Oliver Gavin wants to come back after fantastic podium finish

Oliver Gavin, co-driving with former Bathurst winner Nick Percat in the Walkinshaw Racing Holden Commodore, would love to come back and have another shot at the Bathurst 1000, after securing the first podium result for a British driver at Mount Panorama since Matt Neal finished second for Team Dynamics Nissan in 1998.

Gavin, a factory driver in Corvette’s sports car programme, contested his first Bathurst 1000 with 2012 race winner Nick Percat in the #222 Walkinshaw Racing Holden, and with Percat at the wheel, the team secured a third place result, passing Will Davison’s Erebus Mercedes in the closing stages and benefitted from former race leader Jamie Whincup’s fuel woes in the Triple Eight car, with Percat and Gavin therefore grabbing the best result for Holden at his year’s race.

“I’m very very happy. Nick, in his rookie time here he won it, and we were talking that in the week leading up that if he could get a victory or I could get on the podium in my rookie year, that would be phenomenal, I’ve just had an amazing week here with the team, “said Gavin to TouringCarTImes.

Percat’s final stint drove the car up to the final spots, in a dramatic race filled with incidents and crashes, the #222 car was one of the most pristine in field after a race which lasted for over eight hours from lights out to the chequered flag.

“I knew my role today. I’ve been the lead driver on my Corvette for many years, and I’ve known what I’ve needed to do when I’m finishing the race, and Nick was always going to be finishing the race today and I needed to hand the car back to him in as good a condition as possible so he could wheel it to the end, and that’s exactly what he did, and I couldn’t be happier for him and all the guys at Walkinshaw Racing.”

On why Gavin took on the challenge of Mount Panorama in a V8 Supercar, and how the experience compares to racing in GT cars, he added:

“I came here with the express reason of I wanted to really challenge myself. I’ve been driving for the same team for the last 13 years, with Corvette Racing, and I knew that coming here and doing the Bathurst 1000 was going to be a seriously challenging event, and to come away with a podium, I don’t think I could have asked for anything else.

“This is more of a sports car than a (European-style) touring car in some ways. There’s certain similarities and the fact I drive a V8, rear-wheel drive Corvette in the US, and this is a V8, rear-wheel drive Holden Commodore, so there are some similarities. But with the tyre that we run on (in GT), and the chassis, and the traction control and the paddle-shift, you’re working a lot harder in (V8s) to keep it on the track and keep it straight than you are in the Corvette. It’s a fine line still with the Corvette, but here you’re managing it a lot more, and you’ve got to focus very hard on keeping the flow and keeping the rhythm, particular here at Bathurst.”

Still to race with Percat again at the final round of the Endurance Cup in two weeks’ time, on whether he’d want to come back and tackle the mountain again, Gavin said:

“I’d love to come back and have another crack at this, and to come back and race with Nick, we work well together, we’re the same build, same height, I’d love to come back with Walkinshaw again, they’re a great bunch and they fully deserve this podium today.”

Percat’s second podium at the Bathurst was hard fought, with title contender Mark Winterbottom chasing him down in the closing stages, but the 26-year-old managed to fend him off as well as make up a position on the final lap to deprive Erebus drivers Will and Alex Davison of a podium.

“Our car was pretty speedy all day. On Friday I made a mistake in qualifying and we didn’t get to have a run in the shootout, but I knew we had a good car, and I kept telling Ollie next to me we had a good car, even though in practice I’d detuned it massively and kept handing it to him and his eyes were wide open and he’d go ‘are you sure that’s good?’

“We had a crack and made some big lunges, we had a good race with Frosty, there was no way that Ford was getting past us, and there was no way the Merc was going to be on the podium.”