TIMING HAS RARELY BEEN SO INOPPORTUNE. Oliver Gavin, a Corvette Racing employee for two decades, is sitting before me in the team’s pit box just as their second car dramatically exits the Le Mans 24 Hours mere hours before the chequered flag. The light of my dictaphone has just pinged red and I’m suddenly all too aware of the fraught atmosphere it’s capturing.
Gavin, though, is a man of great experience; he’s competed at La Sarthe 19 times, clocking up five class wins, but not without some of his own painful stings along the way. ‘The race can turn on the tiniest thing and there’s danger at every corner,’ he tells me, with admirable pragmatism given the emotional scenes playing out around us. ‘It can really bite you. For all the success I’ve had over the years, it can also go wrong with just an hour to go. You’ve got a good car, a good crew, you’ve driven well, everyone has made the right decisions and something freaky happens.
‘In 2011 we had a moment just like this. We were a lap and a half ahead at about 9am. Jan Magnussen was in the car, coming through Porsche Curves, and an amateur driver was just in the middle
