Jon gains valuable experience in England

Editorial Department • Published 13 Oct 2011 13:30 0 Comments

Jon Armstrong enjoyed a valuable workout at the F1000 Junior Rally Championships at MOD Woodbridge Airfield, near Ipswich recently.

The championships are an MSA backed series aimed at providing 14-17 year olds with experience in rallying and the event Jon participated in was round 10/14 of the championship.

Having heard aboput the series, Jon decided to test himself against the best young rally drivers in England as well as gain valuable experience competing in his first event outside Ireland.

Using a Nissan Micra 998cc for the event, Jon came up against 20 other juniors in a variety of cars. The rally itself was one of the toughest on the calendar with six stages totalling 70 stage miles, and the longest stage being over 11 mile.

The first stage was to be a tough test of Jon's ability, having not driven the car at all prior to the rally! Jon took a steady approach on the first stage, but due to poor seeding he was running at the back of the field and got held up passing two slower cars.

The second stage started well, but half way into the ten mile stage he got a puncture and was forced to stop and change costing the crew five minutes.

He then used the event as a test to get familiar the with car and made some set-up changes, and on stage three set the seventh fastest time

After the cancellation of stage four, Jon had nothing to lose and went for a strong pace to finish the last two stages with the third and second fastest times, leapfrogging him up to tenth overall.

Jon finished the event with two good last stages, putting in some fast times on his first visit to the event against strong and more experienced drivers.

The trip on the whole was very successful one, gaining valuable experience and comparing himself to the pace at the top.

The next event is the Peter Lloyd stages on October 16 based in South Wales.

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This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 13 Oct 11

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