At the age of 11, Oliver Gavin took his first steps in karting. Thanks to his father, who wanted to do something with Oliver and his brother Marcus in the weekends. When Olly was 14, he did the British Junior Kart Championship and raced there against David Coulthard. When he did the racing school at Brands Hatch, he came in contact with Graeme Glew who ran Team Touraco. He entered Gavin in the Formula First Winter series. That resulted in a full season ( pay to drive) in Formula First with Fortec in 1991. Gavin won 11 out of 12 races! He also did a Formula Renault race (P3) and some Vauxhall Lotus races with David Sears Racing with a P2 as best result. At the end of the year, he was one of the six finalists for the McLaren Autosport award. He won the trophy and got a 20.000 pounds cheque presented to him by Ayrton Senna.
For 1992 Oliver Gavin moved to Formula Vauxhall with John Village. There he learned a lot about setting up a car and racing abroad. And he finished second in the championship. Then off to F3 with Edenbridge racing first with a Ralt chassis and later in the year a Dallara. Again second in the final standings. Then he felt that he had to move to F3000. Keith Wiggins’Pacific Racing had run Coulthard in F3000 and had done well. Keith started his own F1 team, so Gavin would be their F3000 driver and also a F1 test driver. Too good to be true. The team did not actually had the money to run a F1 team, let alone keep the F3000 team. So Gavin had to look for another drive and he found one at Omegaland with Roger Orgee. He did reasonably good, but had a big crash at Pau.
The only thing Oliver could do for 1995 was back to F3 with Edenbridge and try to win the title. It was a battle between Helio Castroneves and Ralph Fireman from Paul Stewart Racing and Gavin. It all came down at the last race in Thruxton. Warren Hughes won the race, Gavin was third in front of the JS Racing boys. Job done, F3 title (and a superlicence, but no F1 with Pacific).
For 1996 Oliver found work driving for Opel in the DTM with the experienced Manuel Reuter as team mate. After three races, he found out that Reuter was the favourite ( he did win the title) and got a car always in top condition. Gavin learned a lot that year about politics in a bigger team. In 1997 he was again in the F3000. The series was now a one-make Lola car series. Money was tight, so when he crashed the car at Helsinki, it was the end of the season.
Then opportunity knocked at the door. The F1 needed a new safety car driver. After a trial run with Charlie Whiting at Silverstone, he was employed for some races. The car was an AMG Mercedes CLK 550. His toughest outing was during the French GP in 1999. There was a sudden torrential rain, sky black. When he got the message ”Safety car to go”, he left the pits onto a flooded track. On the straight, the wipers stopped. When he got them going again, he hadn’t seen a puddle. The car went completely sideways. Herbie Blash on the radio: “slow down! The f1 cars can’t keep up”. When he got past the puddle again, there were five F1 cars in the gravel.
He got noted in the F1 paddock and received a telephone call from Benetton engineer Nigel Clyde to do 10 laps for the sake of their new sponsors. Both drivers and test driver Alex Wurz were not available. Due to bad weather conditions, he ended up doing three days with Benetton and from then on, they called him whenever they wanted to try something. Later he helped to develop the Renault launch-control-system. Gavin did this on and off for Benetton and later Renault from 1997 to 2006.
However, he felt that a real F1 drive was not going to happen. In 1999 he had again a few drives in the F3000 thanks to Pete Briggs; a fourth place in Monaco was his best result.
Oliver was just married and his wife Helen was pregnant, so he needed to earn a living and went looking for a drive in America and sports car racing. He started with Keith Wiggins, at that moment sales director at Lola. Keith got him in contact with an American, Scott Shubot, who just had bought a Lola. This man sold Gavin a co-drive at Homestead GrandAm race for 10.000 dollars cash. Gavin took out all his savings and in return qualified the car on pole. Due to a technical infringement he had to start from the back. They finished the race in fourth place. Then he got a drive with John Field in another Lola and that resulted in some decent results.
He stayed in the team for 2001 and started to win races. For the 12h Sebring he was hired by Steve Saleen to drive with Franz Konrad and Terry Borcheller (Photo below #26). It was a difficult race with a lot of problems. For Oliver it was his first real endurance race. But the Saleen won and Oliver Gavin got recognized as an endurance racer.
