Shoya Tomizawa, R.I.P.

Shoya Tomizawa died from injuries suffered during a horrific crash in Sunday’s Moto2 race at the Misano World Circuit in Italy. He was 19 years old. According to series rights-holder Dorna, Tomizawa “suffered…cranial, thoracic and abdominal trauma. He was taken to the hospital of Riccione for immediate treatment but succumbed to his injuries at 2:20.”

Winner of the first-ever Moto2 race this past April in Qatar, Tomizawa was running fourth behind championship points-leader Toni Elias, Simone Corsi and Julian Simon with 15 laps remaining in the 26-lap race when he crashed and was run over by Alex De Angelis and Scott Redding, neither of whom were seriously injured.

Heading into round 12 of the series, Tomizawa, riding for the Technomag-CIP team on a Suter chassis, was sixth in points. Tomizawa began racing pocketbikes in his native Japan at age 3. He joined the 250cc GP class full-time in 2009, finishing in the points in nine of the 15 rounds in which he competed, with personal-best finishes of 10th at Motegi and Valencia.

Race director Paul Butler expressed his concern for Tomizawa’s family and team, and praised the efforts of the circuit’s medical staff and corner workers. “There was no reason to red flag ," he said. FIM representative Claude Danis agreed with Butler and added his condolences.

“I’m very sorry for Shoya, because he was a strong rider but especially a very funny guy,” said Valentino Rossi. “I’m very, very sorry.”

Added Nicky Hayden, “We’ve lost one of our brothers, and our prayers are with his team and his family.”

“Tomizawa was doing a fantastic job this year,” said Casey Stoner. “He was a pleasure to watch. Two weekends in a row now that we’ve seen something like this, and it’s very hard to take. I hope this can show what people have to put on the line to do this sport.”

Prior to Sunday’s races, a minute’s silence was held in tribute to the late Peter Lenz, who crashed during the warm-up lap for the USGPRU MD250H race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Red Bull Indianapolis GP weekend.