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Corvette’s Captain Gavin walking away with pride

Richard Dole/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Marshall Pruett | November 14, 2020 11:43 AM

In typical style for Oliver Gavin, understatement has his driven his farewell to a full-time role with Corvette Racing. There was no year-long farewell tour or self-aggrandizing measures to ensure Corvette’s Iron Man was celebrated at every stop on IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship tour.

Ahead of 2020’s final round at Sebring, the Briton reflected on 19 years, 202 race starts, Le Mans wins and championships aplenty, first thoughts of semi-retirement, and the people who shaped his career at Corvette Racing as the life-changing 203rd start approaches.

“Well, it has been an amazing journey that I’ve had with Corvette Racing and the people that I’ve been working with, whether that was the first guys I was working with, the likes of Gary Pratt, Doug Fehan, Doug Louth, Steve Cole” he said. “There’s many, many, many people. And you get to see through those 19 years that a lot of those mainstays and those guys have either moved on from the race team or are still there, but they’re in a slightly lesser role. And it came to the point where I’m thinking about it. I know that the guys on the team are also thinking about it with the transition period and getting the next guys in who are going to be with the team for five, eight, 10 years.

“That’s been one of the cornerstones of their Corvette Racing program, the fact that they’ve been so loyal when they find someone that they know they like, they can trust, they know that this is going to deliver for them. Then they absolutely fully invest into them, and their racing career, and what they can actually deliver for the team and for the brand in Corvette. So I think that’s been one of the things that’s been so amazing about Corvette Racing. But I suppose it’s been a slowly evolving process over the last couple of years maybe that there’s been talk about (stepping back), but it’s really started to get focused through the summer. And that’s really when it all started to come into focus. It’s been an amazing journey.”

An open-wheel champion in Europe, Gavin was primed for a career in Formula 1 before a diversion to sports car emerged as the best way to remain active and earn a decent income. F1’s loss would soon prove to be America’s gift.
Gavin rose to prominence in British F3 in 1995. Motorsports Images

“I got a shot in the Saleen S7 with Terry Borcheller and Franz Konrad at Sebring in 2001,” he said. “And we were taking the Corvettes on and we won; we beat them there at Sebring in a car that had never really done any more than about three hours of running. And realistically, we never ever dreamt that we could actually win the race, but we pulled it off. And that was quite something. And at the end of that race, I came in for the very last pit stop at that race. And I remember as I pulled up, I saw two faces, not just the faces of my pit crew, but I saw two other faces. Gary Pratt and Doug Fehan was sitting there on the pit-wall watching that last pit stop.

“As I drove away, it was their look on their faces. They were like, ‘Oh s**t. I think we’ve lost.’ It was that sort of realization that they had that this is a car that was likely not going to fail and that we held all the cards at that point to win that race in 2001. So then it was (Corvette legend) Ron Fellows then started speaking to me, at Watkins Glen after I’d done a race with Jon Field and Intersport. He said, ‘Speak to Doug Fehan.’ I spoke to Doug at Laguna Seca towards the end of 2001, and then it took off from there.”

Behind the Corvette Racing name is Pratt & Miller Engineering, as Gavin would soon learn.

“Doug Fehan wanted to give me a contract there and then that weekend, but there was one big caveat — and this is a huge caveat — that Gary Pratt needed to see me driving one of his cars,” he continued. “Unless he saw me driving one of his cars, there’s no way that Doug could give me the contract. They had this agreement that no driver was signed without testing the car first. So I go to Sebring, November, 2001, and the 3 car’s got a test program already set out, and I’m just due to test the 4 car with Andy Pilgrim and Kelly Collins. Andy goes out, he sets a time. I get in. I go out. I beat that time. Andy then gets back in, and he beats my time. Then I go back out again, and I beat his time. And it keeps going like this. And I can see Gary Pratt’s getting more and more nervous, because he’s thinking, ‘When’s this going to stop?’

