Q & A with Barry Clark

Barry Clark: Anything's possible. But my approach will be fairly sensible.

Q. You were a last-minute stand-in on the Jordan Rally in April, that must have helped with familiarisation with the car.

BC: Yes it did. I had driven the Focus RS WRC 07 before, but nothing like the rally distance I got in Jordan. My approach in Turkey will be fairly similar to what I did in Jordan, but this time at least I'll have done the recce, so I'll have a bit more of an idea about where I'm going.

Q. How tough will Turkey be?

BC: From the heat perspective, I don't think it's going to be as hard as Jordan - that was 40 degrees out of the car. I think Sardinia will be about 10 degrees cooler. The thing which will be difficult is to try and rival the sort of experience the other drivers have of these events.

Q. How much do you know about Turkey?

BC: Er, not much. I've never done it before.

Q. What's the main objective?

BC: To avoid superally! So many times you see drivers going well, then they retire from a leg and then they drop right down the leaderboard (with five minutes added to the fastest time for each stage they don't complete). I'm going to be loading my Focus up with as many spare parts as I can.

Q. What sort of things can you carry?

BC: We'll have some TCA (track control arms). We saw [breaking] them put Gigi [Galli] out in Greece. In addition we'll maybe get some steering arms and compression struts. Basically, whatever we can fit in the car.

Q. How easy will it be to work on the car if you have to?

BC: That'll be fine for me. I work at M-Sport building these cars anyway - I know my way around a Focus! In fact, when this car retired at the end of day two in Greece (when Aris Vovos was driving it) I spent the next day preparing my own rally car for this event. The cars all have a fairly comprehensive toolkit with them as well.

Q. What about the extra weight?

BC: I'm not too worried about that. I'm out to get as much experience as I can from this event - and if that means sacrificing a small amount of performance than so be it.

Q. Which other rallies are you driving for the Munchi's team on?

BC: I'll be out in Corsica and at home on GB at the end of the season. It's a good spread of events for me. We've got dry and dusty now, then tight, twisty asphalt and finally a wet and muddy Rally GB.