Simon Crafar

World Superbike

Simon Crafar began the 1994 Superbike World Championship season alongside fellow New Zealander Aaron Slight, riding a semi-works Rumi Honda RC45. He placed fifth overall that year. The following season, he started with the same team before stepping in for Doug Polen as the second factory rider, again partnering Slight but under different paint schemes. As the bike improved, Crafar took a strong second place in the first race at Assen late in 1995.

He then moved to the Kawasaki squad for two years, managing just one podium in 1996 and ending the season seventh. In 1997, he earned two runner-up finishes and five third places, along with one pole position and one fastest lap, which brought him back to fifth in the championship. Across his World Superbike career, Crafar collected ten podiums—four seconds and six thirds—but never won a race. He returned to the series in 2000 as a substitute for Slight over two rounds.

In 2002, he competed in British Superbike with the Virgin Mobile Yamaha team, finishing eighth overall and scoring two third places. He retired from racing at the end of that season to focus on family life and continues to reside in Andorra.

500 GP

Simon Crafar’s most notable season came in 1998, when he rode a WCM Yamaha YZR500 in the 500cc world championship. He won the British Grand Prix at Donington Park, a victory that marked Dunlop’s last dry-race win and stood as the only non-Honda triumph that year, as well as the first non-Honda win at that circuit in six years. Crafar ended the season seventh overall, adding two more podiums—a second and a third—and recording fastest laps at Donington Park and Phillip Island.

He stayed with WCM into early 1999, earning points in five races, but after the team switched from Dunlop to Michelin tyres, he could not match his previous form. They split mid-season, and later that year he finished tenth in a one-off ride on a MuZ at Donington Park. Across his career, Crafar competed in 25 500cc races and seven 250cc races, securing three podium finishes.

Extreme Enduro

After retiring from road racing, Simon Crafar moved into Extreme Enduro and took first place in the Expert Class at the 2007 Red Bull Romaniacs in Romania. The next two years, he helped the event's organizers design and map the course. While scouting for the 2009 competition, a crash with a car fractured his back. Surgeons successfully repaired the injury by placing a metal plate and screws in his spine.

On Circuit Instruction

Since 2006, Crafar has worked one-on-one with over 600 riders, from track day enthusiasts to professionals, using straightforward methods shaped by his 13 years of world championship racing. This teaching style led the European Junior Cup—a WSBK support series for racers aged 14 to 19—to ask him to mentor and instruct its competitors for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. He still offers private coaching across Europe.