Page 30 - Phonebox Magazine September 2015

We chat to the 2015 winner of Le Mans 24 Hours
“Winning at Le Mans is always fantastic. It’s the pinnacle of motor sport.”
Oliver Gavin has recently won Le Mans 24 Hours for the fifth time. I must be honest and admit I wasn’t very clued up
on motor racing, but I definitely am now! It was fantastic speaking with him about his Le Mans victory, life in Yardley Hastings and his advice for budding motor racers.
“It’s a very intense 24-hour battle.”
Driving at top speeds of 200mph is thrilling enough, but when you’re involved in a race that lasts 24 hours, it really is a test of endurance! For those of you, like me, who needed a bit of clarification about what Le Mans 24 Hours is, Oliver explains: “It starts at 3 o’clock on the Saturday afternoon and finishes at 3 o’clock on the Sunday. Our class, the GTE Pro class, is all road cars. The Corvette that I race is based on the Z06C7 version of the Corvette – the highest specification Corvette that you can buy. There’s three drivers per car, you can’t drive the car for any longer than four hours in a six hour period, and no driver can drive for any more than 14 hours of the total race. It’s very exciting – it’s a very intense 24- hour battle.”
Describing just how popular Le Mans is, Oliver says, “250,000 people go there each year to watch the race; 70,000-80,000 Brits go to watch it. There’s the Indy 500 in the United States, there’s the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix, then there’s the Le Mans 24 Hours. They’re the three biggest races in the world, I’d say.”
“Our sister car had a huge crash.”
I can’t quite imagine what it must be like to win such a world-renowned race, but Oliver gave me a bit of an insight: “Winning at Le Mans is always fantastic. It’s the pinnacle of motor sport. It’s the one that everybody wants to win. I’ve been fortunate enough to win it five times.
“The start of the week for us at Le Mans this year was very tough. Our sister car had a huge crash – a mechanical issue – and the car was written off. Morale was definitely 30 Phonebox Magazine
Oliver at Le Mans 24 Hours with his teammates
low going into the race on the Saturday. As the race started, the car started to perform well – all the drivers did a good job. It was very close competition with all of our competitors. Amazingly we managed to pull it off and get the victory! On a personal note, it was very nice to have my family there. I could stand on the podium, look down, see them all there in the crowd below, waving their flags; it was a special moment.”
“Yardley Hastings and this area is home for us. It’s got a lot to offer here.”
Oliver Gavin definitely spends a lot of time in a racing car, but, as a resident of Yardley Hastings for nearly 20 years, he loves being out and about in the local area. He explains of Yardley Hastings: “It’s a lovely village. Most of my racing is in the United States so we’ve had numerous opportunities to go and live over there. But actually we’ve always resisted that. Yardley Hastings and this area is home for us. It’s a great base. It’s got a lot to offer here.”
And it isn’t just racing cars that Oliver is good at. He told of his marathon victories