It's the season opening Rolex 24 at Daytona this weekend and Oliver will share the No.16 Thetford/Norcold Crawford Pontiac with Rob Dyson, Chris Dyson and Guy Smith.  The Daytona 24 hour race is one of the toughest on the calendar with 71 cars likely to start creating a busy circuit, very close racing and high levels of attrition.  As with most endurance races of this length, it is the car that manages to avoid trouble that generally is there or there abouts at the end!!

With 31 Daytona Prototypes and 40 GT cars the racing will be close.  The event always attracts an incredible line up of top drivers with many drawn from other forms of motorsport in the USA and Worldwide.  However, the endurance racing specialists often have an edge and the No.16 Dyson Racing Crawford Pontiac has an impressive driving team.  The two British drivers both have a strong record of success in endurance racing, Guy Smith won Le Mans in the Bentley in 2003 and in 2005 Oliver completed his hat-trick of GT1 Le Mans victories in just 4 years!  Rob & Chris Dyson are very experienced at Daytona, Chris has competed six times and won twice, 2006 will be Rob's 19th Daytona 24 and he has won twice, once as a driver and once as an entrant!

Guy Smith, Oliver Gavin & Chris Dyson

"The longer the race the more important the team," confirmed Rob Dyson.  "This is an assemblage of star players with a commitment and enthusiasm to win that is second to none.  We can't wait."

On track action starts on Thursday with practice and qualifying.  Further practice sessions take place on Friday with the race itself underway on Saturday at 12 noon (5.00 pm UK time).  There's no live television coverage in the UK but there will be live timing and scoring on www.grand-am.com and we will be bringing you regular updates here on olivergavin.com!