Jon Armstrong always harboured dreams of becoming a World Rally Champion. That dream became a virtual reality on Saturday when the rally driver turned gamer to claim the eSports WRC title.

Jon emerged from thousands of entrants to take his place in the last eight at the Grand Final held in the service park at Rally Germany, and after a dramatic shootout the Fermanagh man emerged victorious, coming from behind on the final stage to claim the top prize.

“I always wanted to be a world champion in real life, and to do it virtually is a great achievement for me and no one can take that away from me,” said Jon.

“I didn’t realise I had won and when he said I was world champion. I didn’t believe it. I thought maybe he had made a mistake. It was a big surprise but I’m over the moon to be a world champion.”

Twelve months ago Jon was in Germany for the tarmac round of the World Rally Championship, where he was behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta R5 on the real-life stages. He posted a fastest stage time as he announced himself as a young driver to watch, but a lack of budget has since prevented him showing his talent on the big stage. Frustrated by his lack of opportunities he switched to the online version of the WRC, where he believes that his real life experience was key in securing the eSports world title.

“It’s not that different really,” he said. “You are still racing against the opposition to get the fastest time, and you have to manage it and not make any mistakes. I was able to manage my pace and was safe where I needed to be safe, and it is similar in that respect. It is the same psychology. As regards how it feels when you are driving, it wouldn’t be exactly like real life, but that is to be expected. It’s still the same principals and you have to be neat and tidy and not let the car slide wide. I think maybe the others wilted under the pressure of the live event. It was an added pressure and it was a bit distracting because there was a camera and a bright light in my face. In real life rallying you always have some sort of distraction and something playing on your mind, and maybe it is something I am more used to than them when you are under pressure.”

Computer gamers from all over the world are free to enter the simulated driving contest on the official WRC game, and right from the start of the season Jon was among the front runners as the drivers battled to finish inside the top eight and qualify for the final. Jon eventually finished third in the standings, but despite not qualifying in the top spot he still went into the shoot-out confident he could come out on top.

“It took up a lot of time so I just did enough to keep ticking away and get to the final in third,” he revealed. “I didn’t put in the maximum effort in every round, but I did a lot of prep for the final and I knew I could win it. I just had that belief.”

His confidence was shown to be justified in the early rounds. Two stages whittled the eight man field down to a final four, with Jon posting fastest time on each of the two tests. The first of the three stages that made up the final was from Rally Poland and Jon opened out a gap on the rest of the chasing pack, only to lose his advantage on the second stage

“I had a really good push on the first stage and took 7.2 seconds,” he said.

“It was probably my favourite stage and the one I did the most practice on. I then tried to keep the lead, but in Corsica I was leading and about a kilometre from the end I clipped something with the rear of the car and it flipped it over.

"I ended up losing nine seconds so was going into the last one needing to take 1.4.”

The deficit was not insurmountable with the final stage being the longest of the event, based on the famous El Chocolate test from Rally Argentina. Jon has not completed his sums correctly however, and he started the gravel stage thinking he had blown his chance.

“On the last stage I thought I really needed to push because I thought I needed to make up seven seconds, whatever way I did the maths in my head,” he admitted.

“I just went into the last stage like a bull and it worked out alright. I pushed as hard as I could and went four seconds quicker than I ever have on that stage, so it was a big push.

"There was nothing else for it. If in doubt, flat out! At the end I didn’t really know if I had won or not, but they told me when I was getting interviewed.”

His victory earned Jon a new Hyundai i20 Coupe worth €20,000 but he admits he would prefer to put the money into reviving his real life rallying career.

“I was talking to a couple of people at the event so I will chase up that and see if I could get my foot in the door if an opportunity might arise,” he revealed.

“It’s about trying to get contacts and talking to the right people, but it’s very difficult when you need over £100,000 to do anything at WRC level.”