Oliver Benjamin Gavin (born 29 September 1972), is a British racing driver who joined Corvette Racing 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 racing (motorsport), endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le M ...

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 race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose w ...

class wins, five

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second ro ...

class wins and five Petit Le Mans class wins.

Biography

He was raised in the village of 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 s ...

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 ...

at Sharnbrook Upper School and Community College. 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, 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 championship ...

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 acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

. 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. H ...

in the final round to snatch the title. He was test driver for the ill-fated mid-1990s Pacific Grand Prix team. It was proposed that he would drive for the team in the

1995 Australian Grand Prix The 1995 Australian Grand Prix (officially the LX EDS Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 12 November 1995 at the Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide. The race, contested over 81 laps, was the seventeenth and final race o ...

, but he was not granted the required FIA Super Licence. 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 Corvette Racing 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 cha ...

(2004-2010), Jan Magnussen (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: Unleash ...

(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 ...

, Richard Westbrook 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 ...

on five occasions (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2015), the

five times (2001, 2002, 2006, 2007 and 2013), and Petit Le Mans 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 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) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete International Touring Car Championship results

( key) (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

( key) (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