"We'll go to Spa now on even ground and that will be a good fight"
The next Le Mans Series event is Round 3 at Spa, Belgium, on May 9–11. Spa is one of the world's greatest tracks and Simonsen regularly performs well there.
With Spa on the horizon we asked Allan a few questions about the famous Belgian track:
What are your favorite portions of the circuit? And why? Is it a difficult track?
Every true driver loves Spa. The entire place is magic. Getting it right through Eau Rouge is always a good feeling and its one of those corners that will always keep challenging you lap after lap. But actually my favourite part of the track is Blanchimont and to get that just right you have to be on it exiting Stavelot. The corners flow together and the car runs from one side of the track to the other – just perfect. But Spa is also tricky because there is a lot of elevation change and you can find rain at one part of the track and its dry at the other. You must have a good feel for the changing grip level. In some ways its a bit like Bathurst – you get a lot of wet/dry there are well.
How to drive a GT car on this track? Are there pitfalls to avoid?
If we were only driving GT cars I’d answer this differently. You need to be constantly looking in your mirrors for faster traffic yet run your own race. The prototypes are quite low and sometimes you can’t see them because they are that close and come up on you suddenly. When they go by can upset your aero quite a bit.
Have you a particular souvenir about one race in the past? Good, bad, perhaps funny?
In 2006 I was driving for the Italian Autorlando Sport Porsche Team and one of my friends in Australia, Jack Elsegood wanted to try his hand at Spa. So I organised a drive for him with JWA alongside Xavier Pompidou and Paul Daniels. I remember Jack asking if I had any tips about driving at Spa to which I said “just don’t run into me”. At the start of the race there was the most mega pile up at Raidillion and a prototype hit me pushing me into Jacks car. My car was out on the spot but they others went on to bring the car home the last place finisher. And last year I was 2 laps ahead in the lead and a safety car mix up ruined our race and we came second.