CALERA, Okla. — A season that started with no clear-cut goals still produced what William Gould called “some pretty cool” accomplishments.
Gould became just the ninth Friesen Performance IMCA Modified driver to reach the 200-career win mark while earning a career seventh championship in the GRT Race Cars South Central Region.
“My only goal was to win when it was my turn,” said Gould, who took his turn on top of the podium 10 times in all in 2024. “It always means a lot to us when we’re able to win our region and getting the 200th win was pretty cool, too.
“We’ve raced a modified for a lot of years and I’m glad we were able to get it this season,” he’d add. “We didn’t have a regular Friday night track so moving up the list in wins isn’t easy.”
From Calera, Okla., Gould also raced to the All-Star Shootout and a career seventh state championship, the sixth of them coming in Texas.
He’d started the season sweeping Kennedale Speedway’s Spring Kickoff in February and clinched the All-Star crown with the May 26 checkers at Heart O’ Texas Speedway.
Career win No. 200 came on Aug. 24 at Grayson County Speedway.
“I like KSP, it’s always fun to race there and I wish every night there was a track points night. We won almost every night there they paid extra money and had a great season but didn’t win the track championship,” said Gould, runner-up there to Jacob Pirkle. “We were consistent all season (21 top five finishes in 28 starts) and while you always want to finish races, we were able to keep the DNF’s to a minimum.”
A 30-year veteran of the division, Gould won the IMCA national championship and his first regional crown in 2013. He raced to double digit wins for the sixth straight year, and for the 10th time in his career this season.
“Sometimes my mind writes checks my body doesn’t want to cash,” said Gould, admitting to the rigors weekly racing puts on a 51-year-old body. “But whatever I do, I do to the best of my ability. I’ve got kind of an addictive personality – I’m not a good loser and I try to be humble when I win, but I don’t do stuff I’m not good at.”
“Luckily I have a bit of natural ability and I’ve had a lot of good help.”
He made a handful of starts in an IMCA Sunoco Stock Car, a class he says is more fun than a barrel of monkeys, again this season, and has plans to do the same next year.
2025 may also see Gould racing outside his region, running with some different competition and tuning up for the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s.
“I’m thinking maybe we’ll try coming up to the Midwest, racing there a couple months and seeing if that teaches us something that gets us a little faster,” he said. “I’d like to run Boone three or four weeks in a row before Super Nationals to see if I can’t get something that works a little better on the wood chips.”
Gould and wife/crew chief Dana celebrated another highlight after the point season ended: Their 20th wedding anniversary was Nov. 10.