Bill Simpson
Bill is a native Southern Californian, growing up in the heart of the hot Rod world at that time. By 1955 at the age of 15, Bill was earning his way working in an upholstery factory looking for his next move. It was about this time that Bill’s good friend, Dennis Aphes, took him to his first drag race and he was hooked. Bill bought a 1940 Ford coupe and went street racing. From street racing in his coupe, Bill soon graduated into driving a dragster at the local drag strips. At that time the driver uniform of the day was jeans, leather jacket, and any kind of a helmet that fit; so safety wasn’t a priority. In 1958 the brake handle on Bill’s dragster broke off after a hard pass and he wound up crashing at the end of the strip breaking both arms. While he was healing Bill decided it was time to come up with a better way to stop these cars and started researching how to do this best. His uncle owned a war surplus store and knew some people he thought might be of help so he put Bill in touch with a parachute expert who suggested this might be the answer to the stopping problem. At that time, the chutes being sold at the surplus stores were bulky and unreliable for use on the race car so Bill proceeded to rent a sewing machine, learn how to use it correctly, and after studying a rigging manual he set about assembling his first cross formed drag chute. The chutes quickly became popular with the drivers and shortly after his humble beginning Bill started receiving so much business, he officially opened the doors of Simpson Drag Chutes. The success of the parachute business prompted Bill to set out to provide the drivers with the greatest amount of safety equipment possible. The next step was to design and produce driving gloves than seatbelts and shoes. By this time Bill had outgrown his two-car garage and moved into larger quarters where he began designing and producing fire suits from NASA’s latest temperature resistant material, Nomex. To prove the value of the Nomex material, in an unprecedented marketing move Bill proceeded set his Nomex covered arm on fire on the starting line of Indianapolis Motor Speedway in front of the gathering of news media people. His promotion worked and by opening day of the 1967 Indy 500, the majority of the starting field drivers were suited up in Bill’s Nomex fire suits. Nomex has proven to be the right material for the job. Even with the success he enjoyed over the years Bill has never lost his dream of producing even better driver safety equipment, including helmets, undergarments, etc.
As most people know, Bill has never limited his safety equipment to anyone form of racing. Drivers in every form of the sport, from NASCAR, drag racing, boat racing, off-road racing, Formula One, etc. are protected by bills equipment.
The same diversity has applied to Bill’s racing career. He has been very involved in the competition side of racing having owned and driven dragsters, owned and driven SCCA Road Race cars, and owned and driven Indy cars including a 13-place finish in the 1974 Indy 500. So, he truly has a firsthand knowledge of what the drivers needs are, safety, and just as important comfort. Bill retired from racing in the cars in the mid-1970s to focus his efforts on expanding his business and develop more new products. People worldwide acknowledges success as an owner/driver but it will always be his designing and production of safety equipment that will highlight his career.
Unfortunately, the 1980s saw a ration of frivolous lawsuits that took their toll on Bill and cost him a lot of time, money, and generated a lot of emotional stress. A few years later after rebuilding the business back into an even greater success he sold it and concentrated on developing real estate. Retirement from the safety equipment arena didn’t satisfy Bill’s desire to continue developing newer and better equipment so he started his newest effort, Impact Racing, and is busy finding ways to keep the drivers and crews even safer. What’s next, impact absorbing helmets and vests or more heat resistant materials? No one can answer that question but it sure the bet that Bill was going to find the answer before long and make racing even safer for its competitors.