“It was at the end of that day that Doug Fehan and Gary Pratt came to me and said, ‘Look, we want you on board for next year, and we’ll offer you third-driver role alongside Ron Fellows and Johnny O’Connell.’ And from there onwards, it’s just been this unbelievable journey with some amazing teammates, with some fantastic crew chiefs, engineers, personnel, guys that have been so unbelievably generous with their time, whether that’s guys back at the shop or guys on the team at the time, guys I can really call friends, people that I’ve worked with for so many years and you establish a really good relationship with. And you are friends all about their families and their lives and what’s happening. And you’re speaking to them weekly.
Gavin and Kelly Collins en route to victory in their Corvette C5-R at the American Le Mans Series race in Trois-Rivieres in 2003. Sutton/Motorsport Images

“And so that’s been the really special thing. And I suppose that comes back to the way that Gary Pratt started running the team all those years ago, and it is that real family atmosphere. And when Gary stepped away somewhat from running the team, I suppose back in 2015, 2016 was when (team manager) Ben Johnson came along. Ben has still been able to carry on that feel of the team and that family atmosphere, that way that they view drivers and the way that they view personnel.”

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Gavin, due to his natural leadership qualities and tenure, has long been referred to as ‘The Captain’ within Corvette Racing.

“Fehan was the one that said to me — it was 2004, after my first full year, ‘Look, you are the team captain here of your car,’” he recalled. “And then as that through the years, when Ron was still on the team and he was still the figurehead, and fundamentally the leader, and that… I wouldn’t say father figure, but when I joined the team, he really was that man that everybody looked up to. It was very clear that he was the leader of all of us. if you needed a question answered on a driver thing, Ron was the guy.

“I took a lot of guidance from him when I was the team captain on my car. But then when he then moved and then he stopped driving with us, I suppose it was a natural progression for me to sort of move over and somewhat be the leader. And I was also, then at that time, one of the older drivers on the team. Olivier (Beretta) was still driving with me at that point, and I think Olivier’s maybe a year older than me. But I suppose because I’m English and the language wasn’t any problem for me, it was still a little bit of an issue for Olivier, that I naturally progressed to being that leader and that that person that was sort of guiding the drivers along.”
Corvette Racing’s “old guard” at Le Mans in 2004, (left to right): Ron Fellows, Max Papis, Jan Magnussen, Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta. Motorsport Images

As Corvette Racing’s original guard moved onto retirement, or departed for other teams, Gavin became the bridge to a new generation of driver that will carry the team forward. From teammate Tommy Milner, to new GTLM champions Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, to endurance drivers Marcel Fassler and Nicky Catsburg, The Captain has been a friend and mentor.

“Then from that point onwards, the guys that have joined, whether it was Antonio, or Tommy, or even Marcel, they would always come to me for the guidance, and the advice, and how things just function within the team, and what’s expected, what’s not expected,” Gavin said. “This racing for the last 19 years with Corvette Racing has really been my life and when I’ve been over here in the United States. My wife would also argue that he’s been pretty much ruling our lives for the last 19 years, even when I’m at home and I’m thinking of all the different things that needs to happen and the conversations with engineers.”

Although the exact nature of Gavin’s upcoming role within the team has not been shared, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a return for the longer races next season. But the key change coming involves slowing down and, after 20-plus years of non-stop racing and traveling, investing the majority of his time and energies into the Gavin family.

“I remember having a conversation with Bill DeLong when we were working on the C7.R, and they were talking about steering wheel placement,” he said. “I was on vacation in Spain, and I was having these almost daily conversations with Bill about where the position of the steering wheel was in that car. And my wife was going crazy, just saying, ‘You need to just switch off. Put the phone down. Move away. Switch it off for a week.’

“But I was just so living it and breathing it and wanting it to be right, and I took my responsibility very seriously — that figure of somewhat being the leader as well, and wanting to make sure that the drivers and the guys that were coming in were going to be looking at it the same way: We needed to be taking this really seriously. This is our job and for it to be successful, we all have to give it 100 percent and we’ve got to have a real focus.
Gavin climbs out of his Corvette C6.R at Road America in 2006. Motorsport Images

“My wife, Helen, and my three children, Lily, Isaac, and Fergus have been a massive support and also a big motivation to stay focused and driven and provide and try and set things up in life for us on a good solid foundation. And that was always the number one driving factor for me, was thinking about those guys and how we can have a stable, happy home. But as time goes by, you realize that there have been some pretty big sacrifices in terms of missing out on certain things that the children have been doing, or just the amount that my wife was doing herself, managing three children. I think we had three under (the age of) five at one point, and just trying to juggle all of that, make it all work, be in all the different places that she needed to…

“It’s time to give some of that back to them and be there for whether it’s my son acting and singing or whether it’s my boy playing soccer or football, or my daughter rowing for the university that she goes to now. I want to experience more of that. I want to see more of that. I want to go and give something back to them because they’ve spent an awful lot of time away from me or standing on the side of a racetrack watching me go around.”

