American Le Mans Series

Ollie Gavin’s thoughts between Mosport and Detroit

© American Le Mans Series

The luck was just not with the No.4 Compuware Corvette C6-R at Mosport last weekend. About 55 minutes into the race and with a healthy class lead, Oliver was tipped into a spin by a passing prototype car. This resulted in an early pit stop and a fight back through the field. A late puncture also delayed them but they managed to finish second in class, 57 seconds down on the No.3 Corvette.
Oliver may have had to cede the win at Mosport to his team mates Jan Magnussen and Johnny O’Connell, but second place still gives he and Olivier Beretta a 36-point lead in the GT1 drivers Championship and puts them in a strong position going into the final stages of the 12-race series.

There’s yet another busy weekend coming up for Olly and all within the Corvette Racing team as they head to Detroit for next weekend’s Belle Isle Grand Prix, round ten of the American Le Mans Series.

Corvette Racing will have a high profile on the town and on the track when motor racing returns to `Motor City’. Chevrolet and its factory road racing team will take centre stage in Saturday’s inaugural American Le Mans Series Detroit Sports Car Challenge on the revamped street course near GM global headquarters.

All six team drivers - Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, Max Papis, Johnny O’Connell, Jan Magnussen and Ron Fellows - will be on hand for a full week of activities that includes throwing the ceremonial first pitch at the Detroit Tigers baseball game on Monday night, a Corvette Pep Rally at the GM Plaza on the River Walk on Tuesday, a media dinner, charity events and autograph sessions with hundreds of Corvette club members. There are a host of dignitaries and VIPs waiting to meet the Corvette drivers this week, including Detroit’s Mayor, so it will be best behaviour and shiny shoes all round!

"We’re looking forward to being the home team for the first ALMS race in Detroit," said Olly. "It’s going to be great to race so close to GM headquarters. It will be a very busy week, but I see that as an opportunity to say thank you to the people behind the scenes who make Corvette Racing successful.

"I’ve heard good reports about the Belle Isle circuit and on paper it looks like it’s going to be a good venue for racing," he continued. "There are several good straights on the track, so we’ll have to make sure that we get good traction coming off the corners that lead into the fast sections. It might be similar to Long Beach in that respect, so that may be the setup we start with. My engineer, Steve Cole, has been working on gear ratios and chassis setups, so I’m confident that we’ll be fully prepared."

The Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch will start at 3:15 pm local time on Saturday, 1st September. The two-hour, 45-minute race will be shown live in the UK on Motors TV starting at 8.00 pm.

Credit: Oliver Gavin