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Brabham and Simonsen sweep Bahrain GT Festival.

bgtf04n6388Three victories in four outings cemented success for the Coopers Racing team at the inaugural Bahrain GT Festival, with David Brabham and Allan Simonsen closing out two days of exciting competition with a comfortable win in the two-driver final.

 

The one-hour culmination to the 'weekend' saw Simonsen take the lead from pole position, the Australian team having earned top spot with two wins in the earlier three heats. Ex-pat Dane Simonsen, a regular in the Australian Nations Cup competition, was initially followed by Frederic Makowiecki's Larbre Viper, and then by Francois Fiat's DDO 1 Saleen, which had been involved in heated competition with the various Chryslers throughout the meeting.

Wolfgang Kaufmann, driving the rapid Wieth Ferrari, then leapt up to third, but was forced to return to the pits on lap three as the engine lost power, allowing Simonsen to continue untroubled out front, gradually extending his lead over the #1 Saleen to 20secs by lap five.

Just as the race appeared to be slipping away from the Dane's rivals, however, the Coopers Ferrari driver saw his lead cut back to nothing by the emergence of the safety car, but Simonsen showed that the red machine was the class of the field by sprinting back to a six-second lead on the first lap after it returned to the pits.

There was one final glimmer of hope for the pursuers, with a second safety car appearance as the mandatory pit-stops began, but Brabham resumed at the head of the field and, despite Dominique Dupuy getting the Saleen to within a couple of seconds, the Australian kept the Ferrari in front.

“This is a very impressive set-up and it was a pleasure to drive around this circuit," the Aussie said afterwards, "We had a couple of yellow flags, due to earlier accidents, and that favoured us, as we might had run out of fuel before the end of the race.”