Career Part 2: Track and TT return

The Simmo Story: Part 2: 1995-2001

Words: Stuart Barker

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After the 1994 season, the Duckham’s Norton team folded, leaving reigning Ian Simpson without a ride. ‘It seemed Norton had different owners every five minutes and they didn't understand racing’ he explains. ‘We simply didn't have the right people owning Norton to make it happen.’

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As the reigning British Superbike (and Supersport 600) champion, Simpson was in demand, and had several options to consider. One of them was to race in the 500cc Grand Prix world championship. 'I got a chance to ride for Padgetts in 500cc Grands Prix’ Simmo says. ‘It would have been on the Harris Yamaha YZR500 V4 that John Reynolds ended up riding - but they couldn’t pay me. I sound like a bloody mercenary, but I needed a wage! I couldn’t have afforded to trail round the world with no wages.'

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Understandable, given that ‘Simmo’ didn’t get paid a penny by Duckham’s Norton for winning the British Superbike championship in 1994. Politely declining the Grand Prix ride, he ended up signing a more lucrative contract with Castrol Honda to race an RC45 in the British Championship and at selected roads events. That ride, he felt,  might also open further doors, so he put pen to paper. ‘I signed for Castrol Honda and thought that might open up a route into World Superbikes, which would never have happened with Norton’ Simmo explains. ‘And at least I knew the Honda factory was interested in racing, unlike those who took over at Norton.’

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With Norton out of the picture, Simpson’s former team simply switched shirts and moved over to run the Castrol Honda effort, so he at least had a bit of consistency on his side. He even had the same team-mate in Phil Borley. Armed with an RC45 - carrying the Number 1 plate - and with the backing of the biggest team in the British paddock, it looked like Simmo was going to be the man to beat in 1995, and a move up to the World Superbike Championship looked to be on the cards in the not-too-distant future.

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Sadly, things didn’t work out like that. ‘The RC45 was shit in the handling department’ Simmo explains. ‘And it wasn’t just me – that bike never won a dry race in the British Championship. Lots of brilliant riders raced the RC45 and couldn’t get it to handle. Terry Rymer, Brian Morrison, Jim Moodie, David Jefferies, Paul Brown, Phil Borley… It was just so unpredictable and very hard to ride. The factory version that I raced at the TT in 1998 was a totally different animal though – it was miles better.’

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The difference between factory and customer RC45s was also made clear in the World Superbike round at Donington, where Simpson rode as a wild card. ‘Aaron Slight, on the factory RC45, was about three seconds a lap quicker than me’ Simmo says. I’m not saying I’m a better rider than Aaron Slight – because I’m not – but I remember saying at the time that, if he was on my bike and could lap three seconds quicker than me, I’d give him my wages and retire. I was riding the wheels off the thing, but it just wouldn’t go any faster.

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‘Me and Simon Crafar were doing similar times when he was on the Rumi RC45 – there was nothing between us – then he got a ride on the factory Castrol Honda and was running right at the front. I just kept telling myself not to get hurt on that bike. I just couldn’t do anything more with it. It was shit, and it was very frustrating that I couldn’t even match the lap times I’d been doing the year before on an older bike. I just kind of gave up on it a bit after Donington and just rode it round and accepted that whatever will happen will happen.’

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So baffling was the RC45’s handling problems, Simpson believes the bike destroyed his team-mate’s confidence to such an extent he never recovered. ‘It finished Phil Borley’s career, really’ Simmo says. ‘He’s a brilliant engineer and just couldn’t understand why the bike wasn’t working. He even bought his own Öhlins rear shock and spent a lot of his own money on different parts, but still couldn’t get it to handle. Phil is very analytical so, if he couldn’t fix it, no-one could. He was never the same rider after that.’

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Simpson’s only major success on the RC45 was winning his first Superbike race at the North West 200. Then, in front of his home fans at Knockhill, he crashed out, and broke his right femur for the second time. His unhappy season on the RC45 was over. Even Honda seemed to realise it was on a hiding to nothing with the bike and decided not to run a team in 1996.

Once again Simpson’s team changed colours and bikes, this time running Ducati 916s with backing once more from Duckham’s. And with old pal Jim Moodie as his team-mate, everything looked rosey for Simpson again. But again, things didn’t work out. ‘I loved the Ducati at first’ Simmo says. ‘It handled really well at the start of the season, and I was straight onto the podium, but then the bike just got slower and slower all year. I think the team tuned it and made it worse, and that’s why Jim Moodie ended up leaving. Looking back, I don’t know why I didn’t put my foot down and tell them to just stop pissing about with the bike and put it all back to standard. But I was just young and daft and didn’t have the experience to see what was going on. I’d know now. Moodie kept asking the team to put the bike back to standard, but they wouldn’t listen, so he left and went to Crescent Suzuki.’

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Simpson soldiered on but it was a lacklustre season and, at the end of it, he chose to ride a Ducati 998 the following year with big backing from Red Bull in the Powerbike Championship (essentially Superstock 1000) and a V&M Honda CBR600 in the Supersport class. ‘It didn’t feel like a step down from British Superbikes’ Simmo says. ‘Powerbike was a great championship with lots of great riders: Jim Moodie, Michael Rutter – all the boys of the day were in it and there was good prize money to be had. I got a good deal with Red Bull to race in it too. We got bikes and spares from Ducati, tyre sponsorship, and a load of budget to run the team.’

