Julian Simon
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Date of birth: 4/3/1987 |
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Honours
First race: 1993 Spanish Motocross Championship
First Grand Prix: 2002 Spanish GP (125cc)
First podium finish: 2005 British GP (125cc)
First victory: 2005 British GP (125cc)
Total Grand Prix: 79 (125cc), 17(250cc)
Podium finishes: 2 (125cc)
Victories: 1 (125cc)
Sporting career
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Biography
Julián Simón’s passion for motorbikes goes back to the time of nappies and weeping. A time in which every time he would walk with his father in front of a friend’s workshop in the village and see the parked Italjet 50, the two-year-old boy would start to cry until they would let him get on it. The only motorbike tradition at home had been that of his uncle, who had a Yamaha 250 motocross bike with which he had taken part in some regional race. However, the obsession of young Julito for that Italjet was such that his father ended up buying it for him when he was only two years and a half. Thus, with nappies and little side-wheels, he started making his first kilometres in the fields. A few months later he wouldn’t need the side-wheels any longer and at the age of four he got his first bike with a gearbox: a Kawasaki 60.
Once he was five, the minimum age needed to enter races, he used his bike to enter the Spanish Children Motocross Championship. He learned step by step and finished the championship third overall in 1996, taking the championship title one year later. He raced with a 80cc machine in 1998 and at the age of eleven he was fifth in the junior class for children aged 13 and 14 and eighth in the junior class for children up to 16 years (two classes but all riders take part in the same race).
However, motorbike racing has never been cheap and despite having the support of a door manufacturing company of the village, Visel, it was his family who had to pay almost all expenses. When the lack of means and support became evident in 1998, another company of the village, Artevi, decided to help him with the financial push he needed to continue with his passion. Both companies are still his personal sponsors today and it was them who proposed him to make the jump to road racing in 1999, a competition with a lot more pulling power than motocross.
He entered the Aprilia 50 Cup, because he did not have the minimum age to enter the Movistar Activa Joven Cup yet and finished fourth in his first year. He continued with motocross racing, taking the victory of the last race of the season, at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. This last victory was the finishing touch with which Julito closed the stage as a motorbike rider, before focussing exclusively on road racing. Changing from one class to the other wasn’t difficult for him, although his first practice sessions were not really orthodox: he did them with his uncle on the streets of an industrial estate nearby the village. It was at the circuit of Albacete where he was finally able to see which were the aspects he needed to improve and cover the kilometres needed to adapt.
After one year of experience, he participated in the 50cc and 125cc classes of the Aprilia Cup in 2000and the result couldn’t be more positive. He took both titles, something nobody else had achieved before and it also gave him the chance to contact the person who would be very close to him from then on: Alberto Puig. His talent did not go unnoticed for the former 500c rider who offered him to take him to the Spanish Road Racing Championship.
As a member of the Movistar Junior Team, he entered the Spanish Road Racing Championship (CEV) in the 125cc class in 2001 and 2002, two years he used to learn a lot and get positive results. He managed to finish fourth in the first race staged in Jarama, and stepped on the podium in the second race in Albacete, finishing third. As any other rookie, he crashed and had some complicated moments during the season, but the overall result was positive. He managed to progress, gather experience and finish the series in the overall fourth position, after hard fights with other young promising riders such as Casey Stoner or Ángel Rodríguez.
In his second season, he gave it all to become Spanish Champion in 2002, but he came across a very strong Héctor Barberá who had already experience in world championship races, not leaving any chance for Julián. He was finally third, behind world championship rider Fabrizio Lai. However, the award for his good results came with the chance to race in four rounds of the world championship that year. Alberto Puig took him to Jerez, Catalonia, Estoril, and Valencia, where he was able to measure-up with the best riders of the world and even scored in Portugal. Taking the start of a world championship race at the age of 15 was an incredible experience. The result of that first race was not as good as expected, because he spent most of the weekend watching open-mouthed what was around him and how fast the other riders were, rather than showing what he was worth.
After those first world championship experiences, the so longed-for chance to race a whole championship came in 2003. It was with the Angaia Racing Team on a Malagutti machine, of a much lower level than the rest of the bikes on the starting grid. But he was able to learn a lot because despite not having enough means, he had a very professional team that allowed him to improve step by step. The next year the Angaia Team created a separated structure with a Honda 125 GP for Julito; the evolution was constant and his results improved; he managed to finish always in the points. In Brno he was able to get a place on the front row with the third fastest time, although he finished the race tenth. He showed along the season that he was able to get close to the best despite contesting the championship with a private bike and had some good performances that did not go unnoticed. Several teams made him offers for 2005 and his choice was KTM, who had presented the project with the best guarantees.
Bad luck made him break his collarbone at the start of the season while doing motocross and his start in the World Championship was hard. He was left behind by the leading group in the first races, but was always among the Top Ten. He took his best result in the World Championship so far in the sixth race, a memorable victory under the impressive rainfall in Donington Park. He continued showing good performances until the end of the season despite breaking his wrist in a crash in Australia, and finished the season in seventh position.
2006 had to be the year of his confirmation, after a first season to adapt to a bike with real chances to win and Julián started very strong, eager to show everybody, including himself, that he was able to be among the top riders. However, his first results were not as good as expected. But even though, he was seventh overall after six races of the World Championship, and after the Italian Grand Prix his name sounded as possible substitute for Sebas Porto in the Repsol Honda 250 Team, who had announced his retirement one day before the Catalan Grand Prix. On race day, which will be remembered by the big crash after the start of the MotoGP race, Julián also suffered a crash which got him the worst injury he had in his career so far: a femur fracture that forced him to undergo surgery and miss the next three races. He reappeared after summer and except for Brno, he showed good performances again, with one podium in Japan, two fourth places in Malaysia and Portugal and a fifth place in Australia. Luck turned the back on him again in Valencia, and he finished eighth after crashing. But it was a good year for Julián Simón, who had the support of a factory like KTM and did not stop to improve a single instant.
In 2007, the Spanish rider met again with Alberto Puig. The Repsol Honda 250cc Team Director supported him from his first steps in the Spanish series and the World Championship and now had no doubt to count on him for the quarter-of-a-litre class. It was not an easy season for Julián, as he had to adapt to to a very competitive category while grappling with one of slowest bikes on the 250cc grid. In spite of this, overcoming problems with his Honda, the Repsol rider fought all season to stay close to leading positions, showing good performance in training sessions which put him in the first row on the grid in Jerez, China, France, England. When racing, lack of concentration at the start of the first GP’s of the season forced him to struggle against the current on a number of occasions.
His best result came in France, where he was 5th; but in contrast, his fall in Germany while comfortably rolling near the leading pack in that same 5th position, or the mechanical problems that forced him out of the race in Holland, made him fall places in the World Classification. The last stretch of the season was affected by an injury in his forearm. In spite of operations on the compartmental syndrome, on a number of occasions he was limited by cramps in his arms which lasted until the end of the race. Nevertheless, he ended the season securing four 6th positions in a row, which while not being the best results, allowed for a few glimpses of his talent, and for an optimistic approach to the 2008 season.
