26.03.2004 TITANTIC FERRARI VERSUS LAMBORGHINI BATTLE AT THE OPENING ROUND OF THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONS CUP AT ADELAIDE

Last weekend, Lamborghini ace Paul Stokell won a AUS$1.4 million battle of Italian thoroughbreds with Ferrari’s Allan Simonsen, as the Australian Nations Cup Championship kicked off at Adelaide with the Clipsal 500 meeting. Their two V12-engined coupes, said to be worth around AUS$700,000 each, were the class of the field in two races for the GT sports car series.

Stokell, the current Nations Cup champion and one of the world’s most successful Lamborghini racers, finished the opening day's two races on top of the new season’s points table, while Simonsen paid dearly for two mistakes in a Ferrari 550 Maranello clearly capable of winning.

Stokell started the 12-lap first Nations Cup race from pole position in his Lamborghini Diablo GTR, but Simonsen was immediately on his tail and both smashed the lap record on only their second lap. The pressure, and the records, continued until the eighth lap, when Simonsen’s attempted pass on the 200 km/h-plus turn eight resulted in a hair-raising brush with the concrete safety wall.

The Danish driver, 24, continued at full speed, joking later that he’d been a stunt driver in England earlier in his career. In fact, he continued to match or beat Stokell’s lap times as the Lamborghini’s rear tyres faded, but it was not enough to close the gap which was 0.48 seconds at the finish.

Simonsen’s consolation prize was a new lap record of 1 minute 23.22 seconds, just under the lap record for the V8 Supercars competing this weekend in the Clipsal 500. Nathan Pretty was a distant third in the Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden Monaro, with James Brock in an identical Monaro was fourth in his debut Nations Cup race for Team Brock.

The Nations Cup system of “success” weight handicaps added 79 kilograms, 56 kg and 28 kg to the cars of Stokell, Simonsen and Pretty respectively for race two and Simonsen got the jump, literally, on the rolling start and was immediately called to the pits for a drive-through penalty.

He resumed in fourth place, but immediately passed Brock then took Pretty’s second place on lap 11 of 20. However, the experienced Stokell was in comfortable control of the race and was able to ease off in the closing laps without fear of challenge from Simonsen.

Stokell said his goal had been to earn championship points early in the season. “It’s only the first day. I need points on the board and I’ve already got two wins and a pole position,” he said. “The Lamborghini is as fast as it’s going to be with the extra weight. If he (Simonsen) gets past me fair and square tomorrow I’m not going to break the car chasing him.” Simonsen did not acknowledge his jump-start error, saying only: “I haven’t see the (video) footage, we’ll see.”

Sunday saw Danish driver Allan Simonsen then proceed to take his first outright win in the Australian Nations Cup after a storming drive aboard the Ferrari 550 Maranello. The win in the final race of round one marked the talented 24-year-old’s first anniversary of his Australian debut and fulfilled the promise the Ferrari had shown all weekend.

However, it was Lamborghini’s Paul Stokell who left with the overall round win and the lead in the 2004 standings after winning the two earlier races and coming second.

Stokell led from the start, while Nathan Pretty shot into second spot in the Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden Monaro, which was showing its true form for the first time, however Simonsen’s pace once underway was relentless.

He set up the yellow Monaro in a tyre-smoking braking move into turn four and although Pretty held on right through to the exit, the Ferrari was quickly off in pursuit of its next target. After a record lap of 1 minute 23.15 seconds, Simonsen had Stokell in his sights by lap six and used the Ferrari V12’s enormous power to catapult past on the run into the 210 km/h sweeper.

The leaders got through cleanly, but three laps later Trophy class leader Theo Koundouris came undone on the exit and heavily crashed his Porsche. John Teulan came through to lead the Trophy cars home in a Ferrari 360 Challenge.

Simonsen was delighted to win in the Ferrari 550 Maranello, which had arrived from Italy only 10 days ago and was virtually untested. “I’ve been driving the nuts off it this weekend. The biggest problem has been brake pressure because of having to change the brake discs from carbon as used overseas to steel discs ones, they’re a lot harder to use,” Simonsen said.

GT Championship Positions ( after 1 round ): 87 points Paul Stokell, 78 Allan Simonsen, 60 Nathan Pretty; Trophy, 80 John Teulan, 62 Paul Blackie, 48 Theo Koundouris.