ADAMS -- Sometimes he talks like an auctioneer, trying to cram just a few more arguments and anecdotes and ideas into each utterance. Every step of his campaign for governor is usually mapped out with precision, but yesterday brought just a little hiccup to Christopher Gabrieli's race to the finish.

Early morning fog diverted Gabrieli's campaign plane to Albany, forcing him to miss his first stop on a Western Massachusetts swing. When his campaign 's recreational vehicle arrived at the Adams soccer field about 20 minutes late, Gabrieli rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt and made the most of his brief visit.

The target audience: soccer parents, representing independent voters crucial to his strategy.

``Adams is important. Every town in Massachusetts is important," Gabrieli explained to a supporter who was surprised to see a statewide candidate in the northwest corner of the state so close to the primary. ``I'm quite certain that Governor Romney has spent a lot more time in Ames, Iowa, than in Adams, Massachusetts. And I don't think that's right."

Gabrieli told the parents that his wife was back home in Boston with their son at his soccer game. When a soccer ball passed nearby, interrupting the discussion, he cracked: ``I was gonna kick that." But he wasn't about to pick sides between the teams before him: ``May red and yellow both win."

After shaking almost every hand he could find, he hustled back to his RV to make a 1 p.m. appearance in West Springfield.

It is Gabrieli's third try at elective office, a dream he has spent nearly $20 million chasing over the last eight years. Polls have him in second place. On the trail, he looks pale and serious, almost vibrating with intensity, as he hammers home a message that his moderate politics and detailed policy agenda make him the only Democrat who can beat Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey in November.

On a visit to a Roxbury charter school Tuesday morning, he told a clutch of reporters that he was in a two-man race with Deval Patrick (an implicit jab to Thomas F. Reilly), and that Patrick is too liberal to be governor (left hook to Patrick).

On Wednesday, he said he was the only candidate with specific plans for getting things done, a message he pounded home during that night's debate.

Owing to his intense desire to win, Gabrieli peaked over the shoulder of Patrick during the debate and read from his rival's notes. Then he publicly confessed, like a sheepish school kid caught cheating.

Thursday morning, Healey's campaign delivered what Gabrieli and his team portrayed as an unexpected gift -- an attack ad singling out Gabrieli as a ``tycoon" who was promoting a $1 billion research fund to help his own investment portfolio. The ad not only designated him as the Republican nominee's most feared candidate, but it also gave him a perfect opening to talk up his plan to invest $1 billion in stem cell and research. In the early afternoon, he gathered more than 100 sign-holding supporters in front of the State House for a press conference that drew nearly every media outlet in Boston.

As he accused Healey of playing politics with lifesaving research and reaffirmed his commitment to funding it, Gabrieli seemed matter-of-fact and unruffled, coolly promising to divest from all his biotech investments and to put all his stock holdings in a blind trust. Asked what he thought of being called a tycoon by Healey, he shrugged. He paused for a long time, and then his brain, vastly improved in the art of sound bite delivery, served up a perfect one.

``I've been called a lot of things in this campaign so far," he said. ``I just want to end up being called governor."

But the question raised by Healey in the middle of the week lingered. Yesterday, asked again about Healey's charge, he said: ``I can't think of a dumber way to make money for my family than to run for governor."

Globe staff writer John C. Drake reported from Adams for this story.

Christopher Gabrieli

Favorite movie: Groundhog Day.

Favorite article of clothing: ‘‘I have a big down coat I wear on the really coldest days. It’s sort of fun when you’ve got to go to the massive insulation factor. It’s blue. My wife got it by mail-order.’’

Top three albums: Stop Making Sense, The Talking Heads; U2’s Greatest Hits; Abbey Road, The Beatles.

How I would fix the Red Sox in ’07: ‘‘I would convince George Steinbrenner to change hobbies.’’

Guilty pleasure: Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia.