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.”