OLLY SIMPSON

I’m in an interesting position at the moment; a bit of a predicament really. I’ve come back into racing the last few years, but I’m also heavily involved in my parents’ crash repair business. It’s a business they’ve been building for 26 years now and I’m in between working there full-time and racing bikes. Obviously, I’ll keep racing, but I’ve also got to step up and start managing this business as my parents approach retirement.

It’s been seven years since I last competed in the Red Bull Rookies Cup so this is almost my second coming as a racer. Last year I was hit with injury and there are also the realities of life creeping in – it can be difficult to keep the enjoyment in racing when you’ve got to balance it with working in a business, but I feel like I’m maturing and there are always going to be different responsibilities in life. It’s a fine line, just how much to commit to racing. 

The break from racing wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I’ve definitely rediscovered that fire in my stomach and the drive to win. I also feel like I’m racing differently now – I’m a man now as opposed to a boy when I raced Rookies at 15 years old. I have a different perspective, a different outlook on life.  

When I arrived at the end of my Rookies experience it felt like I had nowhere to go. I was still very young and, unless you’d forked out a huge sum of money to race in the Moto3 championship, there was no way forward. The era I raced in Rookies was also very competitive, lined up against riders who have gone on to achieve great things: Joan Mir, Jorge Martin, Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, Enea Bastianini – a huge depth of talent. 

Even though I didn’t get the results I wanted, I was still happy with the way things turned out. It was a difficult situation – the amount of money being talked about to race in Moto3 was €200,000 ($A330,000) per year. You could injure yourself in the first round and end up sitting out the season – the risk was too high. I went into meetings with three or four teams, but you needed money and backing behind you. After living in Europe for a few years I was also ready for a break. As good as it was living overseas, I did feel a little bit homesick. 

Morgan Park a few weeks ago was only my seventh round on the Supersport machine and I almost feel like I’m starting to enjoy it too much! I’m starting to get quick again and I’ve been looking at heading back overseas to maybe try some BSB Supersport. My dad has always been incredibly keen on road racing, but both my parents are supportive of anything my brothers or I do. I’ve got two younger brothers, Mitch and Jordy. Mitch is 23 and is also racing Supersport and Jordy is 20 and races in Supersport 300, so racing is also a great way to do something together as a family. 

Before I seriously think about moving on from Australian Supersport I feel like I’d need to be on lap record pace or have a few titles to my name. Harry Voight showed us earlier this year the level we need to be at to be successful in Europe – you need to be smoking the field, so to speak. We’re learning more about our bike every single race and there is a lot of potential to discover still. I wasn’t expecting anything from this year, but I’ve shown to myself that the speed is there. 

Then the question of balance creeps in. I’m 25 now, so I feel like I’m still young enough to make a career out of racing but I really do enjoy working in the crash repair shop. Usually I work on heavy vehicles and I like the paint design side of things. Now I’ve found myself leading the championship with two rounds remaining. I’ve raced twice at Phillip Island on the Supersport bike and the times I’ve set in testing have been competitive, so my confidence is pretty high right now. 

The final round is at The Bend, which is basically my home track – I’ve done hundreds of laps there but I know anything could still happen, it’s a very open championship! See you all
at Phillip Island.