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Le Mans / ALMS
IN THE COCKPIT: Oliver Gavin, Lime Rock
It was a definitely a bad day at the office for Corvette Racing at Lime Rock on Saturday as a potential podium finish was whisked out of our hands...
There were high hopes for Corvette Racing, on the heels of its Le Mans victory, heading into the Northeast Grand Prix. (Photo: John Dagys)
It was a definitely a bad day at the office for Corvette Racing at Lime Rock on Saturday as a potential podium finish for me and my team mate Jan Magnussen was comprehensively whisked out of our hands through no fault of their own.
We’d qualified reasonably well in 4th place on Friday afternoon behind the two BMWs and the Flying Lizard Porsche. We knew we’d be a bit up against it as the BMWs seem to have a big advantage over everyone else in terms of speed and the Porsche has had an amazing run of success in recent years at Lime Rock in Jorg Bergmeister and Pat Long’s hands. That said, the track is so small and tight that we were expecting anything to be possible. We weren’t banking on being in the middle of that ‘anything’!
Jan started and, together with Olivier Beretta in the sister Corvette, was running fourth and fifth respectively in the GT class when all hell broke loose near the exit of the West Bend turn leading to the fast downhill Diving Turn.
An LMPC prototype had contact with one of the Extreme Speed Ferraris, and basically the pack of GT cars that was following had nowhere to go. Our No. 4 Corvette collided with the third-place BMW, which was next on the scene to the initial incident, and was in turn collected by the No. 3 Corvette. The LMPC was subsequently penalized for avoidable contact, but the damage was already done – both literally and metaphorically.
It was very frustrating and disappointing, and I’m getting a bit bored of saying that after having had a number of events like that one after another, but sometimes it just goes like that in this business.
I definitely think we were in with a shout for a podium result, but I don’t think anybody can race the BMW equally and evenly at the moment as it’s so fast. Jan’s misfortune after 20 laps in the race was just that – misfortune. It was a chain reaction, a racing incident, and there was nothing that anyone could have done differently. When everyone’s that close together on a circuit like Lime Rock – where you’re all arriving on the scene pretty quickly – there’s not much space and you can’t take avoiding action.
Both Corvettes were pretty badly damaged. We had to take ours back to the tent to get it fixed and have a new nose on it, and the No. 3 car had a front suspension change. After that we were 15-20 laps down and just running around to try and see if we could get some points in the end. We used the second part of the race to test a couple of things but our car was pretty badly beaten up at the rear so you never really know how much that’s affecting you. I just tried to stay out of traffic and out of trouble and we finally finished 10th and got a point, so that's better than nothing.
It’s probably no secret that Lime Rock isn’t one of my favorite tracks, but on Saturday evening I really, really wanted to get out of there and erase the memory of Lime Rock 2011 and move onto Mosport. Onwards and upwards then...both geographically and emotionally!
See you all soon
Olly
A former British F3 Champion and Formula One test driver, Oliver Gavin has raced in North America for the last decade for Corvette Racing, representing General Motors. He has achieved three American Le Mans Series GT1 Championship titles and four GT1 class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans , and in 2011 will also be racing a Chevrolet Camaro in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.
For more information, visit: www.olivergavin.com, Facebook Oliver Gavin, or Twitter @OliverGavin
We’d qualified reasonably well in 4th place on Friday afternoon behind the two BMWs and the Flying Lizard Porsche. We knew we’d be a bit up against it as the BMWs seem to have a big advantage over everyone else in terms of speed and the Porsche has had an amazing run of success in recent years at Lime Rock in Jorg Bergmeister and Pat Long’s hands. That said, the track is so small and tight that we were expecting anything to be possible. We weren’t banking on being in the middle of that ‘anything’!
Jan started and, together with Olivier Beretta in the sister Corvette, was running fourth and fifth respectively in the GT class when all hell broke loose near the exit of the West Bend turn leading to the fast downhill Diving Turn.
An LMPC prototype had contact with one of the Extreme Speed Ferraris, and basically the pack of GT cars that was following had nowhere to go. Our No. 4 Corvette collided with the third-place BMW, which was next on the scene to the initial incident, and was in turn collected by the No. 3 Corvette. The LMPC was subsequently penalized for avoidable contact, but the damage was already done – both literally and metaphorically.
It was very frustrating and disappointing, and I’m getting a bit bored of saying that after having had a number of events like that one after another, but sometimes it just goes like that in this business.
I definitely think we were in with a shout for a podium result, but I don’t think anybody can race the BMW equally and evenly at the moment as it’s so fast. Jan’s misfortune after 20 laps in the race was just that – misfortune. It was a chain reaction, a racing incident, and there was nothing that anyone could have done differently. When everyone’s that close together on a circuit like Lime Rock – where you’re all arriving on the scene pretty quickly – there’s not much space and you can’t take avoiding action.
Both Corvettes were pretty badly damaged. We had to take ours back to the tent to get it fixed and have a new nose on it, and the No. 3 car had a front suspension change. After that we were 15-20 laps down and just running around to try and see if we could get some points in the end. We used the second part of the race to test a couple of things but our car was pretty badly beaten up at the rear so you never really know how much that’s affecting you. I just tried to stay out of traffic and out of trouble and we finally finished 10th and got a point, so that's better than nothing.
It’s probably no secret that Lime Rock isn’t one of my favorite tracks, but on Saturday evening I really, really wanted to get out of there and erase the memory of Lime Rock 2011 and move onto Mosport. Onwards and upwards then...both geographically and emotionally!
See you all soon
Olly
A former British F3 Champion and Formula One test driver, Oliver Gavin has raced in North America for the last decade for Corvette Racing, representing General Motors. He has achieved three American Le Mans Series GT1 Championship titles and four GT1 class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans , and in 2011 will also be racing a Chevrolet Camaro in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.
For more information, visit: www.olivergavin.com, Facebook Oliver Gavin, or Twitter @OliverGavin
FIA WEC Six Hours of Spa
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