Jon Armstrong goes into this weekend’s Rally de Portugal with a new found confidence, after his victory on Rally Croatia gave him the early lead in the Junior World Rally Championship.

Having not tasted competitive action for 14 months prior to the first round of the series in Croatia, he was soon up to the pace of the front runners and he finished strongly to clinch maximum points.

He is now hoping that the lessons learnt during that success can propel him to further glory in Portugal.

“The performance in Croatia gives me confidence that I can win events and I think we can only get better building on that,” he said.

“There are a lot of things we can improve on, so I look forward to implementing them.”

Rally Croatia provided a perfect start to Armstrong’s JWRC campaign, however, the 26-year-old knows the stages he will face in Portugal couldn’t be more different to Croatia’s asphalt roads.

The 20 stage rally covers 337 competitive kilometres on challenging loose surfaced roads between Friday and Sunday.

Armstrong will be looking to replicate the performance of fellow local driver Alastair Fisher, who defeated current M-Sport World Rally Championship driver Elfyn Evans on his way to winning the Junior section in Rally Portugal in 2012.

That event proved to be a rally of attrition, as was the case on Jon’s previous visit to the event five years ago when he was afflicted by a series of punctures, and the Kesh driver believes a steady and calm approach to the rally remains the best way of achieving a points scoring finish.

“Just like I was before Croatia, I am not sure what to expect in terms of where we will be pace-wise,” he explained.

“I think a similar approach will be beneficial in Portugal as it’s quite tough rally on the car.

“You need to get through the stages as quick as you can but also as safe as you can,” he commented.

After their 33-second victory on Rally Croatia, Armstrong and co-driver Phil Hall top the Junior WRC standings with 27 points.

Latvia’s Martins Sesks is their nearest rival, nine points behind.

In the UK, Garry Jennings is also set to return to action before the end of the month, with the recently released entry list for the Neil Howard Stages Rally showing the Fermanagh driver seeded at number 10 with co-driver Rory Kennedy.

The confirmed entry for the rally, running on Monday May 31, has attracted a strong entry from both sides of the Irish Sea with last year’s winner Steve Simpson topping the entry list, ahead of two time British Rally Champion Matt Edwards.

Irish Tarmac regulars Josh and Sam Moffett are both likely to be among Jennings’ main rivals, as are BRC regulars Osian Price, Frank Bird and Rhys Yates.