Q & A with Dan Clarke

But he has reappeared in A1GP this weekend, deputising for Danny Watts at Taupo after the birth of the latter's child, and as he told autosport.com after first practice in New Zealand, Clarke hopes that will be the first of many race outings in 2009.

Q. It must be nice to be back in a car?

Dan Clarke: Definitely. Absolutely. It has been a while, but I kind of achieved more than I thought I would out there just in an hour. Being the first time, I knew my brain would have to catch up. Physically I have just been training and training absolutely the same, but I actually enjoyed it.

Physically, it was really easy - well, it wasn't easy, it was effortless. The car was just so nice to drive. And then my brain kind of caught up a little bit, but I'm sure that I will wake up tomorrow in the right frame.

But we just achieved a lot. The car was really good from the start, the guys did a great job - they have got a good car already. We made a few changes and went even quicker. We needed to do a lot more miles on our tyres than everybody else has done basically, because I have to learn the car, learn the track, and get back in the groove.

So by the end of the session our tyres had done a lot more miles than anybody else's, and the times we were doing, it looks like we are in a pretty good position. The tyres really went away, but we still got the good lap times at the end. So we all feel really positive I think, and there are a few changes to make to go even quicker. So it is looking good.

Q. So there is not a huge loss when the tyres go off?

DC: Yeah. You can feel it but all the time I am braking later, I am carrying more speed because I am getting more confidence in the car and learning the track. But the ultimate grip level of the tyres is still slowly degrading, and I could feel that. So by the end of the day, by the end of the session, I knew how quick I wanted to go but I couldn't go that quick.

And then you compare those times to what other people were doing on the track at the same time, on tyres with less mileage, we're really not that far out. Which is really a lot more than what I expected to achieve in my first hour of being back in a race car. So we feel good right now, but tomorrow is a different day.

Q. But most of it, like you say, is just about blowing out the cobwebs.

DC: There are lot of cobwebs... I'm surprised. There are probably a lot of cobwebs blowing in everyone else's face. It feels really good though, it's good to be back in the car.

When I heard that I was going to be racing again I couldn't believe it; I thought it was a joke. When you spend so long out... and there was a reason for doing that, because we didn't have a real opportunity, or a programme, that we wanted to take, because we didn't have confidence in the opportunities we had to take them last year. So we decided to take a step back and wait.

The unification didn't present us with a good opportunity to go racing because a lot of the Champ Car teams were inexperienced and couldn't get the parts, or didn't have time to prepare. Standing on the sidelines wasn't easy from a driver point of view. So it is really good to be back in the car now. I was excited on the plane - I'm surprised that I slept, I was so excited.

Q. It's a massive risk though - on one hand, you want to avoid opportunities that aren't going to lead anywhere; on the other hand if you spend too long out of the car you get forgotten.

DC: Yep. Absolutely. Racing can be a fickle business, and sometimes you are only as good as your last race. If people don't even remember when that was then they probably don't think you are very good. But this was definitely an opportunity that we wanted to take.

Team GBR has shown a lot of promise, and they have had a lot of good results, and everyone I speak to has only got good things to say about the people in this team. So there's that, and the honour of driving for your country in a championship is great. To be driving a Great Britain car... my Mum and Dad will be really proud when they see the photographs and watch me on TV.

Q. So where is this going to take you?

DC: Well I'm still living in Indianapolis, and we're still gearing up for a season in IndyCar. But if the opportunity arises to do more of these races then I will jump at them, of course. But after this race I will go back to Indianapolis and continue with the negotiations that we're having there with the teams in IndyCar.

Q. Do you have many options there?

DC: Yeah, I mean, it's really wide open right now. A lot of people... well a lot of people are feeling the economy. And the sad side to that is that a lot of people are losing their jobs. Motor racing is a tough business for that, because it costs a lot of money and that's stressful, but at the end of the day there are other people that are losing their jobs. And that's not funny either.

You've just got to keep working. We have some sponsors that we're working with, and we have negotiations with teams, so I am really confident that I will be in a race car this year.