YOU WILL BE DRIVING THE FOCUS RS IN WORLD RALLY AND THE FIESTA IN RALLY AMERICA. A YEAR FROM NOW IT WILL BE ALL FIESTA IN WRC AND RALLY AMERICA. YOU SAW THE FIESTA DEBUT LAST YEAR AT THE X GAMES. WHAT IS YOUR LEVEL OF ANTICIPATION FOR DRIVING THE FIESTA IN COMPETITION?
“I am very excited to be in the Fiesta. That is the damn car that beat me last summer at X Games. Ford has a great platform with the Fiesta to develop and push a very good rally car worldwide and also in the showrooms. I am very excited to get in the Fiesta and see what I can do in the Rally America championship and at the X Games and also in 2011 to be in the new Fiesta World Rally car.”
FROM YOUR MONSTER RALLY TEAM PERSPECTIVE YOU HAVE TWO DIFFERENT SERIES YOU ARE PREPARING FOR. WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU AS A TEAM FACE?
“The biggest challenge is going to be getting me seat time. I have been racing with a different manufacturer for many years now and while I have a lot of confidence in my abilities, jumping into a new car is always difficult. It is a big program we have going on this year, its global and there are a lot of different aspects to it from World Rally Championship to X Games to a new Gymkhana car. That is a tremendous variety of different types of driving and different types of conditions. I need to push as hard as I can and be the best that I can, but it is going to come down to getting as much experience as I can and getting seat time. I am very lucky to be in the position that I am in. There are not many drivers around the world that can say they are doing the types of things that I am doing. I am very proud of that and I am going to push very hard to be the best that I can be.”
IS THERE A GYMKHANA 3?
“Of course! We are in the developmental stages of a new Fiesta Gymkhana car and we are looking to have some new video content out by the summer.”