Kris Simton

**Kris Simton** (born 25 November 1994) is a British racing driver who races in the British Touring Car Championship for Honda.

## Early Life

Simton was born on 25 November 1994 in North Yorkshire, England.

## Touring Cars

### British Touring Car Championship

    Simton was signed up to the Tech-Speed Motorsport team alongside the American David Todaro for the 1991 British Touring Car Championship. Results were very good for Simton including a win at Castle Combe (which he achieved on his 25th birthday, currently making Simton the only driver currently in BTCO history to win on their birth date.) as well as four other podium finishes and ten Independent championship class wins. Despite these results, Simton was beaten to the Independent drivers title by Mike Bell, perhaps owing to the fact Simton had missed the the 4th Round at Brands Hatch. However, his results helped the team win the Independent Teams title.

Simton left the Tech-Speed team at the end of the 1991 and Vauxhall Sport were impressed with his 4th place finish in the Overall Drivers championship and paired him with Italian BTCC race winner Lorenzo Turri who had joined from the departed Misubishi team. Simton would earn 3 podium finishes throughout the year, but couldn't match his team mates results and finished the season in 7th, but he managed to help Vauxhall win the Teams Championship.

For 1993, Simton joined Toyota to race the brand new Carina E ran by TOM's. Simton and Toyota got off to a great start with an impressive 2nd at the opening round at Silverstone. However, as the season progressed, Simton became unimpressed with the development of the new Carina and despite podiums at Oulton Park and Pembrey, the Carina fell down the performance pecking order. At the end of 1993, Simton finished 5th in the championship and despite an offer from Toyota to drive in 1994, he chose to team up with former teammate, Turri, at Alfa Corse. It would turn out to be a move that yielded little success. While Turri would go on to clinch his 3rd straight BTCO title, Simton could only manage a best result of 2nd following Turri home at Oulton Park (Island) for the one and only Alfa Romeo 1-2 of the season. He would finish 7th in the Championship, which left him frustrated after potientially being able to take 4th in the final round at Brands Hatch (GP).These chances were ruined after a disconnect happened in the final race of the season with 3 laps to go, with Simton looking set to pick up 4th in the standings. He would help however, along with Turri, get Alfa Romeo the Manufacturer's title for 1994.

For the 1995 season, Simton went back to his Independent roots, signing for Team Dynamics. A team that last saw success in 1993, picking up both Independent titles in the hands of Simton's friend Pekka Ylitalo. Simton picked up the record of most experienced driver in 1995, with 139 starts to his name currently. So far, he has missed only 1 round of the series to date at Brands Hatch (Indy) in 1991, due to life commitments. 1995, would also see Simton clinch the pair of Independents titles (Drivers and Teams) with 2 races remaining, this being his first drivers and Team Dynamics' second teams titles, after a titanic scrap with Michael Sneath that seemed to last the entire season with both cars seemingly inseparable on the track, however the 26 year old Devonian would eventually best his northern rival by 42 points.

For the 1996 season, Simton left Team Dynamics after the team withdrew from the season citing a lack of competition in the Independent class. Instead, he took up the vacant seat left at Honda Team MSD alongside Emile Taylor. 3rd place finisher in 1995, Johannes Meles had left the team after the German had moved to Audi Sport for 1996. Simton cited that the move was made after he was impressed by the great results of Meles in 1995 with the then-new Accord, and new team-mate Taylor had shown vast improvement over the season as well. 1996 proved to be a great season for Simton as he would finish 4th in the standings matching his best efforts from 1991 and would take 3 wins at Thruxton, Knockhill, and Silverstone International after a long draught of wins since his first in 1991 at Castle Combe.

For 1997, Simton remained at Honda for a 2nd go with the Accord Mk5. He would pick up a dominant win in the second race at the first round at Donington Park, beating the main challengers for the title by 7 seconds. But would unfortunately, fail to find the same form in the other rounds of the season and would end up finishing 5th in the standings. At the final round at Silverstone International, Simton would participate in his 200th start in the series. A feat unmatched by anyone else to date. To celebrate this, his Honda team painted his Accord in a unique and special one-off Stealth Black livery forgoing his usual #25 for #200 making him the first and only driver to race with 2 different numbers in a season as well as the first and only driver to use a triple-digit number.

1998 was Simton's 3rd and final season with the Accord Mk5. After 1997 team-mate Daniel Bower left the series, the spare seat went to 1997 debutant Christian Tracey. The new pairing worked well together with Honda briefly taking the lead in the Teams standings early on in the season. But unfortunately the early form seemed to fizzle out with the only win of the season for Honda coming courtesy of Tracey at Croft Circuit. Both drivers would find themselves on the podium more often than not however and ultimately Honda would finish P3 in the Teams table.
Simton would finish 4th in the Drivers standings, matching his best championship result from 1991 and 1996, while embroiled in a season-long scrap with the Nissan duo of Tom Gill and Henry Williams.

1999 would see Simton staying at the Japanese giant Honda for a 4th successive season with the brand-new Accord Mk6. His 1998 team-mate Tracey would also stay on for another season, and were both joined by Peugeot refugee Jake Black. The season started strong with a win in Race 3 at the opening round of Donington Grand Prix for Simton. However, the season would again turn like 1998, where the Honda driver would not show the same form from Donington. Simton though, would claim 2 more wins at the penultimate round at Oulton Park, claiming his first double wins at a race event. And would also find the podium a further 5 times over the season. This, along with Black's multiple wins would clinch the teams title for Honda for the first time.

2000 was the last season of the Supertouring formula and after the highs of the championship winning season for the Honda team, they would have an all new line-up claiming themselves to be the 'Dream Team'. However, with Black retiring, Tracey also calling it a day during the 1999 season and Simton out of a ride, the Yorkshire-turned Devonian turned to a former team of his at Vauxhall running the venerable Vauxhall Vectra for it's 5th season, causing quite a stir in the paddock. The team had an inconsistent 1999 finishing 6th in the Teams Championship, and Simton saw this as a challenge to take them back to the glory days of 1992 where they won both titles with Simton and then drivers champion Lorenzo Turri. He would be joined at the British team by former team-mate David Todaro from 1991 at Tech-Speed Motorsport and 1999 race-winner Owen Potter.

## Motorsports career results

### Complete British Touring Car Championship results

Races in **bold** indicate pole position (1 point awarded just for first race) Races in *italics* indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded)

## Complete Touring Car World Cup results

(Key) (results are overall/class and in **bold** indicate pole position; results in *italics* indicate fastest lap)

### Complete VW Vento Cup results

(Key) (results in **bold** indicate pole position; results in *italics* indicate fastest lap)

### Complete Yugo Challenge results

(Key) (results in **bold** indicate pole position; results in *italics* indicate fastest lap)

### Complete Subaru Cup results

(Key) (results in **bold** indicate pole position; results in *italics* indicate fastest lap)