Clark shines in four–wheel drive debut
Stobart Motorsport

Wales Rally GB, 29 November – 2 December 2007

Rally Preview

Barry Clark has once again showcased his talent by finishing inside the top–eight in the Group N class at this weekend’s final round of the FIA World Rally Championship, Wales Rally GB.

In his first ever WRC event in a four–wheel–drive Group N car the Stobart Motorsport/Clark Commercials driver has finished a very impressive eighth. With regular co–driver Scott Martin on Production WRC duties with fellow Stobart Motorsport competitor Mark Higgins, Clark paired up with local co–driver Aled Davies whose experience on this event dates back to 1997.

Conditions over the three days of Rally GB threw everything at competitors. Fog, rain, wind and ice were just a few of which hammered the field especially on the opening day where ferocious rain and fog caused several incidents on the first of two night–time stages.

After battling the conditions over the first two days Clark headed to Cardiff on Saturday night for the running of the final super special for 2007 under the roof of the famous Millennium Stadium in front of 26,500 screaming fans.

The only issue for Clark was a gearbox on Saturday which had to be replaced in service with a standard Subaru Impreza box making the car less rigid for the remaining seven stages of the rally. The replacement process took an extra eleven minutes longer than the allocated 30 minute service to complete, costing him one minute and 50 seconds in penalties.

The current Fiesta SportingTrophy International champion was taking part in the event to gain experience of more powerful machinery. As well as completing this task, he also managed to punch in some impressive times and secure a great finish.

Barry Clark said:
"I’m fairly happy with my performance and we did have a few problems here so I know I could go quicker given the proper preparation for an event like this. We lost time in service on Saturday when the guys had to change the gearbox and replace it with a standard one. Because of this I had to be careful on the box and my times were a bit slower for the second half of this rally. On the first day I was really happy with some of the times we set especially with this being my first world championship event in a four–wheel–drive Group N car. We ran BF Goodrich here and the tyres were perfect from start to finish. It’s great to have finished and gained the full experience of another WRC event."

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