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Even its most ardent admirers acknowledge that New Zealand is a long way from anywhere else, especially the centres of global racing in Europe.

For Kiwi racing icon Simon Crafar, once a boy with a dream to go battle in the highest echelons - somehow or other - the Superbike World Championship would become a home-from-home, and maybe even a small part of his DNA. Even long after he retired from the sport competitively, and more than 20 years after his first SBK ride in 1989, he is still working from within the paddock most weekends.

It's probably fair to say that SBK racing opened up a window of opportunities to a new world for the youthful Crafar. "I think the whole spirit of Superbike is a fantastic idea," said Simon. "People can race stuff that you can buy from the shop. People can relate to that, because if you have a CBR or GSX-R or something, that is part of the attraction. I never even dreamed of riding in GPs as a kid, because I had never even seen one of the bikes. So when Superbikes came along - I remember in the first year watching highlights on TV in New Zealand - I was thinking, ‘Brilliant, they have got world championship class for bikes that you can buy from the shop!" It was a big attraction, especially in a place like New Zealand that was so removed from Europe and the world championships. SBK was a championship that was accessible. That was how it was back then. It was a dream for me to go and race motorcycles and they were racing bikes that, if we tried hard enough, we could get hold of one."

Despite his many racing successes it is almost unbelievable that Crafar rode in over 120 SBK races, scored ten podiums, but did not quite win one. He was in a position to claim victory more than once but as Crafar knows to his cost, you still have to have fortune on your side when it counts. "Before my last races I used to believe that you made your own luck," said Crafar. "In fact, I still firmly believe that, but you have to have a bit of extra luck on your side sometimes as well. I had some crazy stuff happen to me, in my last meeting and some other meetings before that. I had a tyre delaminate and then someone else had a coming together with me and we went down - that kind of stuff is just out of your hands. Of course I am disappointed not to have an SBK win on the record books but I am happy that I got to have a real go at it. Racing at that level was really cool times, you know, living the dream." How's that for positivity? Well, it just seems part of Crafar's perennial go-ahead outlook.

If you listen to Simon's comments on his post-racing life now, a portion of which is still carried out inside the SBK paddock, he is the one who feels he is a very lucky man to be riding and mentoring other riders for a living. "I do the Motovudu book and film, and one-to-one instruction on track, teaching what I learned the hard way, which is an absolute pleasure," says Crafar. "With my other job, working with the European Junior Cup riders, it is even more of a pleasure. These guys are as passionate as I was at their age, they want to learn, want to move forward and they have talent, so to work with them is the perfect job, it really is."

Possibly the most interesting aspect of Crafar's life story so far is how much perspectives change when you have to leave home as profoundly as he had to, in order to go chase the big prizes. Simon explains it best. "I am based in Andorra and have been for many years now," he stated. "I always say that the dream was to come to Europe, chase motorbike racing and see what I could do. Hopefully make some money, go home and buy a house. But when the 17 years over here kind of came to an end, racing wise, you realised that home was not home anymore. You had kind of made your own home here in Europe in the meantime. The kids were born here so we decided to carry on here, and carry on being involved in the racing."