Oliver Benjamin Gavin (born 29 September 1972), is a British racing driver who joined

Corvette Racing Corvette Racing is an American auto racing team established in 1999 by General Motors and Pratt & Miller for the purposes of competing in sports car racing internationally. Corvette Racing is an official racing program for General Motors and t ...

in 2002. He has won five

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...

class championships, five

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...

class wins, five 12 Hours of Sebring class wins and five

Petit Le Mans The Petit Le Mans (French for ''little Le Mans'') is a sports car endurance race held annually at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, USA. It uses the rules established for the 24 Hours of Le Mans by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), which ...

class wins.

Biography

He was raised in the village of

Felmersham Felmersham is a small village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England, on the River Great Ouse, about north west of Bedford. As a civil parish, it includes the hamlet of Radwell, and is sometimes known as Felmersham ...

, Bedfordshire. He attended the local Primary school, Pinchmill. At age nine he attended Lincroft Middle School and then took his

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

s and

A-levels The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

Sharnbrook Upper School and Community College Sharnbrook Academy, formerly Sharnbrook Upper School until 2017, is a large, rural academy school located in Sharnbrook, a village in the English county of Bedfordshire. Built in 1975, the school now has over 1900 students and around 300 s ...

Oliver Gavin British F3 1995 Silverstone

GT07 Oliver Gavin Gunter Schaldach 2011 Road America

Born in

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...

, Gavin was introduced to motor racing through the traditional karting route. After finishing as runner-up in the 1993 British F3 series to

Kelvin Burt Kelvin Burt (born 7 September 1967 in Birmingham) is a British auto racing driver. After attending the Jim Russell Racing Drivers' School in 1987 he turned to Formula Ford racing, battling hard against David Coulthard for the championship. He wo ...

, Gavin graduated to

Formula 3000 Formula 3000 (F3000) was a type of open wheel, single seater formula racing, occupying the tier immediately below Formula One and above Formula Three. It was so named because the cars were powered by 3.0 L engines. Formula 3000 championships ...

in 1994 with Omegaland. He failed to score any points in the five races he contested, and subsequently opted to drop back down to F3 for

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

. He managed to overcome rival

Ralph Firman Ralph David Firman Jr. (born 20 May 1975) is a British-born former racing driver who raced under Irish citizenship (his mother Angela is from Ireland) and an Irish-issued racing licence. Earlier in his career he raced under a British licence. ...

in the final round to snatch the title. He was test driver for the ill-fated mid-1990s

Pacific Grand Prix The Pacific Grand Prix ( ja, パシフィックグランプリ) was a round of the Formula One World Championship twice in the mid-1990s and non-championship events in the 1960s. The non-championship events were held at Laguna Seca from 1960 th ...

team. It was proposed that he would drive for the team in the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, but he was not granted the required

FIA Super Licence The FIA Super Licence is a driver's qualification allowing the holder to compete in the Formula One, Formula One World Championship. Requirements Super Licence To qualify for an FIA Racing Super Licence an applicant must meet the requirements of t ...

. Gavin also drove the Safety Car from 1997 to 1999 for the

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

championship. Gavin became a

factory driver in 2002, having raced full-time in the

GT1 and GT2 classes and currently the

IMSA SportsCar Championship The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMS ...

GTLM class. His full-time codrivers have been

Olivier Beretta Olivier Beretta (born 23 November 1969) is a professional racing driver from Monaco who raced in Formula One in 1994 for the Larrousse team, partnering Érik Comas. He participated in 10 Grands Prix, debuting on 27 March 1994. He scored no champi ...

(2004-2010),

Jan Magnussen Jan Ellegaard Magnussen (born 4 July 1973) is a Danish professional racing driver and was a factory driver for General Motors until the end of the 2020 season. He has competed in Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), NASCAR, the FIA Formula O ...

(2010-2011) and

Tommy Milner Tommy Milner (born January 28, 1986), is an American GM factory racing and test driver, also currently employed full-time in Corvette Racing. He is also the co-owner of Team Hype Sim. He was featured in 2011 racing video game Shift 2: Unleashed ...

(since 2012), whereas

Max Papis Massimiliano "Max" Papis (born 3 October 1969) is an Italian professional motorsport driver who has competed in several top-level motorsports events such as Le Mans 24 Hours, Formula One and Champ Car. He has three Champ Car victories. He is the s ...

Richard Westbrook Richard Westbrook (born 10 July 1975) is a British professional racing driver noted for his success in racing Porsche and International sports cars. As a junior, he attended St Joseph's College, Ipswich. He has won both the Porsche Supercup i ...

and Jordan Taylor have been his endurance codrivers. He has won his class in

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

on five occasions (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2015), the 12 Hours of Sebring five times (2001, 2002, 2006, 2007 and 2013), and

another five times (2002, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2010). Also, he won the ALMS GT1 titles in 2005, 2006 and 2007, plus the GT2 title in 2012. Gavin announced his retirement from professional racing on 31 October 2020, with the 2021 WEC

6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (formerly the 1000 Kilometres of Spa-Francorchamps) is an endurance race for sports cars held at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. History The Spa 24 Hours had been introduced in 1924, and other races f ...

being his final race. He placed 4th in the GTE Pro class with co-driver, Antonio Garcia, and 18th overall. Gavin lives in a village east of

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

with his wife, Helen, and their three children. He announced on April 29th, 2021 via Twitter that he will be continuing his working relationship with Chevrolet with the formation of a new racing school, the Oliver Gavin Driving Academy, featuring Corvette C8 Stingrays as the primary instructional vehicle.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete International Touring Car Championship results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) *† — Retired, but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete GT1 World Championship results

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Bathurst 1000 results

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gavin, Oliver 1972 births Living people English racing drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers People from Huntingdon International Formula 3000 drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers American Le Mans Series drivers European Le Mans Series drivers FIA GT1 World Championship drivers Supercars Championship drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers People educated at Sharnbrook Academy FIA World Endurance Championship drivers ADAC GT Masters drivers WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers People from Felmersham Corvette Racing drivers Team Joest drivers Nordic Racing drivers Aston Martin Racing drivers Kelly Racing drivers TOM'S drivers