By 
JON Armstrong is ‘happy and extremely grateful’ to have finally landed his opportunity to race in the top flight of rallying.
The 31-year-old was announced as one of M-Sport’s World Rally Championship drivers for the 2026 season earlier today and the supremely talented Kesh native is looking forward to seizing the opportunity with both hands alongside his co-driver, Shane Byrne.
“I’m obviously very grateful for the opportunity to drive a Rally1 car,” he beamed. “It’s something I’ve worked towards from a very young age, so to actually be able to compete in the top tier of rallying is definitely a dream come true.
“Of course, there have been years where things didn’t go our way and we weren’t sure if it would ever happen, but we’ve had a very strong season in ERC, showed our potential, and naturally you then want to see what you can do in the World Rally Championship.
“I’m very happy and extremely grateful to M-Sport, who I’ve been driving with for most of my rally career, and also to the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy – without them we definitely wouldn’t be here.
“We’re really looking forward to the year ahead. There are going to be a lot of good times and definitely some challenges, but I think we’ve shown that we can rise to those challenges, so we just need to stay strong, enjoy it, and keep pushing forward.”
Armstrong will joining his fellow Motorsport Ireland Academy crew-mates Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy in the 2026 WRC as both Northern Irish men compete on a full-time basis in Ford Puma Rally1 cars.
They will get their seasons underway late next month at the traditional WRC curtain-raiser, Rallye Monte Carlo where Armstrong and Byrne will be making a first appearance.
With a career built in Ford machinery, Armstrong is a true representative of the effectiveness of the rally progression pyramid. Starting out as a British Rally Championship contender since as early as 2013 in a Ford Fiesta R2, Armstrong competed on national events before making his ERC and WRC debuts in 2015 in the ERC3 and RC4 classes, already starting to build solid experience on staple WRC rounds including Rally de Portugal and Rally Finland.
Armstrong’s achievements also include finishing twice runner-up in the Junior World Rally Championship in 2021 and 2022, in a Ford Fiesta Rally3 with M-Sport Poland, claiming wins and podiums on Junior rounds in Croatia, Sweden and Estonia and Poland to name a few.
A move to the FIA European Rally Championship in 2023 saw Armstrong extend his already impressive range of experience. Armstrong claimed five wins in the Fiesta Rally3, which saw him claim the ERC3 title. He also enjoyed the opportunity to make his debut with Rally2 machinery on the Royal Rally of Scandinavia, where he finished just outside the top ten.
In 2024 he advanced to the top-category in ERC behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta Rally2 car alongside then co-driver Eoin Treacy. A productive season in 2024, supported by the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, gave Armstrong a solid knowledge base of the stages. He would harness this experience throughout 2025, now alongside Shane Byrne, to claim their first podium finishes on Rally Poland and Czech Rally Zlín, before their maiden ERC victory on Wales Rali Ceredigion. The pair delivered a dominant performance in Wales, leading the rally from the second stage all the way to the end and collecting four stage wins along the way.
After fighting for the ERC title all the way to the final day of the championship, Armstrong was runner up by only six points after another commanding win on Croatia Rally in October.
Buoyed by the confidence from their impressive 2025 performances, Armstrong and Byrne look forward to teaming up with fellow Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crew McErlean and Treacy to make the step-up into Ford Puma Rally1 machinery, debuting on Rallye Monte-Carlo in January where Fintona’s Aaron Johnston will also be involved as Takamoto Katsuta’s co-driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing.
