Gavin Smith (born 15 September 1977) is an Irish racing driver. His younger brother, Árón Smith, is also a racing driver who races in the

British GT Championship The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports GT ...

, and formerly the

British Touring Car Championship The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as ...

Career

Born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, Smith won Ireland's

Fiat Punto The Fiat Punto is a supermini car (B-segment) produced by the Italian manufacturer Fiat from 1993 to 2018, spanning over three generations. The third generation of the car was marketed between 2005 and 2009 as the Grande Punto, and between 2009 a ...

championship in 1998, winning 12 times, before trying single-seaters for the next year. In 2000 he was in British Formula Renault, before moving up to the Scholarship class (using year old cars) of Formula 3. Gavin Smith 2006 BTCC Oulton Park

However, it has been in

touring cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not mo ...

that Gavin has raced since 2003. He had 2 seasons in the

SEAT Cupra Championship The SEAT Cupra Championship was a one-make series that ran for six years between 2003 and 2008, the last five of which ran as a support package to the British Touring Car Championship. Originally the prize for winning the championship was a driv ...

, winning 4 races and coming 5th overall in 2004. By this time he had already made his

BTCC The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as ...

debut in a one-off at

Mondello Park Mondello Park is Ireland's only international motorsport venue and is located in Caragh, County Kildare off the R409 regional road, approximately from Dublin city centre. History The Mondello Park short circuit was designed on farmland ne ...

, and he tested a VX Racing

Vauxhall Astra The Vauxhall Astra is a compact car/small family car (C-segment) that has been sold by Vauxhall since 1980. It is currently produced at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England. For its first two generations, the nameplate was applied to right-han ...

in early 2005. After impressing the team he earned a drive in their third car, which the team openly admitted is awarded to the best driver who can bring enough money to fund it themselves, rather than necessarily the best available driver. Gavin was 10th overall in 2005, although the fact that he was retained for 2006, while

Colin Turkington Colin Henry Turkington (born 21 March 1982) is a British racing driver from Northern Ireland who competes in the British Touring Car Championship for Team BMW. He is a 4 time BTCC champion, winning the title in 2009, 2014, 2018 and 2019, havi ...

was fired after finishing 6th, tells its own story. However, he did show signs of improvement late in the season: up until round 9 his best qualifyings were a pair of 4ths, and his best race result was a 5th place, whereas in the last 2 meetings he scored a 2nd and a 3rd, as well as qualifying 2nd in the last round. In 2006, Smith improved to 8th overall, but lost his drive for 2007 when VX Racing downsized to a two-car team due to the pressures of preparing new-specification

Vauxhall Vectra The Opel Vectra is a mid-size car (large family car) that was engineered and produced by the German automaker Opel from 1988 until 2010. Available in saloon, hatchback and estate body styles, the Vectra was also sold by the Vauxhall marque i ...

s. With 3 rounds of the 2007 season to go, it was announced that Smith would join GR Asia in alongside Adam Jones, driving a 2007 spec SEAT León. He finished 13th Overall. His younger brother, Árón, is also a racing driver and made his BTCC début in 2011 for the Triple Eight team, which previously competed under the VX Racing name. Árón races for Redstone Racing in 2012.

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded in first race) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded all races) (* signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap – 1 point awarded all races)

References

External links

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btcc:action profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Gavin 1977 births British Touring Car Championship drivers Irish racing drivers Living people Sportspeople from County Dublin British Formula Three Championship drivers Team Meritus drivers