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As news of Gavin’s upcoming retirement made the rounds, the reverie and appreciation held for Mr. Corvette was unleashed by friends, fans, and rivals alike.

“It has been amazing just to see social media,” he said. “That’s what was so wonderful about it is that you can interact with so many people — you can interact with so many fans, so many owners, and so many people who are genuine fans of the car. Again, whether it’s for all the different generations of car. I’ve driven the C5, C6, C7, C8 now, and everybody seems to have their favorite and that passion that the fans have or the owners have for that particular model is, it’s really quite exceptional. You’re almost rocked back on your heels by it, by how passionate they are about the vehicle and about their car.
Gavin wheels his third generation of Corvette, the C7.R, at Petit Le Mans in 2014. Scott LePage/Motorsport Images

“I suppose that’s one of the things that we’re regularly surprised about when we’re going to Corvette Corrals and we’re meeting the owners — or even now just online, and some of the interactions that you have — is how passionate people are, particularly about that model and that version of the Corvettes; it’s quite amazing. We shouldn’t get so surprised, but we often do. But I’ve been really touched and really very thankful for all the kind words that people have come to me with, whether again it’s through social media or other messages or conversations that I’ve had, or people who have stopped me in the paddock.

“With COVID times and social distancing and all that sort of stuff, the paddock is pretty empty, but at Laguna, it gives you that lovely, warm fuzzy feeling, I suppose, when you’re stopped and many mechanics that you’ve just passed walking down pit lane numerous times, they stop you and they go, ‘Look, Olly, really, really enjoyed watching you for the last 19 years driving for this team. It’s been really a remarkable sort of journey, really enjoyed it. Thank you, and good luck.’ You’ve seen that face so many times before, but you’ve never really stopped and had a chat. And then for them to stop you and just say those words, it’s really … it is a great moment and you sort of feel, like I say, a bit warm and fuzzy about it.

“But the drivers in the paddock that I’ve been battling against wheel to wheel for years, and you have this sort of little bit of a feisty relationship with, and they seek you out and then they go, ‘Look, it’s been brilliant to race against you and really enjoyed those battles that we’ve had on track.’ Just sort of wanted to remember those moments where it’s intense, it’s wheel-to-wheel stuff. You’re not wanting to give a millimeter on the track and you’re driving around side-by-side for like three or four corners, and one of you ends up coming out the better. And one of you is happy and one of you is really pissed off. Some guys carry that for a while. It might be that with particular drivers, that’s happened a number of times and so you carry that baggage for a bit.”
This year provided Gavin the chance to race his fourth iteration of Corvette in the C8.R, and more opportunities to engage in the intense wheel-to-wheel duels he cherishes. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Without the impending threat of Gavin bearing down on future GTLM battles, the opposition from BMW and Porsche have taken time to express their respect for The Captain.

“Quite a few drivers who I’ve had those moments with have come and messaged me, sought me out and thanked me for racing hard and pretty fair the whole time, and the fact that it’s been great fun competing and racing and being out there on track together,” he said. “And that’s kind of the stuff that you want to remember and take away, and it’s been special, very, very special the last couple of weeks.”

Oliver Gavin, a Corvette Racing man to the end.

“I can walk away and be proud of what I’ve achieved with the team and as a team,” he said. “I think that’s a really key thing, is that we’ve done all of this as a team together. And all the success that we’ve had and all the generations of car, it’s been just so special just to be part of that team. To be a cog in that mechanism, to make it all work, and to have that success, it’s been great — really fantastic.

“I have been amazingly lucky to have had such a great career with the team, but I’ve also been amazingly lucky that my wife has supported me so strongly. And I’ve got three wonderful children that come along and support me as well.”