When Adam Gould stripped his Subaru Impreza down after the International Rally Isle of Man last month, his heart sank. With just over a month to go before the International Rally Northern he was faced with a huge amount of work. After battling his way through four rounds of the Dulux Trade British Rally Championship, he thought he was beaten. He wasn’t. With the help of the Pirelli TEG Sport team, he repaired the car and delivered it to another staggering BRC finish, taking fourth on the Antrim-based Rally NI.
Thanks to the huge effort from all involved, last year’s Pirelli Star Driver remains in the hunt for a podium place at the end of the season. But last week’s race down the Ulster lanes was another opportunity for Gould, having shown the grit and tenacity to get the car to the start, to show what he could do in it. And he grasped that opportunity with both hands.
Unlike most of the opposition, Gould was disappointed the weather stayed fine for the event; with limited funds, he’d hoped for heavy rain which would have meant running wet tyres, which tend to last for longer. As it was, he scraped through the entire route on eight Pirellis, whereas his competitors had 18 for the Friday-Saturday event.
“The tyres worked really, really well,” said Gould. “The Pirellis lasted and gave good grip through the event. But obviously, given the choice, you’d be fitting new tyres at every opportunity. At the end of the day, we have cut our cloth to fit this deal again. We don’t have a big budget, but when you’re sat on the start line of a stage like Torr Head, driving a Group N Subaru Impreza, nothing else matters – it’s just such a rush of pure adrenalin and you feel like the luckiest bloke in the world!”
Having re-jigged the car, re-built the engine and fitted new panels to it, Gould and his co-driver Craig Drew were almost kicked off the ferry for trying to remain on the car deck during the crossing to Belfast to carry on working on the Subaru.
They made it. But Gould admitted he took a stage or two to play himself in.
“The last time I’d been in the car, we were spinning through the air towards a telegraph pole, so I just wanted to play myself in for a couple of miles,” he said.
Unfortunately, the mis-fire which had plagued the car on the Manx returned in Ulster. That was finally cured on the opening loop of stages, but the cure was to run the car brim-full of petrol; it was only when the tank dropped below 30 litres that it started to cut out.
Right through the Friday stages, Gould and Drew were in touch with the leaders, on Saturday they wanted to make sure they returned the car to Antrim in the same state it started.
“I feel I showed my speed with the fastest time on the Manx,” said Gould, “and I needed to show that I could be consistent and bring the car home. That’s what we did on Saturday. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to go out there and go down the lanes on the doorhandles, but if we’d crashed we would have thrown away everything that, not just me, but so many people on my behalf, have we’ve worked and sweated for this season. We made the finish.”
Gould’s modest appraisal of the event omits to show just how quickly he was travelling on his way to the finish. On the second run at Torr Head, Gould managed to trim eight seconds off the time Mark Higgins set in exactly the same car – but on slightly fresher tyres – 12 months ago.
Gould added: “It was really hard work to get to the start of the last round and I have to admit, there were moments of doubt after the Isle of Man, but that’s all they were: moments. One of the things I’m really pleased about after the weekend is that we were able to help the Pirelli TEG Sport team to score maximum points [along with defending British Rally Champion Keith Cronin, who finished second in Antrim], which has moved TEG into the lead of the team’s series.”
Five rallies down and Gould’s only got one to go: International Rally Yorkshire at the end of next month. But, between now and Pickering, Gould has another massive job to find the money to make the start of the event.
“I’m determined to be there,” he said. “When I think back to the opening round in Wales, when I had to leave my bag at the bed and breakfast while I went off to try and persuade the bank to give me some cash, I never thought we’d get five rounds in. But we have. And we’re not stopping now.”
– Credit: Adam Gould Rallying.