The champion driver lost his battle against a rare form of lymphoma on Friday.

He was 61.

Lang, the son of another former champion Graeme Lang, is universally regarded as one of - if not the best - big race driver of his generation, earning him the moniker of Group 1 Gav.

In 2017, he became only the second driver in Australasia to notch up 6000 winners.

His first of two Inter Dominion Trotting Championships was achieved aboard True Roman, for Graeme Johannesen.

Australia's premier trotter in the 1980s, True Roman won 73 races, including 36 at Moonee Valley, from 135 starts, most of them with Lang in the sulky.

A winning partnership between trainer and driver was struck immediately when an 18-year-old Lang scored a win with his first drive for Johannesen.

"I do remember he got beaten on one of mine at Hamilton one day and he came back and he told me it was the first one he had been beaten on in a first start for me and that was after 10 or 11 horses," he said.

"He was amazing with his facts and figures.

"I was only speaking with the people who raced True Roman with us the other day and they agreed that without Gavin driving him, his career would have been five years shorter. He looked after him that much.

"Even in big races, he used to come back and he had a saying, 'I had to ask him to do a bit tonight, you'd better give him three weeks off'.

"That was Gav, he was very much a horse lover, he looked after them as if they were his own. He had a remarkable affinity with horses.

"He was more of an old-style, staying type of driver and had an absolutely remarkable sense of timing."

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Based these days in Elmore, Johannesen, who has endured his own health battles in recent years, said he had not seen Lang as much as he would have liked in recent times, but the pair had never lost their respect and admiration for each other.

He said his reputation as Australia's best big race driver was well and truly on the money.

"He was the best driver going around as far as I was concerned, but in a big race he didn't alter, he still drove the same - cool, calm and collected," Johannesen said.

"And he was a master technician, he could tell you what was going to happen in the race.

"He was a great thinker too.

"I think it will be a lot of years before I see anyone as good in my book than Gavin.

"I've always felt privileged to be associated with him because he certainly helped my career along. I would not have won as many races as I have with some other driver or driving them myself.

"I did win three on True Roman, but I think the horse helped me do it.

"Gavin won 60-odd races on him and always looked after him.

"I don't know if I helped his career, but Gavin certainly helped make mine."

Johannesen and Lang will forever be linked in history for their role in Strident's win at Moonee Valley in February 2010.

The then eight-year-old, trained by Johannesen's partner Jenny Johnson and driven by Lang, won the last race ever staged at Melbourne's former premier track.

Junortoun trainer Bruce Morgan and Lang enjoyed plenty of major race wins with Denver Gift, among them the New South Wales Derby, a couple of Melbourne Cups and plenty of free-for-alls.

"I drove him all his two-year-olds and most of his three-year-olds, but I think Gavin got on him in the Bendigo Guineas and he won that," Morgan said.

"I was rubbed out at the time for a fortnight and Gavin got on him and when he won he didn't want to get off.

"He was just a super-bloke and a fantastic fellow.

"He was as good as any driver anywhere - equal to the best - probably the best.

"He would never knock his horses around, never go for the whip, just tap them.

"I think the young drivers today have really taken a leaf out of his book. He was a super driver."

Denver Gift, now 27, still lives at Morgan's Junortoun property.

Morgan said he had thought of Lang every day following his cancer diagnosis last September.

"There will probably never be another one like him, but you don't know. You never look back, you always look forward to what's going to happen, but it will take a lot of beating to be as good as Gavin," he said.

Paul Campbell, a man of many hats in harness racing, got a further appreciation for Lang's talents and nous through his association with Sunofatrump, a Bendigo trotter of the year winner in 2016, trained by Paul and his wife Maree.

"He wasn't the nicest horse to drive and he definitely wasn't the nicest trotter, yet Gavin stuck with and was very loyal to him, the owners and us as trainers," said Campbell, who interviewed Lang on several occasions in recent years through his various paid and volunteer media gigs.

"Gavin had a great understanding of horses full stop. He had a great set of hands and his communication skills when he came back on the horse were exemplary.

"He was a unique person. He was always gave respect to people, he would always say hello to Maree before he did to me, that's old school stuff.

"My first association with him came through Graeme Johannesen, who I worked for when I was 18. He had True Roman at that stage, who was just an absolute superstar of a horse.

"Gavin drove him then and he was just a true professional and a terrific bloke to be around.

"He didn't demand respect, he just got it. You can see through all the Tweets and social media posts (following his death), you can't buy that sort of respect, you earn it.

"It's clear to see how much he has touched people over the journey."

Lang won two Bendigo Pacing Cups and as many Bendigo Trotters Cup.

His pacing cup wins came aboard Aim First in 1991 and Sammy McGuire (2010), while his trotters cup victories were achieved on Kyvalley Prince (1997) and Save Our Pennys (2018).

Campbell, a Bendigo Harness Racing Club committee member, said the club was certain to organise a tribute of its own to Lang, likely and fittingly once crowds were allowed back at the racetrack.

Lang is survived by his wife Meagan and daughters Danielle and Courtney.

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