Jon Armstrong will compete on five rounds of the World Rally Championship next season after winning the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy Shoot Out. The Kesh driver beat off competition from nine other finalists to win the highly sought after prize that will see him compete in a Ford Fiesta R2 in 2016.
Jon qualified for the shoot out when he impressed the selection panel in his one WRC outing to date, on Rally Spain earlier this year. That performance earned him a place in the shoot-out, with the winner set to receive 50% of the budget required to compete in the series next season, starting with Rally Portugal in May.
“It’s a good prize to win and it sets me up for a good year next year,” said Jon. “We have a bit of time now to prepare and make sure the rest of the funds are in place. Portugal isn’t until May so it’s a pretty long way away yet. I have a bit of time to do some research on the events and hopefully a bit of testing if I can.”
The battle to win the prize drive testing the drivers not just on their ability behind the wheel but other fields as well, and after two intense days Jon was hopeful he done enough. “I was happy I had done my best and I knew I couldn’t have been too far away,” he said. “On the Wednesday we did psychological tests, a media interview and a fitness test. They were all quite challenging, especially the fitness. On Thursday we did the driving and an interview with the owner of DMACK. It all went fairly well. I felt I did a good job in all the areas and did a good interview and they obviously felt I was worthy of it. It all worked out well.”
After the series opener in Portugal the competition will take in Poland, Finland and Germany before the winner is crowned after Rally Spain. With the exception of Spain, all the events are new to Jon and he acknowledges it may take him some time to come to terms with the unfamiliar conditions and an unfamiliar car. “I would image some of the events with be quite tough, rough stages but the main aim will be to get to the finish of them all and take it from there,” he said. “We are using the new R2 Fiesta. It is a 1 litre engine with a turbo charger so it’s a bit different to what I am used to, but it shouldn’t be too bad to get on to it. I drove the car in the shoot-out and I thought it was a good car. You don’t rev it as much as the 1.6 R2 but it seems nippy and it should be good.”
Among Jon’s rivals is likely to be Oisin Price who was one of the front runners in the British Championship this year. Around a dozen other drivers will also be battling for the top spot in the M Sport run contest, but the names of the most of the other drivers have yet to be confirmed. After a varied programme in 2015 Jon admits this series will be his primary focus, but he is hoping to make a few other appearances outside of the WRC events if he can. “It’s hard to say at this stage whether I will be doing anything else next year, but I would like to do the odd event here and there,” he said. 
“If I can get a bit of seat time in a one litre car it would be good, although there are not too many of them about and it might be hard to get that seat time. I’m sure we will have a good year whatever happens but I will just have to see what options are available.”