Island Life Magazine Ltd June/July 2007 | Page 124

life - MOTORING

Will Nicolls and Nick Broom in their Subaru Impreza S8WRC
at Tempest South of England Stages Aldershot.on their way to 1st overall
and British Rally Masters Championship 2006.

I wish I achieved
this 20 years ago!
Winning the 2006 Tempest South of
England stages is Will Nicholls’ most
memorable event in his long rallying
career.
“It was the last round of the British
Rally Master Championship and
some of the UK and Ireland’s top
drivers including Mark Higgins,
Rory Galagher and Simon Hughs
were competing. We had to win the
event to become 2006 champions.
We had a fantastic event, everything
went well throughout the whole day
and we eventually won the rally by
5 seconds to become the 2006 Rally
Master champions.”
It has taken a long time and a great
deal of effort for Will to achieve the
success and recognition in rallying
that he is now so proud of. He was

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a young 18 year old when he got the
bug for cars. After leaving school
in 1975 he worked as a waiter for
3 years at the Monteagle Hotel in
Shanklin and during this time he
saved hard and built his first rally
car, a Ford Escort Mk 1 -1600cc
which took 18 months to build at a
cost of £2,000.
Will’s parents were hoteliers and
had no interest in competitive cars,
however he later discovered that his
Grandad was a mechanic who used
to service for Paddy Hopkirk, the
world famous rally driver.
“I remember at the time all my
money used to go on the car. I
hardly went out socialising and
when I did my girlfriend Alison who
is now my wife used to pay for it as

all the money I earned went on my
rally car.”
On completing the car in 1979 he
entered his first rally which was
held on the Island in Parkhurst
Forest
“I remember back then myself
and my friend Steven Goodchild
(Snoopy) who was my navigator
were thrilled to bits that we were
placed in the first 10, that’s when I
really got the bug.
“Having a navigator in the car is a
bit like having your wife sat next to
you, they nag you all the time and
basically what they tell you to do,
you do!”
Rallying is not a cheap sport and
because of this Will had to find ways
of funding it.

“In the evenings and weekends
after I had finished waiting I used
to fix peoples cars for them to earn
extra money. I rented a small lock up
behind the Redcliff Bars on Shanklin
seafront, then one day just by
chance myself and my friend Ashley
Nihell went halves and bought a
D A F car for £150 which had a
dent down one side. We set about
repairing the car and in the end sold
it for £300. I remember thinking at
the time what a great way of earning
money, so we bought and sold cars
for a while.
“I had two lockup garages, side
by side on the seafront, I kept my
rally car on one side and carried out
repairs on the other side.“
Will remained at the lockups

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