Dick Simon

Richard Raymond Simon (Dick Simon)(born September 21, 1933) is one of the oldest men to ever have raced in the Indianapolis 500. He was 55 years old during his final Indy 500 start in 1988. A multiple starter and top-ten finisher in the race, he also became a car owner, founding Dick Simon Racing helping to begin the IndyCar careers of Stéphan Grégoire, Arie Luyendyk, Raul Boesel, and others. Simon also fielded cars for Lyn St. James. He sold his race team to Andy Evans who formed Team Scandia in 1997. He was back in the game in the late 1990s and entered cars in 2000 and 2001.

Driving career

Simon was born in Sandy, Utah, and made his first driving appearance at Pacific Raceways in October 1969. He failed to start the race and failed to qualify for the other two races that he attempted that season. He made his race debut the following spring driving a second-hand Vollstedt chassis at Phoenix International Raceway but was sidelined by magneto failure after only 4 laps. He made his Indianapolis 500 debut that year and finished in the 14th position. At Ontario Motor Speedway that September, Simon captured his career-best finish of 3rd place and he finished 10th in the 1970 USAC National Championship. Simon would continue to be marginally competitive throughout the 1970s, never matching his finishes of the 1970 season. In 1979, Simon sided with USAC during its split with CART. In being one of the few drivers to complete the USAC schedule, Simon finished 8th in the Championship. In 1980 Simon moved to CART and continued to have little success throughout the 1980s while remaining marginally competitive. He logged his best CART season in 1987 when he made 11 starts and logged two top-tens including a 6th place at the Indy 500, good enough for 20th in the CART Championship. A partial season in 1988 where Simon logged a solid 9th-place finish in the Indy 500 was his last as a driver.

Simon's driving career includes 183 starts (115 USAC and 78 CART) over 19 seasons spanning from 1970 to 1988. Among those starts is 17 Indy 500 appearances.

Team ownership

Dick Simon fielded his own race team beginning in 1983 and shortly thereafter began fielding cars for pay drivers, Dick Simon Racing being one of the most competitive teams offering race seats to such drivers almost always fielded current-year March and Lola chassis and had a competitive engine package. In 1989 the team fielded two fully funded drivers in Scott Brayton and Arie Luyendyk as the team moved towards the front of the pack. Simon fielded a car in the 1992 Indianapolis 500 for Lyn St. James who became the second woman to drive in the race. Raul Boesel finished 5th in points with 3 runner-up finishes in 1993, the team's best season result. The team had a difficult 1995 and Simon sold the team to Andy Evans who turned it into Team Scandia. Simon returned to ownership in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series in 1999 but saw little success. The team was shut down after the team's driver Stéphan Grégoire failed to qualify for the 2001 Indianapolis 500.

Personal life

Dick Simon was once questioned by the FBI under the suspicion of his being the airplane hijacker D. B. Cooper. He proved that he was discussing sponsorship with the president of General Foods in Upstate New York on the date of the hijack.

Motorsports career results

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

American open-wheel racing

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

USAC Championship Car

PPG Indy Car World Series

Indianapolis 500

NASCAR

(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series

Daytona 500