About Gavin Gough
Gavin has enjoyed a life long passion for motor sport in all its incarnations, a passion which began when he attended his first motor cycle race meeting with his father at the tender age of six. To this very day, the sound of a race engine and the smell of Castrol "R" are sufficient to roll back the years to that first event.
During the 1970s Gavin competed in hill climbs and sprints with the MG Car Club with an MG TA and, whilst serving with the Royal Air Force, competed with an RAFMSA team representing RAF Hereford. Whilst serving in the UAE with the RAF he enjoyed the excitement of five desert treks with 4X4 vehicles.
He also spent many weekends as a mechanic to a friend, assisting in maintaining a Ginetta G4 in race worthy trim for club racing in the North of England.
Latterly Gavin supported his son Philip in a similar fashion. Philip, a former kart racer and A.R.K.S. Instructor at the Silverstone Driving Centre, set up his own Kart team in 2003 and, again, Gavin was enlisted to take care of the Rotax race karts.
For many years Gavin had wondered why and how in each generation of drivers one individual would consistently perform at a higher level than his contemporaries, in particular Ayrton Senna. That curiosity would take him into researching that phenomenon; this also coincided with his applying elements of mental coaching techniques to the young drivers in his son's team.
Such were the results with those young drivers that, in 2007, Gavin studied Sports Psychology at Regents Park College, London under the tutelage of one of the leading practitioners in the UK, Andy Barton. In November 2007 he successfully qualified and was awarded a certificate as an NLP Sports Practitioner. He is currently studying advanced hypnosis techniques in addition to the level at which he is currently qualified.
He has been instrumental in improving the performance of several kart racers and, in particular, one GT3 racer to the point of them outpacing drivers with far more experience through his coaching of mental skills.
Away from racing Gavin enjoys music of many genres, from opera to blues and plays albeit not well, bass guitar, reads widely and enjoys a little mountain biking.