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SIMONSEN FLIES THE FLAG FOR ASTON MARTIN AT STEAMY
ADRIA
TUESDAY 24TH JUNE 2008
 A
few days after the highs and lows of the Le Mans 24
Hour, Allan Simonsen was winging his way to Italy
for the third round of the FIA GT Championship. Once
again he'd be aboard the Gigawave Motorsport Aston
Martin DBR-9 GT1.
Simonsen and his team mate, Austrian Phillip Peter,
had started the year in the best possible way by taking
a third place at both Silverstone and Monza, cementing
themselves into second place in the European Championship.
Adria was new to Simonsen, as was the experience
of arriving at Venice airport without his luggage.
After walking the track with Nigel Stepney he was
slightly at odds with the circuit.
"This reminds me of my go kart days. It's very short
and tight and I don't think it will suit our Aston
Martin particularly well. It will be the Corvettes
that are strong, here with their big American V8 able
to pull them out of the slow corners easily.
"We'll have our work cut out this weekend because
we're also running 40kg of success ballast.
"Frankly I think it's a boring track and I'm surprised
we even run GT1 cars here, but it's the same for everyone
and we have a job to do so there is no sense complaining
about it. We'll try our hardest to grab more points.
It was seriously hot in Italy this week and with
the track set in marshy lowlands, humidity was a factor.
It was Peter's turn to qualify and as usual did a
fantastic job, putting the car on grid position seven,
which was only 0.5sec off pole, despite the ballast.
Peter made a strong start, holding sixth for the
first few laps but the car speed wasn't really there
and dropped to 9th a few laps later.
It was very tough race for both Peter and Allan -
the heat was intense and the drink hose had ruptured.
Add to that a failing cool suit, an airvent that felt
like a blow touch and you've got a very difficult
race environment.
Never the less, Allan took over the helm at lap 40,
returning the car to Peter on lap 80, in 5th. Peter
went on the salvage 6th place and three points. A
very respectable outcome all things considered.
"It was the hottest race I've ever done, said Allan,
"But we made some points and got rid of our success
ballast so we'll be good at Oscherscleben in a couple
of weeks.
"The whole Gigawave team did a superb job once again
and the pit stops were flawless. It is great to be
the best Aston Martin out there too.
Simonsen and Peter each have 15 points in the 2008
FIA GT Championship, leaving them in 4th place.
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