Monday 3rd February 2014

Oliver Gavin: PH Meets

Brit abroad Oliver Gavin tells us about life as a factory Corvette Racing driver

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Usually when press cars get collected the manufacturer sends an affable chap with a clipboard and a high vis vest. But prising the keys to the Corvette Stingray out of our hands was going to take a different tactic so Chevrolet UK instead sent Oliver Gavin, a factory Corvette Racing driver of 13 years standing and jolly nice chap to boot. So nice in fact we almost didn't mind handing him the keys to the C7.

Gavin has raced in America for over a decade

Amazingly he'd not driven the road car before and, as a factory driver for Corvette, uses a Chevy Orlando for daily duties. You'd have thought four class wins at Le Mans and four ALMS GT driver titles might earn him something a little more flash for a company car but save a couple of goes with Camaros on official duties exposure to the road product seems limited. Though at the point of meeting he had, of course, driven the Stingray's C7.R racing cousin ahead of its debut season in the new Tudor United Sportscar Championship.

So what's it like being a Brit racing in America? "I'm very fortunate in having had such a long relationship with one manufacturer," he muses. "Pratt & Miller are like family now, the likes of Gary Pratt [Vice President], Doug Louth [esteemed racing/aerospace engineer] and Doug Fehan [Program Manager, Corvette Racing] have all been there throughout. They're all characters and have got their own areas on which they focus and they're what have made Corvette Racing so successful over the years."

Corvette C7.R debuted at Daytona 24-hour

With four class wins at Le Mans the French classic is clearly a race close to Gavin's heart too, this being the only event his family - based here in the UK - traditionally attends. He talks of the Corvette's following and how fans tell him they can tell the cars are still running from within their tents just by the V8 noise - the sound of Le Mans as he calls it.

But 2013 is a race he'd rather forget, having had a first-hand view of the accident that killed fellow driver Allan Simonsen when running directly behind him. He pauses to collect his thoughts before offering a frank assessment of what happened.

"It was a number of things coming together," he sighs reflectively. "We were all at the start of the race on slick tyres, it had just started to sprinkle with rain as we came down to Tetre Rouge so the tyres weren't quite up to temperature and the car's still maybe behaving a little strangely. Allan was pushing and he ran out and touched the kerb, then it went back the other way and bit really suddenly. And that's what sent him off into the wall. I knew from the speed he disappeared from view it was going to be a big problem."

Gavin with (L-R) Robin Lidell and Tommy Milner

He continues, "It was only on the next time round behind the safety car I saw the tree exposed and pancaked against the barrier and then I realised this could be pretty serious. And then we came round again and they were still working on him and then again and they'd still not got him in the ambulance and by that point it'd been 20-25 minutes."

What was he thinking at this point? "You've got to try and stay focused." He pauses. "It was a very difficult time for everyone mainly because we've raced in an era where we don't experience that. I think a lot of drivers were questioning the reality of what we do. It's so much safer but then every now and then something like this comes and slaps you in the face and makes you realise it's still a very dangerous sport."

Fans love the Corvettes at Le Mans

Moving to more positive thoughts, having raced all over the world there's clearly something infectious about the scene Stateside that's kept him coming back too. "In America sportscar racing is certainly something different. The Corvette fans we see, they're absolutely fanatical about the car. It's almost like a football team mentality, you only ever have one team you support and Corvette fans are so loyal to the teams and drivers," he says, the return of the Viper injecting a useful frisson of rivalry. "It's a good thing, everyone was crying out for it. They're big muscle cars and that's what the American scene needs, it energises the fan base, gets them through the gates."

Will this energy survive the amalgamation into the new Tudor United Sportscar Championship that merges ALMS and Grand-Am? "The new series is something that had to happen," he says. "The money was being split across these two series and now it's got to be a win for everyone, the TV package is strong with Fox, the circuits we're going to ... we've got the best calendar you could ever want. We go to Daytona, to Sebring, Long Beach, Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen ... I can't think of a bad one we go to!" He tails off, smiling at the thought of it. "Some of the circuits aren't the safest but god they've got character and that's one of the things about racing in America."

