Catching-up with Simon Crafar Simon Crafar joins the FIXI Crescent Suzuki Team Former 500GP and World Superbike winner Simon Crafar will join the FIXI Crescent Suzuki team for the remaining European rounds of this season's eni FIM Superbike World Championship to help the riding performances of Leon Camier and Jules Cluzel. Crafar - who was present at the recent Aragon race in Spain - has been using his extensive riding experience, gathered from over a decade competing in top-class motorcycle racing, to give on-circuit instruction to both track-day and professional riders since 2008. He will now use his in-depth knowledge to evaluate the performances of Camier and Cluzel and to assist with any riding technique recommendations that come to his attention providing the FIXI Crescent Suzuki riders an effective way to improve their lap-times over a race weekend. Crafar will also continue with his highly successful motorcycle performance training project 'Motovudu - Dark Art of Performance' (www.motovudu.com) which he launched in 2011 to provide hands-on instructional tuition to riding faster on-circuit. Simon Crafar: "Coming into the weekend I didn't really know what to expect. I  was happy to be going to work with my Andorran neighbour and buddy Leon, and his Chief
Technician Frankie, who had welcomed my occasional input in 2012, but I
was a little nervous about how new French rider Jules Cluzel and his
Chief Technician Les would accept me into their huddle of very private
discussions - as I didn't know them. Both Jules and Les turned out to be
both very nice guys, very talented at what they do and completely open
to my help, welcoming me into their post session debriefs. The whole
team has a great atmosphere but is also very professional, just like you
would expect from Paul and the guys. I am very proud to be working with
them. "I'm not trying to coach these riders, because they are way past that. I am just an extra set of eyes around the circuit. I try to pick up on areas where I think I can help them improve. A rider can sometimes get stuck to a particular line and I can see them from a different angle. I assess their positioning on the track in relation to other guys out there but sometimes it's as simple as changing the priority of the corners to gain a couple of tenth's. After watching closely I believe very strongly in the ability of both Leon and Jules, so I am looking forward to helping them and the team achieve the great results I am very sure they are capable of." Image and copy courtesy of the Team Suzuki Press Office |