Britain's Barry Clark enjoyed a 'dream' outing in Turkey last weekend,
en-route to finishing in the top-ten on his first 'proper' outing in a World Rally Car.
Clark, who was drafted in at the last minute to compete in Jordan in April, eventually finished twelfth overall there, despite missing the reconnaissance. This time though he benefited from thorough preparation and together with new co-driver Paul Nagle put in a mature performance to ensure he completed every single stage and gained maximum experience with his Focus RS WRC07.
In the end he set some stage times that were under two seconds a kilometre off the vastly more experienced top WRC crews and also picked up the final manufacturers' point for the Munchi's Ford World Rally Team, which was very much the 'icing on the cake'.
"This has been a dream rally for me. We set out with the intention of getting to the end and to finish inside the top-10 is amazing," he reflected.
"The plan was to stay neat and tidy and that's exactly how it went and I think that really was the key to our success.
"We did have a few scares though on the final stage when the water temperature light came on and we hit a large rock which took a chunk out of the wheel but luckily we made it back to the finish without any dramas.
"This result has helped immensely with my experience and confidence and it's highlighted that I need to make my pacenotes more accurate with the faster speeds of these amazing world rally cars."
Federico Villagra meanwhile finished one place in front in the sister Munchi's Ford WRT car and 'Coyote' kept his nose clean throughout. The only issues for the Argentine were a cracked intercooler on day 1 and the loss of full use of the brakes on Saturday's 22.4 kilometre Phaselis 2 test where he dropped over one and a half minutes to the leaders.
