MONDAY 14TH APRIL 2009
PODIUM AT OPENING ROUND OF 09 LE MANS SERIES FOR SIMONSEN
With all the ongoing talk of doom and gloom throughout the race industry it was a wonderful relief for the Danish Aussie sportscar ace, Allan Simonsen, to finally get back into a serious championship – the 2009 Le Mans Series (GT2 Class).

It was only a matter of time before the contracts fell into place and for 2009 – his Le Mans Series challenge has both a familar yet unusual twist. Back once again with his 08 LMS team, Farnbacher Racing, but this time in a Ferrari 430 GT2 rather than a Porsche 997 RSR and a tyre deal.
A new name was emerging in the race for rubber supremacy – Hankook – a relatively unknown Korean manufacturer, had joined Farnbacher providing factory support.

And if times at the LMS official test day at Paul Ricard HTTT is anything to go by, the others may well have trouble on their hands.

Simonsen had turned the fastest GT2 times – quicker than the benchmark operation, Virgo Motorsport, with their factory Dunlop effort in the south of France at Bernie Ecclestone's circuit, a month prior.

These were very encouraging results for Hankook and now all that remained was to see how they would cope over 1+ hour stints in race conditions.

The driver lineup would be some what topsy turvey as the year unfolds – Simonsen initially to be joined by Christian Montanari, who was certainly up to the task. Farnbacher's regular steer, the likeable Pierre Kaffer, had suddenly been snapped up by Risi Competizione for the American Le Mans Series. That would mean some LMS dates would clash including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Arriving at the Spanish circuit for Catalunya for practice, Montanari and Simonsen would concentrate on tyre testing for long runs to see how the performance would drop off.

With 43 cars on track for LMS (versus only 17 for ALMS!) traffic was an issue and the team settled for 6th in qualifying although this was only 0.9 seconds of pole.

As race time approached an unexpected drama unfolded. Simonsen had his HANS device stolen from the pit garage with only minutes remaining before grid up. Some quick thinking from the team and generosity from Jarnik Janis (who had pulled out due to injury) lent his the nescessary safety equipment.

"Can you believe someone would steal that?, said an astonished Allan.

"I have heard things like this happen at Barcelona but it a very silly item to take. I'm very grateful to Jarnik for his kind gesture."

And so Simonsen was in for the start and making no mistakes put in a strong effort to hand over to Montanari at the 70 minute mark, who returned to the track for a similar period.

Allan then double stinted with the final to going to Christian.
The last hour was a tactical measure and the Farnbacher Hankook pairing took third in GT2, delighting their new backers.

"We knew we only had so much fuel and rather than do a splash and go, we opted to drive in ECO mode.
The gamble paid off but only just...

"There was only 2kg of fuel left at the end so it was very tight but our team manager, Horst Farnbacher, knows exactly how to get out the most out of the car and made a perfect call.

"Our Hankooks worked really well so I'm now looking forward to Spa, in early May. That's going to be a very busy weekend because the its also a round of the British GT Championship as well for the first time.

Next weekend is opening round of BGT and once again Allan joins Hector Lester in the Rosso Verde UBC Ferrari 430 GT3.

All in all the 1st LMS 09 event, which was won by Aston Martin Racing with their new Gulf livered LMP1 on debut, has inspired the team and sent messages down through the GT2 field.