American Le Mans Series

Third title for the Ollies

© American Le Mans Series

Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta, known affectionately as ’the Ollies’ by many in the sportscar media, won their ninth ALMS GT1 race of the season, and their third successive GT1 Driver’s Championship, last weekend at Laguna Seca. The four hour race at the stunning Laguna Seca Raceway was as hard and fast as ever with the lead changing hands between the No.4 and the No.3 Compuware Corvette C6-Rs several times.
Eventually Oliver and Olivier finished 28 seconds ahead of rivals Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen. Despite little competition throughout the season the racing between the two crews has been intense.

"I have to take my hat off to Olivier because he drove brilliantly," said Oliver. "We were knocked off the track twice today, and there was big pressure all the time from our sister car. The one thing that kept us in front was the pit stops. The guys did a fantastic job with every stop, and our engineer Steve Cole and Corvette Racing gave us a mighty car. This was the best car we’ve had at Laguna Seca, and a victory was a fitting way to finish the season."

The cars were decked in a unique livery for this, the last ALMS event of 2007, paying tribute to ’Jake’ the skull logo that has become associated with the Corvette Racing team. The No.3 and No.4 cars were the mirror image of each other in black and yellow.

"It’s a pity that Aston didn’t come over to challenge us this year but the racing was no less competitive," Olly confirmed. "It was, of course, a friendly rivalry but the team prepared two magnificent cars for each and every race. The Championship for Olivier and I for the third successive season does make up to some extent for the disappointment at Le Mans but we’ll be back at La Sarthe next year with something to prove!"

"Corvette Racing has again set the standard for engineering excellence, preparation, and commitment in the American Le Mans Series," said Chevrolet general manager Ed Peper. "The team came to race at every event, and ran with all of the passion and skill that have made Corvette Racing America’s premier production sports car racing team. The drivers, mechanics, engineers, support personnel and team managers of Corvette Racing have made everyone at Chevrolet proud, and I congratulate every one of them on a job well done."

The rivalry between the two Corvette crews was renewed in the final of the season long pit stop competition. After defeating two teams from Dyson Racing in the semi-final, the No.3 and No.4 crews did battle in the final, No.3 just edging it to take overall honours. After the compeittion the GT1 race was literally won in the pits. "We were a little down after finishing second in the pit stop competition, but we pulled together," said Ray Gongla, crew chief for the No. 4 Corvette. "The guys had to do three flawless pit stops in a row, and they did it."

This ends the 2007 American Le Mans Series but is not quite the end to Olly’s season. On 9th/10th November he travels to Interlagos, Brazil for the Mil Mihas, the 1000Km final round of the FIA GT Championship where he will again be driving a Corvette C6-R with the Luc Alphand Aventures Team.

Credit: Oliver Gavin