Simon Crafar

Simon Crafar is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer from New Zealand. He was born in Waiouru on 15 January 1969.

He won Malaysia's Superbike championship in 1991. In 1993 he was racing for Harris in the 500cc 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 that he is too large for the bikes [http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mcmail/crafar95.html] .

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 1995 with Rumi 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 late 1995, coming 2nd in race 1 at Assen. He then spent 2 years with the Kawasaki racing team. In 1997 he took two 2nd places and three 3rds to again finish 5th overall. In total he scored 10 podiums but no wins in the series.

He rode a WCM Yamaha in the 500cc world championship for 1998, winning at Donington Park (the last win for Dunlop in a dry race, and the only non-Honda win at Donington in 6 years) and finishing 7th in the standings. He remained with the team for the early part of 1999, scoring points 5 times, also taking 10th on an MuZ at Donington. In total he has contested 32 500cc races, taking 3 podium finishes.

He returned to World Superbike for 2000 as a substitute rider for Aaron Slight for 2 rounds. In 2002 he raced in British Superbike for Yamaha, coming 8th overall and peaking with 2 3rd places.