THROUGHOUT the Junior World Rally Championship, Jon Armstrong and Sami Pajari were slugging it out for the title with the Finnish teenager pipping his Fermanagh rival at the final round in Spain.
At the weekend, however, the two foes became team-mates as they battled together against the rest of the field in two M-Sport Poland Rally3 Ford Fiestas to help boost Pajari’s hopes of adding the European junior crown to his World title.
And although a little disappointed not to be competing in Hungary as the newly crowned World champion, Armstrong was more than happy to be able to give Pajari a helping hand to achieve his goal.
“It was good to be his team-mate, to not be rivals and to wormk together,” Armstrong said.
Although he struggled initially, after a less than useful recce, Armstrong and co-driver Phil Hall quickly found their feet on Saturday to rattle off three stage wins to move from around half a minute behind Pajari to the leaders of the event.
“My pacenotes weren’t perfect, we didn’t have the best recce,” explained the Kesh native.
“But we improved that throughout the rally, which was tough, and we had some good pace throughout, which is nice.”
Another sluggish start on Sunday agian handed Pajari the initiative, one he wouldn’t relinquish, and after another late charge with two stage wins, Armstrong had to settle for second place.
“We did have a mega rally but I was just a bit slow in the mornings, which dropped us down,” Jon added.
“But it’s fine because you have to be smart. I find if I don’t feel comfortable, it’s best to get through and see how the times are rather than force it.”
But he sees the result as a positive, with more seat time gained, particularly in the new Rally3 machine and he was able to help Pajari gain plenty of points on his rivals.
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