Jon Armstrong has confirmed his return to the Junior World Rally Championship for the 2022 season, with fellow Fermanagh man Brian Hoy set to navigate for him on the five event series. Armstrong came agonisingly close to winning the 2021 JWRC Championship, but having led going into the final round in Spain, an accident ended his hopes of the title.

That near miss inspired the Kesh driver to try again, and he managed to put a budget together for the series just days before entries closed for the first rally in Sweden, after he issued a social media appeal for assistance.

“I had a really positive response from everyone in the rally community, my fans and everyone online and it was nice to see, and obviously brilliant to have people come forward and want to get involved,” said Jon.

“It’s really good to be in a position where I have the whole budget up front, which I don’t think I have ever had in my whole rally career before. The sponsors that I had on board wanted a guarantee that I was going to do the whole championship and that meant getting the whole budget before I started.

“That was the dilemma last week and I had to give it a push to see if it was possible. Now I have a busy couple of weeks putting everything in place, but we will get there, I’m sure.”

Having secured the funding to enable him to contest the Championship, Jon decided to make it an all Fermanagh crew as he recruited Brain Hoy to call the pace notes for the year.

Brian is already committed to contesting Irish Tarmac Championship with Callum Devine, but will team up with Jon for the World Championship rounds.

“I have seen what Brian has been doing in recent years with Callum and he has been getting on really well, so working with Brian was always something I was wanting to do if it was possible,” said Jon. “I couldn’t come to an agreement with Phil Hall for this year, so I had to see what other options were possible. I gave Brian a shout and he was really up for it.”

Sami Pajari pipped Jon to the title last year, and the Finn is also back to contest the championship as the pair renew their rivalry.

Five of the eight drivers in the 2021 series are back for another attempt at winning the series, which features a much changed calendar of events. The championship kicks off in three weeks’ time in Sweden, the scene of Jon’s high speed accident in 2019, and although it is a tough start for the Fermanagh men, Jon is hopeful they will have the speed to contend for rally wins throughout the campaign.

“It is hard to know how suitable the events are for me,” he admitted.

“There was more tarmac last year, and Sweden is always going to be a difficult challenge for a number of reasons. There is more snow this year, which might help, but going up against the other Scandinavians is always hard but I think a podium would be a good result.

“Croatia is also going to be a tough challenge because there are some very fast drivers that were there last year that are in the championship again, but I won it last year, so I need to try and put a big effort in on that one. In Portugal last year I had good pace and was leading until I had my issues so there is no reason I couldn’t win there.

“In Estonia I had good pace as well, I just need to pull my finger out early on and not get caught sleeping and there should be no reason that I would be far away. Greece is going to be a bit of a lottery. On slow rallies I am normally there or thereabouts, but it depends on how rough it will be. It has double points so the Championship will be wide open until the final stage of Greece.”

For the first time in the Junior WRC’s 21-year history, drivers will switch from front-wheel to four-wheel drive machinery as they steer identical M-Sport Poland Ford Fiesta Rally3 cars. Jon has already gained some experience of the car having contested Rally Poland in similar machinery last year, and he hopes that will give him a head start.

“I have a bit of experience in that car now,” he acknowledged.

“I did one rally in it last year and a bit of testing which was really nice. That testing was on tarmac, and the rally was on gravel, so I have a bit of a flavour of the car on all surfaces but there is still a bit to get out of it from my end in terms of the driving and the set up. It’s a strange car to drive because there is so much torque down low in the engine.

“I need to see what is possible in terms of testing or extra seat time over the course of the year because I think that is going to be quite crucial in these cars. I’m not sure what they are going to allow us to change, but I believe there will be a few more options this time.

“Last year they locked a lot of things and you couldn’t change your ride height, and couldn’t change the front springs. It was nice because the testing wasn’t totally crucial, but if they open it up a bit more then I definitely need to work on that after Sweden and get a bit more budget for that.”

If Jon and Brian are successful in their title bid, they will receive four arrive and drive rallies on 2023 European WRC rounds in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 car.