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Le Mans / ALMS
IN THE COCKPIT: Oliver Gavin, Petit Le Mans
We managed a 4th in the race, a 3rd in the points and a 2nd in the Championship but unfortunately the 1st we were chasing at Petit Le Mans didn’t come to us this year...
Oliver Gavin capped off the 2011 American Le Mans Series season with a strong finish at Petit Le Mans. (Photo: John Dagys)
We managed a 4th in the race, a 3rd in the points and a 2nd in the Championship but unfortunately the 1st we were chasing at Petit Le Mans didn’t come to us this year. It was an amazing race though and for sure the biggest numbers I’ve ever seen at this event – both on the track with 52 cars making the start and around 120,000 spectators!
We had 9 hours and 35 minutes of long, hard racing, one of the longer races in Petit Le Mans’ 14-year history, and undoubtedly helped by the ten full course caution periods. Jan Magnussen and Richard Westbrook, my team mates, and I never gave anything less than 100% effort from start to finish but the outright pace of the opposition proved to be just a little too much for us. We were chasing a podium placing throughout but fourth place in class (14th overall) was the eventual reward for all our hard work.
Road Atlanta’s prestige event lived up to all expectations in terms of action and excitement. The field took several hours to settle into a steady rhythm and four of the caution periods took place in the first three hours due to incident after incident. The No. 4 Corvette had a relatively trouble-free race, but we just weren’t able to lap at the same pace at the race-winning AF Corse Ferrari 458, the Flying Lizard Porsche and the BMWs.
With our sister Corvette suffering from gearbox problems, and loads of cars up and down the pitlane have dramas, it was nice to get some kind of result for the guys. It was certainly a battle at the end there! When we put the tires on for the last stint I thought ‘this is going to be great’ but then I got into a number of really tight spots with some very slow traffic and, as it got darker and darker, people got more cautious. The softer tire we were on started picking up more of their rubber and the Georgia clay all round here, and it got very slippery and slick at times.
The result secured us second place in the GT Drivers' Championship in what’s been a season of many highs and lows. We may have had just one class win, at Mosport in July, but a string of strong points-scoring finishes brought the runners-up spot to us. We had an awful lot of promise through the year and I think it’s fair to say we seemed to have raced a lot better than we qualified.
There were a number of races we could have won including Baltimore, Mid-Ohio – if it hadn’t rained – and we could have stood a good chance at Road America if other things had gone our way. This is a highly competitive championship and we just need to come back stronger and better. I think things need to be looked at in terms of the way performance balancing is done here and within ACO Championships because, for us, it’s not right.
Although the ALMS season has come to a close, I’m super-excited to be off to Australia in a week or so for the Gold Coast 600 invitational round of the Aussie V8 Supercars championship. It’s going to be brilliant racing against so many past and present mates and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it all happens ‘down under’.
~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 had 9 hours and 35 minutes of long, hard racing, one of the longer races in Petit Le Mans’ 14-year history, and undoubtedly helped by the ten full course caution periods. Jan Magnussen and Richard Westbrook, my team mates, and I never gave anything less than 100% effort from start to finish but the outright pace of the opposition proved to be just a little too much for us. We were chasing a podium placing throughout but fourth place in class (14th overall) was the eventual reward for all our hard work.
Road Atlanta’s prestige event lived up to all expectations in terms of action and excitement. The field took several hours to settle into a steady rhythm and four of the caution periods took place in the first three hours due to incident after incident. The No. 4 Corvette had a relatively trouble-free race, but we just weren’t able to lap at the same pace at the race-winning AF Corse Ferrari 458, the Flying Lizard Porsche and the BMWs.
With our sister Corvette suffering from gearbox problems, and loads of cars up and down the pitlane have dramas, it was nice to get some kind of result for the guys. It was certainly a battle at the end there! When we put the tires on for the last stint I thought ‘this is going to be great’ but then I got into a number of really tight spots with some very slow traffic and, as it got darker and darker, people got more cautious. The softer tire we were on started picking up more of their rubber and the Georgia clay all round here, and it got very slippery and slick at times.
The result secured us second place in the GT Drivers' Championship in what’s been a season of many highs and lows. We may have had just one class win, at Mosport in July, but a string of strong points-scoring finishes brought the runners-up spot to us. We had an awful lot of promise through the year and I think it’s fair to say we seemed to have raced a lot better than we qualified.
There were a number of races we could have won including Baltimore, Mid-Ohio – if it hadn’t rained – and we could have stood a good chance at Road America if other things had gone our way. This is a highly competitive championship and we just need to come back stronger and better. I think things need to be looked at in terms of the way performance balancing is done here and within ACO Championships because, for us, it’s not right.
Although the ALMS season has come to a close, I’m super-excited to be off to Australia in a week or so for the Gold Coast 600 invitational round of the Aussie V8 Supercars championship. It’s going to be brilliant racing against so many past and present mates and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it all happens ‘down under’.
~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
Monterey
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