GOULD SHOWS HIS METTLE ON THE ISLE OF MAN
07/11/2010
Adam Gould once again defied the odds and the age of his Subaru
Impreza to take the fight to defending British champion Keith Cronin
on Rally Isle of Man, which finished in Douglas on Saturday evening.
Gould's car had been plagued from the start of the two-day Tarmac
rally by a misfire. But when the fuel-related issue was fixed, he set
the fastest time on the seventh stage of the event. Unfortunately for
Gould, he then suffered a damaged radiator and retired his
five-year-old Subaru on stage eight, when lying second overall.
"When you retire from a rally there's always disappointment," said
Gould, 23. "But I'm over this already. We were really comfortable in
second place, but finishing there wasn't really going to help me or my
situation this season. If I knew I was going to land a sponsor off the
back of second place, I would have settled back and taken it. But I
wanted to win this event. I really wanted to win this event!
"We were caught out by a bump in the eighth stage. This threw the
back of the car in the air, when we landed we went into the hedge and
damaged the top hose on the radiator. We still managed to set fourth
fastest time in the stage, but when we looked at it, we knew we were
going no further without doing significant damage to the engine. We
had to push and we were just caught out. It happens. Like I said, the
big thing for me is that we were in the fight for the win."
Gould's cause hadn't been helped by the same misfire which had
troubled his Subaru through the closing stages of the previous Dulux
Trade MSA British Rally Championship round, the Jim Clark Rally. On
the Scottish Borders event, Gould had left competitors and spectators
agog as he hurled his down-on-power Impreza to some exceptional times
in the closing stages. And, on Friday, he picked up where he'd left
off on round three, again saddled by the engine fault.
"The misfire started at shakedown," said Bristol-based Gould. "There
was nothing I could do. I'm working between the events to try and pay
off the bills from the previous rally, so there's not the time or
money to do any major engine work. Having said that, I did think we'd
got the problem fixed before the start. But then on the second corner
of the first stage, the car died again. We had this problem probably
10 times on each stage. It was worse in the slow corners, where it was
costing us probably half a second or a second each time it happened.
Finally, we got it fixed in time for stage seven and we were able to
get a clean run – apart from the rain which made the roads really
slippery. But, with the rain comes the opportunity to push a little
bit harder and to take chances when the other drivers aren't doing
that. This year is about me taking chances, I have to do that to make
up the time on the other guys. Fastest in stage seven was great and it
looked as though stage eight was going the same way. But then it
didn't."
Gould still lies sixth in the British championship standings, but
faces another battle just to get to the start of the next round, the
International Rally Northern Ireland (August 20/21).
He said: "The car is going to need some attention now. We'll need to
put a radiator in it and look at some other work, but the big thing
for me is to get the bills paid from the Manx and try and get some
cash in before the start of the next round. We'll definitely be there,
I've got this far into the season and I'm not going to stop now. The
car we've got this year has been fantastic. Obviously it's a bit older
than some of the cars around, but we're doing the times with our
Subaru, now we just need the finish. And that's what I'm going to be
working night and day for before and then even harder during the
International Rally Northern Ireland."
