A driver sponsored by rally champion Jock Armstrong wasn’t having a good race, so, like any good sponsor, Armstrong tried to help with a joke most of us left behind in our teen years: mooning him. But far worse than most kids face, Armstrong got hit with a $1,300 fine and a racing ban.
The BBC reports that Armstrong, 47, was working as a marshal at the Solway Coast Rally in Scotland when a cameraperson on course caught him mooning a car as it went by in August. The Motor Sports Council governing body caught (hopefully pleasant smelling) wind of it, banning him from competition for six months and fining him £1,000. That’s $1,312.82, at current exchange rates.
The council recognized that there were no spectators were around and that the car was being driven at a “non-competitive speed,” according to STV News, but still found it to be a safety risk.
Armstrong, the 2015 and 2016 Scottish Rally Championship title holder, told the Daily Record the ban runs into next season and puts him out of championship contention already. Here’s how Armstrong feels about it, from the Daily Record:
... “I was marshalling on a stage near Kirkgunzeon. There was one photographer and it was a non-spectator stage. Niall Cowan from Dumfries, who I sponsor, was coming down the stage and he wasn’t having the best of days.
“I said I’d bare my backside so the photographer took a picture which got put up in the workshop and on Facebook. It looks like I’m standing right in front of the car but I’m about 40 metres away.
“The MSA has got hold of this and called me up for it. It had 20,000 views, there have been no negative comments at all but the MSA has done this. It’s laughable.
“They said they monitor pages on social media, which means we’re paying our fees and they have someone sitting there looking at Facebook and flagging up if someone is mooning.”
Armstrong, who said he plans to return to competition once the ban is up, told the Daily Record that the council said he was “bringing the sport into disrepute” and could’ve caused an accident by mooning the driver. Even after recognizing that it was a joke, the Daily Record reports that the council said it “cannot be excused.”
Armstrong told the outlet the council “pulled [his] pants down and smacked [him] on the backside,” but it sounds like he did that first part himself.
Update 3:02 p.m. Here, friends, is The Butts ruling.