Tuesday, September 07, 2010

RIP Shoya

Yours Truly cannot say for everyone, but Yours Truly believe that somewhere deep inside most of the motor-racing fans is a morbid desire to see spectacular accidents live in action or on TV.

Last Sunday, that secret desire was satisfied by a three-bike pile-up on lap 12 of the Moto2 race at Misano.

Yet no matter how morbid one really is, the joy of witnessing a huge accident was quickly snuffed out by the serious injuries of the three riders involved.

When TV showed that the two riders on the left hand side of the screen, Alex de Angelis and Scott Redding, were getting back on their feet gingerly, we all could somewhat breathe a sigh of relief.

But when it showed the third rider lying motionlessly on the track just next to the racing line, you just knew that the worst might have happened.

Indeed it DID happen.

Shoya Tomizawa would have turned 20 in December. When he came out of nowhere to win the season-opening race at Qatar, he put his name in the record books as the first ever winner of a Moto2 race, a new category replacing the old 250cc race this year.

Ironically, he would turn out to be the first rider to lose his life in a Moto2 race.

For a young rider who had led the Championship earlier in the year, with one win and two poles under his credit, his passing was awfully early.

Sadly, looking at the replay again, on could quickly realise that when Tomizawa fell off his bike, there was no way the close-following de Angelis and Redding could have avoided him.

It was just a cruel twist of fate. "It's a freak accident", said Valentino Rossi, who added that no changes to regulations or the track could have prevented the crash.

Before the race, Tomizawa was seen waving at the TV camera joyously, oblivious to the cruel fate that lay ahead of him.

But like what people said, at least he died while doing something he loved dearly.

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