Simon Crafar

Simon Crafar
Simon Crafar at the 1993 U.S. Grand Prix
Born	15 January 1969 Waiouru, New Zealand
Motorcycle racing career statistics Grand Prix motorcycle racing Active years 1993, 1998-1999 First race 1993 500cc Spanish Grand Prix Last race 1999 500cc British Grand Prix First win 1998 500cc British Grand Prix Last win 1998 500cc British Grand Prix Team(s) Suzuki, Yamaha Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 32 1 3 1 2 162 Superbike World Championship Active years 1989 - 1997, 2001 Manufacturers Honda, Kawasaki Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 122 0 10 1 2 844

Simon Crafar (born 15 January 1969 in Waiouru) is a former road racer of solo motorcycles from New Zealand, having competed at Grand Prix and World Superbike level.

After riding, he worked as a television commentator and analyst and participated in rider safety. From the 2025 season, he will join the world championship race organisers as Chairman of the FIM MotoGP Stewards' Panel, overseeing two other Stewards and replacing ougoing Freddie Spencer.

His racing career started in 1981 aboard a Suzuki TM75 in a local Junior Motocross Championship before eventually moving onto road racing in 1985. He won Malaysia's Superbike championship in 1991. In 1993 he raced a Harris machine in the 500 cc World Championship before joining the Suzuki factory racing team in the 250 class for the latter part of the season. He did not enjoy this, feeling he was too large for the bikes.

World Superbike

For 1994 he joined countryman Aaron Slight on a semi-works Rumi Honda RC45 in the Superbike World Championship. After coming 5th overall in 1994, he started the 1995 season with Rumi Honda before replacing Doug Polen as the second factory rider alongside Aaron Slight, although they raced under different liveries. The bike gradually became more competitive, and Simon was strong in later part of 1995, coming 2nd in race 1 at Assen. He then spent 2 years with the Kawasaki racing team, scoring only one podium during the 1996 season finishing in 7th position. In 1997 he took two 2nd places and five 3rd places in addition to one Pole position and fastest lap to again finish 5th overall. In total he scored 10 podiums - four 2nds and six 3rds but, no wins in the series.

He returned to World Superbike for 2000 as a substitute rider for Aaron Slight for two rounds. In 2002 he raced in British Superbike for the Virgin Mobile Yamaha team, coming 8th overall with two 3rd place finishes. He retired from motorcycle racing at the end of the 2002 season to spend more time with his wife and children and continues to live in Andorra to this date.

500 GP

In 1998, Crafar rode a WCM Yamaha YZR500 in the 500cc world championship, winning the British Grand Prix at Donington Park (the last win for Dunlop in a dry race and the only non Honda win during the 1998 season and at Donington Park in 6 years), and finishing 7th in the standings, scoring two further podiums - one 2nd and one 3rd during the season with two fastest race laps - Donington Park and Phillip Island. He remained with the team for the early part of 1999, scoring points on 5 occasions. The WCM team changed to Michelin between seasons and Crafar found he could not replicate the same level of success as he had the previous year on Dunlop tyres and they parted company midway through the 1999 season. Crafar also took 10th on a one off ride on an MuZ at Donington Park during the same year. In total he has contested 25 500cc races and 7 250cc races, taking 3 podium finishes.

Extreme Enduro

Following his retirement from road racing, Crafar continued to enjoy Extreme Enduro competing in the Red Bull Romaniacs competition held in Romania winning the Expert Class during 2007. During 2008 and 2009 Crafar worked with the organisers of the Red Bull Romaniacs competition assisting in the design and mapping of the course sections. During 2009 he was involved in a serious accident with a car whilst planning for the 2009 event that resulted in a broken back. Crafar underwent a successful operation to insert a metal plate and screws into his back.

On Circuit Instruction

Since 2006 Crafar has been involved in on-circuit rider instruction for both track day riders and professional racers and has personally taught over 600 people on a one-to-one basis in a little over six years. Utilising his experience from competing and racing in World Championships throughout a 13 year career, Crafar uses simple, logical techniques that are very effective in allowing riders to improve their lap times in a safe and controlled manner. It was this approach to instruction that lead the organisers of the European Junior Cup a race series held at the WSBK championship rounds across Europe for 14- to 19-year-old riders) to approach Crafar to become the mentor and series instructor to the young racers aged 14–19 for the 2011 Championship, a position he held for the 2012 Championship. Crafar is involved in one-to-one rider instruction throughout Europe.

Motovudu Dark Art of Performance

During the latter part of 2011 Simon Crafar launched Motovudu - Dark Art of Performance, a book and DVD series that is an instructional guide to riding faster on-circuit. Filmed at the MotoGP circuit Motorland Aragon in Northern Spain by Banter Media and directed by Liam Andrew Wright, both the book and the film draw from Crafar's previous experiences, both racing and instructional and is designed to teach any rider how they can ride fast and stay away from unnecessary risks.

MotoGP Commentator

In 2018, Simon Crafar took on the new role of pitlane reporter for Dorna covering all the races for MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 going out on the world feed. He also does an onboard lap before each race discussing each circuit. In 2019, he joined Neil Morrison and Matt Dunn as a commentator on the Moto2 and Moto3 practice and qualifying sessions.

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Season	Class	Team	Motorcycle	Number	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd
1993	500cc	Peter Graves Racing Team	Harris-Yamaha SLS500	37	5	0	0	0	0	7	27th
	250cc	Team Lucky Strike Suzuki 250	Suzuki RGV250	74	7	0	0	0	0	17	21st
1998	500cc	Red Bull Yamaha WCM	Yamaha YZR500	11	14	1	3	1	2	119	7th
1999	500cc	Red Bull Yamaha WCM	Yamaha YZR500	11	5	0	0	0	0	19	18th
		Team Biland GP1	MuZ Weber 500	11	1	0	0	0	0
Total					32	1	3	1	2	162

By class

Class	Seasons	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	WChmp
500cc	1993, 1998-1999	1993 Spain	1998 Netherlands	1998 Great Britain	25	1	3	1	2	145	0
250cc	1993	1993 Catalunya			7	0	0	0	0	17	0
Total	1993, 1998-1999				32	1	3	1	2	162	0

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Manufacturer	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Pos	Pts
1993	500cc	Yamaha				ESP Ret	AUT 18	GER Ret	NED 9	EUR Ret									27th	7
	250cc	Suzuki								EUR 10	SMR 13	GBR Ret	CZE 13	ITA 11	USA Ret	FIM Ret			21st	17
1998	500cc	Yamaha	JPN 9	MAL Ret	ESP 13	ITA 7	FRA 9	MAD 8	NED 3	GBR 1	GER Ret	CZE 11	IMO 11	CAT 5	AUS 2	ARG 13			7th	119
1999	500cc	Yamaha	MAL 14	JPN Ret	ESP 14	FRA 11	ITA 12	CAT WD											18th	19
		MuZ Weber								GBR 10