Allan Simonsen (5 July 1978 – 22 June 2013) was a Danish racing driver, born in

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...

. He died after a crash during the third lap of the

2013 24 Hours of Le Mans The 81st 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''81e 24 Heures du Mans'') was a 24-hour automobile endurance racing event for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 19 to 23 June 2013 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close ...

Career

After beginning his career in karting racing against the likes of future

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

World Champion Kimi Räikkönen, Simonsen moved to cars in 1999, winning the Danish

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula For ...

Championship. He raced in

Formula Palmer Audi Formula Palmer Audi, officially abbreviated to FPA, and sometimes informally abbreviated to Palmer Audi, was a one-make class of open wheel Formula racing founded in 1998 by former Formula One driver, Jonathan Palmer. It was based in the United ...

in 2000, before moving to German Formula 3 and Formula Renault 2.0 UK in 2001. Simonsen moved to

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...

for 2002, driving a

Ferrari 360 The Ferrari 360 (Type F131) is a two-seater, mid-engine, rear wheel drive sports car manufactured by Italian automotive manufacturer Ferrari from 1999 until 2005. It succeeded the Ferrari F355 and was replaced by the Ferrari F430 in 2004. D ...

for Veloqx Motorsport in the

British GT Championship The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports GT ...

. He began racing in Australia in 2003 for Mark Coffey Racing, driving a Ferrari 360 Challenge to 8th place in the 2003 Australian Nations Cup Championship for GT style cars and 2nd place in Group 2. He would then go on to finish in 8th place in the

2003 Bathurst 24 Hour The 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour was a motor race staged at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. The race started at 2:00pm on 22 November 2003 and finished at 2:00pm on 23 November. It was the second Bath ...

driving a

Lamborghini Diablo GTR The Lamborghini Diablo is a high-performance mid-engine sports car built by Italian automobile manufacturer Lamborghini between 1990 and 2001. It is the first production Lamborghini capable of attaining a top speed in excess of . After the end ...

. In the 2004 Australian Nations Cup Championship he drove the 360 to 3rd place in the Trophy Class while driving a Ferrari 550 GT2 in a limited campaign to 7th in the outright class. While in Australia, Simonsen also drove in the

Sandown 500 The Sandown 500 (formally known as the Penrite Oil Sandown 500) is an annual endurance motor race which is staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from 1964. The event's name, distance – and the category of cars co ...

and

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most rece ...

V8 Supercar The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport. Supercars events take place in all Australian ...

events. Simonsen's best Bathurst result came in 2011, when he finished third for

Kelly Racing Kelly Grove Racing (formerly known as Kelly Racing and Nissan Motorsport) was an Australian motor racing team which competes in the Supercars Championship. The team made its debut in 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series, 2009, and raced Holden ...

driving alongside Greg Murphy in a

Holden VE Commodore The Holden Commodore (VE) is an executive car that was produced by Holden from 2006 to 2013. It was the first iteration of the fourth generation of the Holden Commodore, Commodore. Its range included the luxury variants, Holden Berlina (VE) and ...

. Simonsen won the

Australian GT Championship The Australian GT Championship is a CAMS-sanctioned national title for drivers of GT cars, held annually from 1960 to 1963, from 1982 to 1985 and from 2005. Each championship up to and including the 1963 title was contested over a single race a ...

in 2007 (driving both a Ferrari 360 GT and a

Ferrari F430 The Ferrari F430 (Type F131) is a sports car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari from 2004 until 2009 as a successor to the Ferrari 360. The car is an update to the 360 with exterior and performance changes. It was unveiled at ...

) and finished second in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

driving a Ferrari F430 GT. At the 2011 Sprint Bathurst event, he set a blistering time of 2.04.95 around the famous Mount Panorama circuit. This was a monumental effort at the time as it was a full 2 seconds clear of any V8 Supercar lap time and comparable to the Formula 3 lap record set in the following year. This time so amazed the officials that they initially removed it from the timing screens as they believed it to be in error. It wasn't until it was confirmed by the manual time keeper and the teams own data that the time was reinstated. Simonsen placed fourth in the

2007 Le Mans Series season The 2007 Le Mans Series was the fourth season of ACO's Le Mans Series. It was a series for Le Mans prototype and Grand Touring style cars broken into four classes: LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2. It began on 15 April and ended on 10 November after six ...

