 14-kilometer final, Armstrong did enough to secure his first victory in the snow rally.
“It was a tight fight, probably the closest fight I’ve ever had and to be honest I would have been quite happy with the first or second but I gave it a try,” Armstrong explained.
“I knew I could do it and I did not want to give up until the end and I managed to fight all the way through and it was nice to win that way.”
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Posted: March 5, 2022 at 10:02