Le Mans 2013 was a traumatic race for Gavin

So what is it about the Corvette that has made it such a consistent package, even winning the driver, manufacturer and team titles in the swansong year for both the C6.R and ALMS series? "I think it comes down to the brains of someone like Doug Louth, who is an extremely bright engineer, and of Gary Pratt. He instinctively understands how a sportscar needs to work, not just in a two- or three-hour race but also in a 24-hour race." And the car? "It stops extremely well, it always seems to be aggressive into the slower corners and we've got great mechanical grip too. Certainly the V8 power helps and we've always had good torque and driveability out of corners. But mainly we managed as a team to deliver every weekend, one way or another."

And what of the new C7.R? "There were a few things with the C6.R we had to address," he explains. "The C7 right out of the gates has been a really nice piece to work on. With the chassis being a lot stiffer and lighter it's enabled us to zone in on a couple of places where we wanted to make it better. It responds well to changes and at the first test at Road America there are a couple of spots where you run over exit kerbs and in the C6 you could feel the chassis flex but in the 7 it was all in the springs and dampers rather than the chassis, which is obviously very important in a race car. The direct injection is another big advantage - we had it in the GT1 car but now that it's in the C7 road car too we can use it in the R."

Frantic pit stop for gearbox swap ruined race

Sadly things didn't go quite according to plan in the C7.R's first outing at Daytona, both cars showing good pace but ultimately falling victim to mechanical woes. The #3 car driven by Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Ryan Briscoe battled eventually terminal overheating while the car Gavin was sharing with Tommy Milner and Robin Liddell was running in second place to the eventual winner with just three hours to go before needing to pit for a gearbox change that knocked it back to fifth at the flag.

Such is racing but the team appears to be taking heart in the pace shown by the C7.R and with all that experience will be sure to come out fighting for the rest of the season, with a Brit at the heart of it.

 

Race photos: LAT Photo

[Craiglamuffin]

Good to see the articles about US GT racing recently. Top racing.

[Willy Nilly]

mmmm secret treads.

[iva cosworth]

IBTT.

[Pixelpeep]

Is thread a secret or something?

[williamp]

Did you ask him about the radar etc in the screen of the rcing car??

[RenesisEvo]

williamp said:

Did you ask him about the radar etc in the screen of the rcing car??

It's a super piece of kit:

http://www.grid1.tv/motorsport/article/corvettes-r...

I also like the traction and ABS lights, some of the youtube Drive channel videos have some great footage of it, eg. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf0hSVL6y9A

Great interview PH, good to hear from the stalwarts that some mainstream media avoid.

[vetteheadracer]

Olly is a top bloke and a very fast and consistent driver. Rarely makes a mistake and definitely the leader within the #4 car.


Olly last week at Daytona.


Other interesting facts about Olly.

He's a sub 3hr London marathon runner and has to provide driving tips and deliver Chevrolet cars to Manchester United players!

Edited by vetteheadracer on Saturday 1st February 00:38

[Alex Langheck]

Yardley Hastings finest.......

[ellroy]

vetteheadracer said:

deliver Chevrolet cars to Manchester United players!

So there are some downsides to this racing driver job lark after all.

[Hoppelemine]

Alex Langheck said:

Yardley Hastings finest.......

+1

I'm fortunate to have done a passenger ride with Ollie some years ago. It was in a Transit van around a tight circuit at Bedford Autodrome. We spent the majority of the time sideways.

[Vocal Minority]

I remember Oliver Gavin racing in F3 in the mid 90s. I seem to remember he flew out to Australia to race a Pacific at the last GP of 1995 but never got to the grid for one reason or another (presumably the team ran out of money).*

• entirely possible I am imagining all of that