Audi recorded its 12th win in the Le Mans 24 hour race last Sunday but it was a victory overshadowed by the death of Danish driver Allan Simonsen.
Simonsen’s compatriot Tom Kristensen, 45, was part of the winning trio of drivers, extending his all-time record of nine victories in the historic race but first since 2008. Kristensen, whose first win came in 1997, dedicated his victory to Simonsen instead of his late father.
Kristensen’s team-mates were Scotsman Allan McNish and Frenchman Loic Duval.
Simonsen, 34, died as a result of injuries he suffered after a horror high-speed crash at the wheel of an Aston Martin on Saturday. A brief tribute was paid to Simonsen before the podium ceremony on Sunday by six-time winner Jacky Ickx and Pierre Fillon the president of the organising committee.
Simonsen will be particularly missed by Australian motor sport followers because he had raced regularly in his adopted ‘second home country’ since 2003 and had established himself as a prized V8 Supercars endurance race co-driver.
Monaco-based Simonsen was a dedicated, hardened racer whose talent and versatility meant he was in high demand in international GT sports car racing and always high on V8 teams’ list of co-drivers for the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000. He established the foundation of his reputation as one of the world’s best GT drivers with Melbourne-based Maranello Motorsport, excelling in the team’s Ferraris.
He co-drove with V8 star Greg Murphy to a giant-killing third in the 2011 Bathurst 1000 in a Kelly Racing Holden Commodore, the highlight of the car’s undistinguished history. Simonsen was due to join Brad Jones Racing for the V8 Supercars Endurance Cup at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast 600, sharing a team VF Commodore with David Wall.