Simon Wills (born 3 October 1976 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a former racing driver.
Simon finished runner up in the 1995 NZ Formula Ford Championship, after gaining a large lead in the series, he left the season 2 races early to compete over in England.
He won Class B of the British Formula Three Championship in 1996.
Simon won the 1998 and 1999 New Zealand Grand Prix. He was the Australian Driver's Champion (Formula Holden) in both 1999 and 2000, and New Zealand Gold Star Champion for 1998 and 1999, including winning the 1999 Tasman Cup. He also holds the outright lap record at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Hidden Valley Raceway, Pukekohe Raceway, Manfeild Circuit, Canberra Street Circuit, and Queensland Raceway, which all was set in a Reynard 94D in the Formula Holden Championship Races.
He won the V8 Supercar Development Series in 2001.
Simon competed in 9 Bathurst 1000 Events, holding the lap record over 2001–2002. He began with Gibson Motorsport in 1998, finishing up in 2007 with Brad Jones Racing.
In 2001 after Bathurst, Simon drove full time in the V8 Supercar Series with the Cat Team, (Briggs Motorsport), and then in 2003 with Team Dynamik until 2005. In 2007, he drove for Team BOC after team owner and lead driver Brad Jones retired.
Simon won the QLD 500 V8 Supercar round with Stone Brothers Racing in 2002 alongside David Besnard.
Famous quotes containing the words simon and/or wills:
“Stevenson had noble ideas—as did the young Franklin for that matter. But Stevenson felt that the way to implement them was to present himself as a thoughtful idealist and wait for the world to flock to him. He considered it below him, or wrong, to scramble out among the people and ask them what they wanted. Roosevelt grappled voters to him. Stevenson shied off from them. Some thought him too pure to desire power, though he showed ambition when it mattered.”
—Garry Wills, U.S. historian. Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders, ch. 9, Simon & Schuster (1994)
“A man at work, making something which he feels will exist because he is working at it and wills it, is exercising the energies of his mind and soul as well as of his body. Memory and imagination help him as he works. Not only his own thoughts, but the thoughts of the men of past ages guide his hands; and, as part of the human race, he creates. If we work thus we shall be men, and our days will be happy and eventful.”
—William Morris (1834–1896)