He continued the season with the Interfield Racing Lola and John Field and was hired by Saleen for the 24h Le Mans. It was a rain race for 14 hours. The rain got into the car, the electrics suffered, the screen misted up, there was a piston problem, but they finished third in their class.
That autumn, Oliver had a talk with Doug Fehan in the paddock at Laguna Seca and he was offered a seat at Corvette Racing. And this was a very good deal! He would finally find a team with a good spirit where everybody worked hard to make the best possible car. History showed that he would stay for 19 seasons and 202 races in that family.
For 2002, Gavin was named as the third driver for Chevrolet’s Corvette Racing program. He was teamed with Ron Fellows and Johnny O’Connell. That team won the 12 hours Sebring and the Petit Le Mans with the Corvette C5R, a brilliant start for a new team member. In the 24h LeMans, the finished P11 overall and were the winners in the LM GTS.
In 2003, he became a full time Corvette driver as a replacement for Andy Pilgrim. They won two races, Atlanta and Trois-Rivieres in the ALMS. Anda again, he was on the podium in Le Mans, finishing third in the class.
From 2004 onwards he had Olivier Beretta as a team mate. That would become a golden team. They understood in the same way how the car reacted and could easily communicate that with the engineers. And Beretta was always fast.
In 2004, they won four ALMS races and were second in the championship; in 2005, 2006 and 2007 ( winning 9 races!), they became the ALMS champions!
In the 24 h LeMans, Gavin won (together with Beretta and Jan Magnussen)the GTS class again in 2004 with the C5R. They repeated that in 2005 with the new Corvette C6-R in the new GT1 class and made it three in a row in 2006. Three different characters, but all driving the Chevy in the same way with huge success.
The team's biggest disappointment however came in the 2007 24h Le Mans, where a broken driveshaft sidelined their Corvette C6.R at the two-hour mark and ended their bid for a fourth consecutive class victory.. Gavin also drove a Corvette C6.R in on FIA GT race and two Le Mans Series races with the French Luc Alphand Aventures team.
2005 24h Le Mans
2006 24h Le Mans
In the 2008 24h LeMans, Corvette lost again the GT1 to Aston Martin; Gavin-Beretta -Max Papis finished third. With three wins, Gavin did finish as the runner-up in the ALMS.
No luck again in 2009 Le Mans race, a gearbox failure, while the sister car scored a class win.
After the race, the Corvette changed the C6.R to GT2 class specifications. That would increase the competition and again new things to learn. It was only in the latter part of the 2010 season that Oliver Gavin, now full time linked to Jan Magnussen begun to have some success with a class win at the last ALMS race at Road Atlanta. Gavin made a dramatic last-lap pass after the class-leading Ferrari ran out of fuel. That resulted in an overall P5 in the final standings. And Le Mans? Again a DNF, this time for both cars. Gavin retired the car with engine problems on the Mulsanne straight, just one hour after a large rebuild of the #64. His team mate Emmanuel Collard was hit by a Peugeot in the Porsche curves.
2008 2010
For 2011, the ACO induced the Intercontinental Le Mans Challenge and combined that with the ALMS for the 12 hours of Sebring. The C6.R was now running in the GTE-PRO class. Gavin- Westbrook- Magnussen finished fourth in the race after an accident with the Flying Lizard Porsche. After a P2 at Long Beach, again Le mans. At the start of that race, the #3 Audi from Alan McNish had a terrible accident at the Esses after the Dunlop bridge. That brought out the safety car. With this procedure, the #74 Gavin car came into the lead of the GTE-PRO. They kept the car in the lead, even through some lengthy safety car procedures. But then, early Sunday morning, Magnussen lost the car before the Ford Chicanes and drove into the #73 Felbermayer Porsche. Out. The sister car won the class! In the remaining seven ALMS races, Oliver was on the podium in three races with a win in Mosport. Gavin-Magnussen were overall second in the ALMS.
