Corvette Racing driver Oliver Gavin has announced he will retire from professional motorsports following his appearance with the team at this weekend’s FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa.
Gavin announced his retirement in a social media post shared this morning, just ahead of the start of on-track activity for Saturday’s Spa 6 Hours. The British driver has been part of Corvette Racing’s lineup since 2002 and will start his 204th and final race with the team this weekend in Belgium.
“It has been an immense privilege and honour to have worked with GM and Corvette Racing for the past 20 years, and with 4 generations of Corvette, we have shared an incredible amount of success together,” the 48-year old said in a statement.
While Gavin stepped away from his full-time role with the team at the conclusion of the 2020 racing season, he was called up for the FIA WEC season-opener at Spa, where he’ll share the No. 63 Corvette C8.R with Corvette Racing stalwart Antonio Garcia. The entry marks Corvette Racing’s first appearance in the FIA WEC since 2019 and is part of its preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
“When I was first spoken to about this opportunity to race at Spa, I had gone back to Antonio and he had asked if there was any chance that we could drive together,” said Garcia, who has never before shared a car with Garcia. “I’m really thrilled. We’ve become really great friends over the years. I’d been teammates with nearly everyone else but had never been teammates with Antonio! It’s just a really great thing to share the C8.R with him. It’s going to be special. We’ll want to push as hard as we can for as strong a result as possible.”
Going forward, Gavin has plans to open up a performance driving school called the Oliver Gavin Driving Academy, which will be based out of Boxberg, Germany and will use the C8 Corvette Stingray for its on-track lessons.
“I am delighted that my 20-year relationship with Chevrolet and Corvette will continue as I have 12 Chevrolet Corvette Stingrays on order,” Gavin said. “There’s more to come on this over the next few months as we get ready for our launch in October.”
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Comments
Did anyone mention Vette and retirement?…🙂🙃🙂….
Thank you Oliver for all your great work and all the victories that you were a part of, the C8 wouldn’t be the same without you!
GM should award Oliver with a C8 ZORA as a thank you when that time is upon us, maybe the first one. Maybe GM should do a special edition “Oliver Gavin Z06” where he gets the first one.