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MotoGP loses its young lion
Marco Simoncelli’s arrival in MotoGP’s lead pack earlier this year was a much-needed boost for the series. Here was a man who didn’t care about the status quo, who wasn’t interested in merely taking his place in the dreary follow-my-leader processions that had become the norm in what is supposed to be bike racing’s greatest championship. Here was a real racer, and a real racer with a lion’s mane of hair.
Of course, Simoncelli’s graduation to the premier class in 2010 wasn’t greeted with delight by some of his rivals who feared his reputation for fearsome riding. Simoncelli didn’t know how not to have a go. If he saw the slightest chink of daylight between a rival and the kerb, then he went for the gap. His childhood hero was Kevin Schwantz, so it’s no surprise he raced thus.
That’s why Simoncelli was becoming hugely popular, just as Schwantz had been. He was one of those riders you always looked forward to watching, because you knew that he was never going to just find his place in the pack and circulate. He was a fighter, who would do whatever he could to hunt down the rider in front of him. He loved racing motorcycles but he lived for the battle.
It is a horrible irony that the crash that killed him should have been an innocuous front-end lose in a 65mph corner, the result of which would normally have been nothing more than a helmet-full of Italian curses and a scuffed set of leathers. Usually, that crash would have sent Simoncelli sliding out of harm’s way. But when he went down the tyres kept gripping, continuing the arc of the corner. That’s what brought him into the path of two riders behind him. At least he never knew anything about what happened next.