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Simpson won the championship to take his tally of British titles to five. He also finished second to Paul ‘Marra’ Brown in the Supersport 600 championship and proved he could still win on a Superbike by taking victory as a stand-in rider at Cadwell Park mid-season. ‘When Stevie Hislop got sacked from the Red Bull Ducati Superbike team, I stepped in to ride his bike at Cadwell Park and won a race on it’ Simmo says. ‘I was quite proud of that because it made me the only rider ever to win in the Supersport class, the Powerbike/Superstock class, and the Superbike class in the same season.’

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It had been a successful season on the roads too. After winning the Production race at the North West 200 in May, Simpson then went on to notch up his first TT win in the 1997 Junior. After turning his back on the event after the tragedies in 1989, Simmo had returned in 1993. He explains his reasoning: ‘I still went to the TT to watch it every year, even though I wasn’t riding, and I realised that all the boys who were winning were the same riders I was racing against every week, so I was fairly confident I could run with them at the TT and decided to go back. Time is a great healer. And I had always wanted to win a TT.’

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After such a successful season it was all change again for 1998. Knowing how much better a factory Honda RC45 was over a standard one, Simpson agreed to ride one for the V&M team in British Superbikes in 1998 but found himself once again riding a bike he hated. ‘The bike wasn’t really any better’ he says. ‘I only signed up to ride the RC45 because we were promised factory bikes, but they never materialised.’  A broken arm from a dirt bike crash saw Simpson missing three rounds of BSB but, even when he was fit, the best he could hope for was to fight for a top six position.

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Things went much better on the roads, however. After doing a Superbike/Supersport double at the North West 200, Simmo headed to the Isle of Man for what was to be a major celebration of Honda’s 50th anniversary. The firm wanted to win every race and handed Simpson and Michael Rutter full-factory RC45s for the Formula 1 and Senior races. Simpson won them both and, in doing so, realised why he wasn’t enjoying more success in the British Superbike Championship. ‘The RC45 I raced at the TT in 1998 was a proper factory machine and it was incredible compared to the bike I usually rode - unbelievably better’ Simmo says. ‘The brakes were better, the clutch, the gearbox; it felt smaller to sit on, it was more comfortable… The throttle was lighter, the clutch was lighter, it was more stable - just everything you could imagine a bike doing, it did it better. It was a real sickener when I had to get back on my own bike after the TT, because then I realised what heap of shit it really was!’

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To cap off a truly dominant season on the roads, Simpson also won a Superbike race at the Ulster Grand Prix. Even though he was back on his standard RC45, its shortcomings were not so apparent on real world roads courses. ‘It was probably better suited to the roads than the short circuits because at least it was fast’ Simmo offers.

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The plan for the 1999 season was to race a Honda CBR600 for Team Daily Star in the British Supersport 600 Championship and an RC45 (again) on the roads for the V&M team. But yet again Simpson’s season was brought to an excruciating halt with another broken leg, this time the right tibia and fibula. And this time it was even messier. ‘I had compartment syndrome and they had to cut the leg open to get rid of all the swelling’ he explains. ‘A bit horrible, really. I was getting sick of bike racing by then. It felt like I’d been on crutches for about half of my life.’

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With hindsight, he should have trusted his gut instinct and walked away. But after recovering over winter, Simpson decided to try again, this time on a Ducati 748 in the Supersport class. It was a fateful decision. ‘At the very first race at Brands Hatch, I crashed at Clearways and broke both my legs AGAIN!’ This time I broke both femurs and my right tib and fib. I can remember lying in the road thinking “F*ck this. I’m done.” Straight away I knew I was finished with it.’

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After 15 years of racing, and with five British championships, two Scottish championships, three TT wins, five North West wins and two Ulster Grand Prix wins to his name. Ian Simpson had had enough, but he had no regrets. ‘I didn’t struggle to live with my decision’ he says. ‘I was sick of the sight of racing by that point. I was sick of hurting myself and just sick of the whole thing really.’

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Like many retired racers, Simpson still pays a heavy price for the successes he achieved. ‘I can’t even remember how many operations I had, but it took me about four years to get back to some kind of normal’ he says. ‘They had to fix the length of my legs and get them lined up. Even now, I can’t stand still on my legs – they just swell up as my circulation is horrendous. I can walk for miles, and they’re okay when I’m sitting down, but I can’t stand still for any length of time. I feel quite rude when people stop to say hello in the street because I can’t stop and stand chatting to them – I have to keep moving.’ 

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There's no hesitation when Simmo is asked which feat he's most proud – winning the British Superbike Championship or winning the Senior TT. 'Oh, the British title, any day, he says. 'That's far more difficult to win. BSB and the TT are incomparable, in my opinion. It’s much harder to win a BSB title than it is to win a TT race. Much, much, much harder. Anybody who’s won both will tell you that.'

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