Two new chassis were built for the 2012 season in which Oliver Gavin was teamed up with Tommy Milner. This team won the ALMS championship again with four wins! In Le Mans, all went well for the #74 Corvette. With 10 hours in the lead they had built a 50 seconds advantage over the Ferrari #51 and the other Corvette. When Richard Westbrook took off after his pitstop, the Corvette lost a wheel in the Dunlop Chicane. He brought the car back to the pits for repairs and they tumbled back to P6. Later the #74 was into the barriers when avoiding a spinning car in the Mulsanne chicane. This and the previous damage resulted in a broken gearbox.
The 2013 season started with a class win in the Sebring 12hours. With a win later in the year at Mosport and two more podium finishes, Oliver finished third in the ALMS championship. But again no Le Mans luck. The #74 endured a couple of punctures and electrical issues, which affected the fuel flow. A seventh place.
From 2014, the championship in the USA was now called IMSA. It was the merger of the Grand-Am Road Racing and the American Le Mans Series. Corvette racing entered his new C7RGT in the GTLM class. The best race for Gavin-Millner was a third place at Long Beach. At LeMans it rained early on in the race. While the #73 lost a lap due to the safety car, the #74 of Gavin-Millner-Westbrook did an amazing job. Early in the evening, they were 30 seconds in the lead. But then they had a gearbox pressure sensor failing causing an oil leak. They felt back to fifth and eight laps down. Eventually they finished fourth.
The 2015 season started with a podium finish in the Daytona 24 Hours. Oliver Gavin and Tommy Millner were now teamed up with Simon Paganaud. The last race of the IMSA season at petit Le Mans was again awarded with a third spot.
A really great drive from Oliver Gavin was seen in Le Mans. His #64 Corvette had qualified in the last place in the GTE-PRO. Oliver drove fantastic through the traffic and took the lead in his first stint. What followed was a battle between the #97 and #99 Aston Martin. Millner and Jordan Taylor were able to keep the Corvette in the lead, all drivers making no mistakes. Sunday morning they started to battle with the #51 Corse Ferrari of Toni Vilander. When he made a mistake and had to pit for repairs, the C7RGT-001 took the checkered flag to win the GTLM class.
This season was off with a good start. The Corvette Racing had two new chassis built according to ACO rules. In the 24 hours of Daytona there was a close battle in the GTLM field; eight hours in the race and eight cars battling for the lead. This kept on during the night, but gradually the #4 car with Gavin- Milner and Marcel Fässler got the upper hand. A win in Daytona was followed by a convincing win in the 12 hours of Sebring. Later in the year, he added Lime Rock and Road Atlanta to it. Lime Rock was Corvette 100th win! The IMSA GTE crown was for again for Oliver Gavin.
No such luck in LeMans where Milner crashed the car early Sunday morning. This was a race to forget because of the ongoing discussion about the Balance of Performance favouring Ford and Ferrari.
In 2017, Gavin got a lucky win at Long Beach; in Daytona and Sebring they had some bad luck. That luck never came back, so Gavin finished P8 in the championship. And yet again disaster in LeMans it was Tommy Milner who spun the car. They lost their possibilities to be in the fight for the lead.
For 2018, the WEC season calendar was aiming for a ‘super season’ starting in May at Spa, then the Le Mans race and five more races to end again with the 24 hours race. Both Le Mans outings were not a success for the Gavin-Millner-Fässler combination. In 2018, Gavin had an excellent start and moved up in the field in the first hours. With more than 22 hours to go, a suspension broke and needed a ten minutes repair. After a spin more time was lost. A year later, the # 64 car was forced to retire after six hours when Marcel Fässler left the track at the Porsche curves as he was attempting to overtake the #88 Porsche 911 RSR of Dempsey-Proton Racing. The damage was too significant to repair.
In the IMSA Olly finished third in the IMSA, with four podium finishes ( including a win again at Long Beach and a P2 at Petit Le Mans).
The 2019 IMSA was less successful with only one podium place. His revenge was there in 2020. A win in the 12 hours of Sebring in the C8R and again a third place in the ALMS championship. The organization of the Sebring event arranged a special tribute bridge for Gavin’s final event as a full time Team Corvette member.
A start in LeMans in 2021 would be his 20th start there, but Corvette withdrew. Oliver did his fainal outing in the WEC season opening race at Spa in 2021.
Oliver Gavin started a Driving Academy in Germany for driving and track experiences. He keeps being involved in helping young drivers in the way up to the endurance ladder.
