Tributes flood in for Tomizawa
Added on Monday, September 6th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Tributes flood in for Tomizawa
Tributes have flooded in for Shoya Tomizawa, who died yesterday following a crash in the Moto2 race at Misano, aged 19.
The Japanese rider, who was the first rider ever to win a Moto2 race with a victory in Qatar earlier this year, crashed on lap twelve of yesterday’s Moto2 race and was unavoidably struck by a following rider. He was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead a few hours later.
Riders in the MotoGP event were told of Tomizawa’s death as they finished the race, leading to muted celebrations on the podium, and the entire MotoGP paddock has been quick to pay tribute to the promising rider.
“There are no words to say how it feels after this victory – it feels like nothing,” said MotoGP race winner Dani Pedrosa. “It’s so sad, terrible, and these things should never happen. As a person I can only say that he was a very funny boy, always happy and making jokes, and as a rider he earned respect from everybody in a very short time, he was fast and brave.”
“I don’t have many words for the race on such a sad day,” added Jorge Lorenzo. “It’s a huge pity because he was a good guy and a strong rider. I am so sad and I just want to say how sorry I am for his family and his friends. When this happens nothing else matters.”
Valentino Rossi, who had earlier been celebrating his podium finish for his home fans before he heard the news, said: “I’m so sorry for Shoya because he was a strong rider but above all he was very ‘sympatico.’ He was very funny, always smiling and he always had nice things to say to everyone. He was also very young with a great career ahead of him so we are all very sad.”
Meanwhile, race direction bosses defended the decision not to red-flag the race, claiming that doing so would have slowed down the response time for on-track medical teams to attend to Tomizawa and the two other riders involved, Scot Redding and Alex de Angelis.
“Immediately the first idea I think is if it’s possible to stop the race because it’s dangerous,” said Clinica Mobile doctor Claudio Macchiagodena. “But the people with the stretcher immediately arrived and when you remove the rider from the track for my medical decision I do not ask Race Direction for the red flag because this does not help my job, because we delay the intervention for the ambulance.
“Behind the track protection we had one ambulance with the respirator inside and we started immediately all the intensive care for him. I didn’t ask for the red flag because I didn’t need it.”
Race Director Paul Butler added: “I think the first thing we have to say is that our sympathies go out to the family and friends of Tomizawa and the team, clearly.
Doctor Macchiagodena has explained the situation very clearly. My job is to decide whether to red flag or not based on the advice I receive. The medical intervention was very quick and very efficient because the point of the accident there were many medical services there: several ambulances and a lot of doctors. So the evaluation of the situation was swift.
“The next stage is to do with the safety of the other riders on the track and the intervention of the marshals was very swift so there was no risk to the other riders. The crashed motorcycles and the debris were removed very quickly and therefore there was no reason to red flag.”
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