Simon Wills (born 3 October 1976 in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

) is a former

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

who currently runs a graphic design business.

Racing career

Formula cars

Wills finished runner up in the 1995

New Zealand Formula Ford Championship The MTA New Zealand Formula Ford Championship has been held annually in New Zealand racing circuits. History Formula Ford emerged as a racing class in New Zealand. In 1972, the inaugural New Zealand Formula Ford championship won by David Oxto ...

. He had gained a large lead in the series, but left the championship two races early to attempt to launch a career in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

. He won Class B of the

British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single sea ...

in 1996. However, he didn't have the finances to continue his career in Europe and decided to focus on racing in Australia and New Zealand. Wills won the 1998 and 1999 New Zealand Grands Prix. He was the

Australian Drivers' Champion The Australian Drivers' Championship was a motor racing championship contested annually from 1957 to 2014 by drivers of cars complying with Australia's premier open-wheeler racing category as determined by the Confederation of Australian Motor ...

(

Formula Holden Formula Holden was an Australian open wheel racing category introduced in 1989. History Known during its development as Formula Australia, it was initially for chassis constructed from aluminium only, running a 3.8-litre Buick V6 engine as ...

) in both

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, and New Zealand Gold Star Champion for 1998 and 1999, including winning the 1999

Tasman Cup The Tasman Cup was an amateur women's team golf tournament, played between Australia and New Zealand from 1933 to 2016. From 2007 to 2012 it was played as part of the Trans Tasman Cup. In 2016 the trophy was contested using scores from the two qu ...

. He also holds, or has held, the outright lap record at several tracks, including the

Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit The Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit is a motor racing circuit located near Ventnor, on Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia. The current circuit was first used in 1956. History Road circuit Motor racing on Phillip Island began in 1928 with ...

Hidden Valley Raceway Hidden Valley Raceway is part of the Hidden Valley Motorsports Complex, located at 171 Hidden Valley Road, Hidden Valley, from Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign ...

Pukekohe Park Raceway Pukekohe Park is a horse racing, motor racing, and community events facility located in Pukekohe, New Zealand, approximately south of the Auckland CBD, in the Auckland Region of the North Island. The venue, owned by Counties Racing Club Inc. i ...

, Manfeild Autocourse,

Canberra Street Circuit The Canberra Street Circuit was a temporary street circuit located in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. It hosted the Canberra 400 for the V8 Supercars series from 2000 to 2002. Layout The track, which ran through the Parl ...

and

Queensland Raceway Queensland Raceway nicknamed "the paperclip" is a motor racing circuit located at Willowbank in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. The circuit did host Supercars Championship until 2019, drifting as well as club level racing and ride days. Qu ...

, which were all set in a Reynard 94D.

Touring cars

Wills won the

Konica V8 Supercar Series The Dunlop Super2 Series (formerly known as Dunlop Series, Fujitsu V8 Supercars Series, HPDC V8 Supercars Series, Konica Minolta V8 Supercars Series and Konica V8 Supercars/Lites Series) is an Australian touring car racing competition, specifical ...

in 2001. In the main

V8 Supercar The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport. Supercars events take place in all Australian ...

series, he also competed in nine

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most re ...

s, debuting with

Gibson Motorsport Gibson Motorsport was an Australia, Australian motor racing team that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1981 until 2003, though the team had its roots in Gibson's "Road & Track" team which ran a series of Ford Falcon GT, F ...

in 1998, and finishing in 2007 with

Brad Jones Racing Brad Jones Racing is an Australian motor racing team owned by Brad Jones based in Albury. The team competes in the Supercars Championship and the Super2 Series. Recently they have also returned to Australian Formula Ford where Brad and Kim ...

. Wills also held the lap record of the

Mount Panorama Circuit Mount Panorama Circuit is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on Mount Panorama (Wahluu) and is best known as the home of the Bathurst 1000 motor race held each October ...

in Bathurst between the 2001 and 2002 races, having set the lap record during the 2001 Bathurst 1000. Following Bathurst in 2001, Wills completed the remaining rounds in the 2001 season with

Briggs Motor Sport Briggs Motor Sport was an Australian motor racing team which has represented Queensland based businessman John Briggs in motor racing. The team has competed in Sports Sedans, Australian GT, Formula Holden, and most notably as a touring car team ...

, and then drove full-time from 2003 to 2005 with

Team Dynamik Team Dynamik was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian V8 Supercar racing between 2001 and 2005. History Owned by Kieran Wills, Adelaide based Team Dynamik debuted in the 2001 with Simon Wills racing an ex Gibson Motors ...

. In 2007, he drove the bulk of the rounds with Brad Jones Racing after team owner and lead driver Brad Jones retired mid-season. Wills' most significant achievement in V8 Supercar was winning the

2002 Queensland 500 The 2002 VIP Petfoods Queensland 500 was an endurance race for V8 Supercars staged at Queensland Raceway, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia on 15 September 2002. Race distance was 161 laps of the 3.121 km circuit, totalling 502 km. The e ...

endurance race for

Stone Brothers Racing Stone Brothers Racing (SBR) was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the International V8 Supercars Championship between 1998 and 2012. The team was formed in 1998 when Ross and Jim Stone bought Alan Jones's shares in Alan Jon ...

, co-driving with

David Besnard David Besnard, (born 21 January 1977 in Sydney, Australia) is a retired professional racing driver. Career history Starting in karts in 1991, he quickly proceeded into Formula Ford in 1995. After initial success, he had a major accident at Eas ...

. Wills went close to going back to back at the Bathurst lead-up event, with co-driver

Jason Richards Jason John Richards (10 April 1976 – 15 December 2011) was a New Zealand motor racing driver. A multiple championship winning driver in his homeland in the New Zealand Touring Car Championship, he moved to Australia to pursue a career in the ...

going off late in the

2003 Betta Electrical Sandown 500 The 2003 Betta Electrical Sandown 500 was an endurance race for V8 Supercars. The event was staged at the Sandown International Raceway near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia on 14 September 2003 as Round 9 of the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship S ...

while attempting to overtake

Mark Skaife Mark Skaife (born 3 April 1967) is a retired Australian motor racing driver. Skaife is a five-time champion of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor, the Australian Touring Car Championship, as well as a six-time Ba ...

for the lead. Wills was also the driver when Team Dynamik infamously ran a test session on an airfield near

Woomera, South Australia Woomera, unofficially Woomera village, refers to the domestic area of RAAF Base Woomera. Woomera village has always been a Defence-owned and operated facility. The village is located on the traditional lands of the Kokatha people in the Far ...

in 2004, which resulted in significant penalties for the team.

Career results

Bathurst 1000 results

Business

In the latter years of his racing career, Wills launched a graphic design and

signwriting Sutton SignWriting, or simply SignWriting, is a system of writing sign languages. It is highly featural and visually iconic, both in the shapes of the characters, which are abstract pictures of the hands, face, and body, and in their spatial ar ...

business in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. Formed with his wife, ''Sinch Creative'' focuses on motor racing designs amongst other areas.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wills, Simon 1976 births Living people Formula Ford drivers Formula Holden drivers New Zealand racing drivers Sportspeople from Auckland Supercars Championship drivers