, in a partial season driving a

Porsche 911 GT3 The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national ...

for Virgo Motorsport, which included a GT2 class win in the Nürburgring 1000. He drove Ferraris for Team Farnbacher in the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

and various international series from 2008 through 2011. During that time, Simonson won the GT2 class at the

2009 1000 km of Okayama The 2009 1000 km of Okayama was the inaugural event of Automobile Club de l'Ouest's (ACO) Asian Le Mans Series. It was held at the Okayama International Circuit, Japan and feature two 500 km races held on 30 October and 1 November 2 ...

with

Dominik Farnbacher Dominik Farnbacher (born 26 September 1984 in Ansbach) is a German sports car racing driver, and currently an SRT factory driver, driving an SRT Viper GTS-R in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship. Career After beginning his career in kartin ...

and the SP7 class in the 2010 24 Hours Nürburgring with Farnbacher,

Leh Keen Lehman McGrath Keen III (born July 22, 1983) is an American racecar driver born in Dublin, Georgia, who competes in the United SportsCar Championship. He most recently drove the No. 22 Alex Job Racing WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT America in the ...

, and Marco Seefried. He participated in the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose ...

seven times between 2007 and 2013, finishing on the GT2 class podium twice: third in 2007 and second in 2010.

Death

Simonsen Aston Martin Vantage GTE 2013 Le Mans

In the 9th minute of the

, and on his third lap, Simonsen was leading the LMGTE Am field with his No. 95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE. At the Tertre Rouge corner, Simonsen's car twitched as he accelerated through the right hand turn, and when he attempted to correct, the car veered left before impacting the crash barriers on the outside of the corner. He was extricated from the car, reportedly conscious, before being taken to the on-site medical centre where he succumbed to his injuries. His death was the first in racing conditions during the

since Jo Gartner died in a

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

crash, while French driver

Sébastien Enjolras Sébastien Olivier Enjolras (4 April 1976 – 3 May 1997) was a French racing driver. Considered to be one of the most promising French drivers of his generation, he was killed in a crash during practice for the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans race ...

died more recently in a pre-qualifying session accident in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

. Race officials raised a

Danish flag The national flag of Denmark ( da, Dannebrog, ) is red with a white Nordic cross, which means that the cross extends to the edges of the flag and the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side. A banner with a white-on-red cross is ...

half mast Half-mast or half-staff (American English) refers to a flag flying below the summit of a ship mast, a pole on land, or a pole on a building. In many countries this is seen as a symbol of respect, mourning, distress, or, in some cases, a salut ...

over the circuit's podium during the race in honor of Simonsen. Fellow Danish driver

Tom Kristensen Tom Kristensen (born 7 July 1967) is a Danish former racing driver. He holds the record for the most wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with nine, six of which were consecutive (from 2000 to 2005). In 1997, he won the race with the Joest Racing te ...

won the race overall and dedicated his team's victory to the memory of Simonsen.

Memorials

The award for the fastest qualifier at the Bathurst 12 Hour, which Simonsen won in 2013, is named the Allan Simonsen Pole Position Trophy.

Career results

Career summary

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Bathurst 24 Hour results

Bathurst 12 Hour results

International V8 Supercars Championship

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simonsen, Allan 1978 births 2013 deaths 24 Hours of Daytona drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers American Le Mans Series drivers British Formula Renault 2.0 drivers British GT Championship drivers Danish racing drivers European Le Mans Series drivers FIA GT Championship drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers Formula Ford drivers Formula Palmer Audi drivers German Formula Three Championship drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers Sportspeople from Odense Racing drivers who died while racing Sport deaths in France Supercars Championship drivers ADAC GT Masters drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Asian Le Mans Series drivers Britcar 24-hour drivers Aston Martin Racing drivers Garry Rogers Motorsport drivers Dick Johnson Racing drivers Kelly Racing drivers Van Amersfoort Racing drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers