NEWS

GT1 World 2010: Oliver Gavin Spa Preview

This weekend marks the half way point in the first FIA GT1 World Championship for Corvette Motorsport. US Corvette Racing factory driver Oliver Gavin is anxiously awaiting his return to the Belgium circuit. The Brit first raced at Spa with Corvette back in 2007, scoring a 5th place result with French team Luc Alphand.

“I absolutely love the Spa track. I’m really looking forward to going back there although it will be a bit strange to have just two one-hour races instead of being there for the 24-hour event like last year. Spa is a real racer’s track, and one you can get your teeth into.  It’s so challenging and just a classic place to go and drive any race car.  The GT1 Corvette seems to very much suit this track and it’s a huge amount of fun to drive it there.  Spa is a fast track so you really have to work at getting past people, and have to think hard about where you’re going to do it.  The weather is often very variable which adds another element to your strategy and planning because, just like at Le Mans, it can be raining on one side of the track and not on the other.”

Olly was one of the stars of the 2009 Spa 24 Hours event, in contention for the lead for nearly 22 of the 24 hours until an engine problem prevented him from seeing the challenge through to the chequered flag.   Setting fastest lap of the race for the Belgian SRT team was a small compensation for the disappointment.  With Mad Croc Racing also operated by Patrick Selleslagh and his small, family-run team, Oliver and his Finnish team mate Pertti Kuismanen will have a definite ‘home’ advantage.

“I think we should be reasonably competitive,” he notes, “but it’s difficult to know until we get going where we stack up with the recent performance balancing and whatever else has happened since the last round.  Patrick and Pertti did a half day of testing a few weeks ago and that was reasonably successful.  It’s Mad Croc’s home race so want a good showing this weekend, and I think we have a solid foundation to go into the race.”