Barwell Motorsport is delighted to announce that it has signed one of GT racing’s biggest names for this year’s 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, in the form of multiple Le Mans GT Class-winning driver, Oliver Gavin.
He will team up with Mark Poole, Richard Abra and Joe Osborne for the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the Blancpain Endurance Cup season, in their Pro-Am Class Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Oliver’s signing will be a significant string to the bow of the Barwell Motorsport squad, as it bids for its third Spa Pro-Am podium in a row, having achieved this with the Barwell-run Ecurie Ecosse-entered BMW Z4 in 2014 and ‘15.
With Tom Kimber-Smith in the sister Barwell Huracan, this means that the team’s two additional Spa 24 Hours drivers will have claimed no less than eight Le Mans class victories between them! Gavin has taken an amazing five GT wins there during his career as a factory Chevrolet Corvette driver, to add to the one GT and two LMP2 scalps of Kimber-Smith. Like Tom, however, Spa is the one that’s missing from Oliver’s CV, as he has previously contested it four times and been in the hunt for a podium finish but ultimately missed out. He has started the 2016 season off in the best possible fashion though, with a superb GTLM win at the Daytona 24 Hours.
Gavin’s distinguished CV also includes four American Le Mans Series Championship titles, with wins at the Sebring 12 Hour and Petit Le Mans Road Atlanta 1000 mile classics, aboard factory Chevrolet Corvettes. Prior to his move into GT racing, Oliver was an F1 test driver, won the British Formula 3 Championship in 1995, and was previously a winner of the prestigious McLaren/Autosport Award.
Gavin will get his first taste of the MP Motorsport/JCAM-backed Lamborghini Huracan GT3 during this week’s official Blancpain pre-season test at Paul Ricard, prior to joining Mark, Richard and Joe for the Spa-Francorchamps endurance classic on July 30-31.
Oliver Gavin: “I’m delighted to be joining Barwell Motorsport for Spa, I’ve known Mark (Lemmer) and Chris (Needell) for a long time but never had the chance to drive for the team until now. I’m really pleased to be doing Spa 24 Hours again as it’s always a fantastic challenge. It’s one of the hardest races to win, and I’ve done it many times before but never managed to get on the podium. That is certainly the target for this year, as we have a good line-up of drivers and an established team, and the Huracan has already proved to be a very competitive car. All the ingredients are there for a strong effort and a good result!”
Mark Lemmer, Barwell Motorsport Team Principal: “It’s absolutely fantastic to have a driver of Olly’s calibre and experience on board for our biggest race of the year. There’s no doubt he will bring a great deal to the team, and further demonstrates the intent of Barwell and Mark Poole to pull out all the stops to try and claim a Pro-Am victory in the Spa 24 Hours. Chris and I have known Olly since we were all young whippersnappers, so it’s also personally very exciting to have him drive for Barwell Motorsport!”