Le Mans 24 Hours – Scrutineering Monday 1
Corvette People

Oliver Gavin
Ollie Gavin was in good spirits on the first day of scrutineering of the Place des Jacobins as he waited for his Corvette Racing colleagues to join him for the all-important administrative checks.

“It’s great to be back here and it’s great to not only have a half season of ALMS to look forward to but also some good racing in Europe.

“I’ll be joining Patrice Goueselard and Guillaume Moreau in the Luc Alphand Aventures car at Silverstone in the Le Mans Series but also with Luc (Alphand), Jan (Magnussen and Olivier (Beretta) in the Spa 24 hours. Now that’s one I’m really looking forward to.

“Philippe Poincloux is a very focussed leader for that team, he has good and realistic goals. He has an excellent relationship with the ACO and all in all it’s a good outfit for me to get involved with.

As factory drivers we know that an essentially private team might lack some of the frills that we get used to but the team has made some excellent choices and it makes surprisingly little difference to our racing.

“GM have gradually increased the level of direct and indirect support for the team, Steve Cole, our race engineer on the #4 (#64 this week) car will join the team for the Spa 24 hours and that’s in addition to the other tweaks that gradually funnel their way to the Alphand cars.”

Moving on to the action to come this week at Le Mans the almost inevitable question was around the team’s response to losing their GT1 title to the Aston Martin Racing squad last year, and in particular the uncharacteristically early exit for the Gavin-pedalled C6.R after a driveshaft failure inside 2 hours.

“It’s fair to say that the boys are very focussed after last year. The best thing is that we have a good, fast and consistent car, all of us were comfortable straight away and that’s not always the case. You can put a perfectly good race car away and somehow it emerges as an entirely different car.

“We all understand the car and are confident in what it can do. But we know that the Astons will be fast so we have to be there to fight and happily we’re confident that we can be close enough to take the fight right back to them.

“Last year if truth be told we lacked a little bit of pace against the Astons but there are some crucial differences this year. If it’s hot it suits us just a little bit more, “ – this comment believed to relate in particular to the Corvette’s characteristics on using its rubber reportedly a little more conservatively.

“Don’t forget though that until last year I had always finished this race, and always on the podium so it was a VERY long walk back and a massive personal blow. I think the boys would agree that the whole team was in shock for at least a month afterwards but, you know, in a big way it helped us. The Aston effort has been massively helpful. The fact that a top class effort has been weighed against us so directly has helped both of us to up the game hugely and step by step with improved lap times, fuel economy, use of the tyres and lots of other ways too we’ve taken steps forward that probably

wouldn’t have come in other circumstances.

“It drives you on, it pushes you to the edge and in truth we relish it, we love it. The best wins are the ones that are hard fought.”

Jan Magnussen
“ The Luc Alphand run will be my first time at the Spa 24 Hours. The last time I even raced there was back in 2003 in Touring Cars so I haven’t even seen the new Bus Stop yet. I guess I shouldn’t attack it too hard on my out lap.

“I do love racing these cars (the Corvettes) though. They are very cool cars, big power, plenty of downforce, not at all like the touring cars I race in Denmark, that’s rather more of a contact sport than this.”

Ron Fellows – On rumours of his retirement seemingly coming every year):
“ I honestly take it one year at a time. I sit down with the family every October and we talk about the commitment it takes both for me and for all of us and reach a decision.

“It doesn’t get any easier of course and as you move on through life there are, of course, other things that you decide you want to do.

“At this point in my life it’s perfectly fair to say that I believe I can be as valuable out of the car as I can be in it.”

Olivier Beretta
“ I’ve won the (GTS/ GT1) class here five times and I’ve had a second place in class too so yes I’m hungry to win this again and last year was not a good one.

“Last year I think Aston deserved a win. We had had three great races against them and perhaps it was their turn to get the luck that deserted us.

“This year though I hope we can have a race as good and close as the first year of the Corvettes when they were very, very close to the Vipers. I’d like a tough contest, a real dogfight. I don’t want to win here by being lucky, I want to win by being the fastest.”

Luc Alphand
“ This is a race where we have to push hard to be in the group chasing the factory cars but we can’t afford to have problems either. While we might be able to match them for a while there’s no way we can stay with them on pace we need to be fast and consistent enough to be competitive with the other good privateer cars in the class both to go well against them and to make sure that if things go badly ahead of us we are in a good position to take some advantage.”

On the Luc Alphand Aventures squad for the Spa 24 hours:

“I’m really looking forward to it. I am very lucky that they have chosen me to partner the factory drivers and, its fair to say that we should be looking for an overall win – After all I have got some nice help!”