Joe Armstrong to finish ERC season in Poland
Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy and M-Sport driver Jon Armstong will close out his 2024 FIA European Rally Championship campaign this weekend with Rally Silesia in Poland, along with fellow academy ace and usual Co-Driver Eoin Treacy.
An exciting new addition to the ERC calendar for 2024, the Tarmac event from 11 – 13 October is set to be one of the highlights of the season with super special stages planned in central Katowice and around the Silesian Stadium, as well as several challenging and spectacular countryside tests.
Armstrong described the event as being similar in characteristics to other European rallies he has contested in the past.
He is looking forward to another tarmac outing following a strong performance in Wales in September.
“The stages look to be quite technical with a lot of variation. The character and surface types are a bit like a mixture of Ypres and Barum,” said Armstong.
“We just really need to get our heads down and try to pick up we left off in Wales and carry the pace so we can get a strong result.”
Armstrong currently lays 6th O/A in the European Rally Championship standings, level on points (59) with Romanian driver Simone Tempestini in a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2. Armstong comes into this weekend knowing that a good performance could see him into the top 5 of the championship, a fine result for his first season at the top level of Europe’s premier Rally Championship.
Last time out in ERC JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion, Armstrong scored his first stage win at the top level of ERC on the events 12th stage, the 17.84km Spencer Quantum Hafod test. He will be hoping to build on this pace on the final championship round this weekend.
Armstrong tested both his and William Creighton’s Ford Fiesta Rally2 cars at M-Sport last week.
“That was a good chance to get back into the rhythm of driving,” he added. “It has been a long wait since Ceredigion.“
Rally Silesia gets underway on Friday with Free Practice, the Qualifying Stage and Shakedown in Zabrze.
Later in the day, the opening ceremony takes place in Katowice, ahead of a 1.85km super special in the host city.
A total of 14 stages over 180kms are scheduled with the event concluding with the Silesian Voivodeship / Województwo Śląskie PowerStage just after 4 pm on Sunday.
