With the start of the 2005 American Le Mans Series just weeks away, Britain's Oliver Gavin is looking forward with great anticipation to what is likely to be one of the most competitive 12 Hours of Sebring for many years.

The Florida endurance classic, which takes place on 19th March, will feature four classes of racing but the GT1 category for production-based, high performance sportscars is likely to attract by far and away the most attention, on a worldwide basis. Corvettes, Aston Martins, Ferraris, Saleens, Chrysler Vipers and a Maserati will all be vying for class honours - and the all-conquering GM Chevrolet Corvette team will be hot favourites to repeat their successes of the last 3 consecutive years.

Gavin, 32, who won the category at Sebring in both 2001 and 2002, will be starting his fourth season with the GM factory team and his second year with co-driver Olivier Beretta of Monaco. The two “Ollies” will be teamed with Dane Jan Magnussen for the 3 endurance events of the season (Sebring, 24 Hours of Le Mans and Petit Le Mans) - a partnership which proved to be a winning one at last year's Le Mans.

Looking forward to the forthcoming ALMS season, Oliver has every reason to be optimistic about the prospects for another successful year.

“So much of what we learnt on the C5-R has been passed over to the C6.R and we've had some really good tests including the recent one at Sebring. Last year, despite all our success, was a bit frustrating as we really wanted to be racing hard against strong opposition and that unfortunately never materialised. That's the reason 2003 was so enjoyable. Despite us losing out to the Prodrive Ferraris on a few occasions, we all - and I mean everyone in the team - really enjoyed it because the harder you fight, the sweeter the win.

“Le Mans last year was fantastic for all of us at Corvette for that very reason. It was so close between the two teams [Ferrari and Corvette] for the whole race, and we weren't sure which way it would go until quite late in the race, it showed what a great team effort there was from everyone.

“For me, Le Mans really reinforced what a fantastic team Corvette Racing is. I've really got to know everyone well, having driven for them for so long now, and I feel very much at home. There's a real family feeling and Robin and Gary Pratt really work hard at keeping a good atmosphere in the team. Add into the equation great characters such as Doug Fehan and it's lots of fun. Doug manages to guide and motivate us all individually as well as a team unit and, as you can imagine, there's always some story going on, so we play hard as well as work hard!”

Oliver came to sportscar racing in 2000 after a very successful single-seater career which, as with so many talented young drivers, faltered for lack of adequate sponsorship. Not before he'd completed several years as a test driver for the Benetton F1 team though, and taken the start of 40 Grands Prix between mid 1997 and the end of the 1999 season as the official F1 course car driver.

“Looking back at that time and at where I am now, I can see what a great opportunity it was and I'm extremely thankful for the contacts I made and the position I ended up in. I look at where others are now, and I think I'm very lucky.”

While some would argue that you make your own luck, Oliver will be hoping that particular element of the race-winning package doesn't desert him in Florida in just over 2 weeks time.