A Swede Saturday in store for Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy’s Armstrong and Raftery at the BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia.
Both Armstrong and Aife Raftery are happy with their work rate after a challenging eight-stage Friday at the BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia.
Both Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy drivers are contesting the third round of the FIA European Rally Championship and aim to consolidate their championship positions over Saturday’s final leg.
Armstrong is 14th overnight in the rally which is based in the city of Karlstad and takes place on roads made famous by Rally Sweden.
Armstrong and his Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy co-driver Eoin Treacy are competing in an M-Sport run Ford Fiesta Rally2 but were hampered by poor road position on Friday.
“It was a solid day,” said Armstrong. “We may be lacking a bit of overall pace but that is a combination of road position and the overall pace of a European Rally. It is still all to play for on Sunday, we will see if we can improve even more.”
Treacy echoed his drive’s thoughts.
“It has been a good day on the fast gravel roads of Sweden,” he said. “It has been a good day’s learning; these are busy stages but it has been enjoyable too.”
Galway-based Aoife Raftery and co-driver Hannah McKillop have been putting in trojan work on the stages and behind the scenes as they aim to retain their third place in the Junior FIA Rally Championship.
Driving a PCRS Rallysport-prepared Peugeot 208 Rally4 she and McKillop hold ninth place in the Junior category of the rally and are looking forward to the final day of high-speed action in the Värmland and Karlstad areas of central Sweden.
“Delighted to be at the end the day, it has been a challenging day but a lot of fun too, and I am really enjoying the stages,” she said.
“Looking forward to the Sunday stages, overall it has been a really good rally, the top three drivers here are all local and the plan on Sunday is to get closer to their pace.
The hub of the rally is the service park and HQ in Karlstad, the long-time home of the WRC Rally Sweden.
Saturday’s eight stages are based east of Karlstad and the rally finishes at the service park with the official closing ceremony.
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