There are plenty who partake in celebratory jumps and leaps. Pete Townshend of The Who regularly took to the air when performing, while in the sporting world, Frankie Dettori is probably as well known for his flying dismount as he is any Classic winner he’s ridden.
Jock Armstrong might not be as famous as those celebrity names of music and horse racing, although he would contest that.
However, his victory spring off the bonnet off his Subaru Legacy at the finish of Saturday’s Brick & Steel Border Counties Rally showed exactly what victory meant to the defending title holder after the second round of the ARR Craib Scottish Rally Championship.
Against more fancied runners, in what even he would described as more up-to-date machinery, the Castle Douglas driver kept his nose and lines clean to eventually win from Euan Thorburn in his Fiesta R5.
Fog, rain and mud “kept everyone honest”, according to Armstrong, co-driven in the "Tangerine Dream Machine" by Paula Swinscoe.
“It was a really good day," he said. "I thought the podium was realistic this morning, but to take the lead and then stay in front to win the event from start to finish is amazing. Fair play to everybody today.
"We were pushed hard but I’m glad I’ve got my confidence back.
“From the start, it wasn’t going to be a day for deviating too far off the beaten track."
“Put the car in the wrong place and it would have been very easy to disappear. So you just had to on the straight and narrow. Not a day for any heroics. But we kept it steady, and kept it quick and I’m happy,” added Armstrong, who also took the champagne 12 months ago.
The finishing order would have been very different had Greg McKnight’s impressive run not been halted by a string of events that saw him eventually finish fifth when he had looked certain to be second.
First, having closed to within 17 seconds of Armstrong, he burst a brake pipe on his Mitsubishi Lancer. While a hurried repair got him going again, all hopes of a podium finish evaporated when he suffered a double puncture. A case of what might have been.
His demise meant Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton found themselves ending the day as runners-up. In far from ideal conditions, he looked more assured in his relatively new Fiesta R5, but was another delayed badly by a double puncture on SS6.
“They were tricky conditions out there but we got more miles in the car, which is important,” said a frustrated Thorburn.
“We didn’t put a spanner to the car all day, so we’re looking forward to building on this and pushing on in the next one. We just need to pull our finger out at the start.”
Completing the top three was Mike Faulkner, with Peter Foy alongside, in their Mitsubishi Evo IX.
“We’re definitely happier with the car and the times,” Faulkner admitted, his recent upgrading of the Evo appearing to be money well spent.
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