The motorcycling world is still in mourning after the death of Moto2’s Shoya Tomizawa at Misano, but before tragedy struck, there had been the usual light-hearted goings-on behind the scenes of MotoGP, as Toby Moody reveals.
How you say, full?
Misano started hot and sticky, much as it had from the weekend before at the Red Bull Indianapolis GP. Fellow commentator Neil Spalding and I rocked up into nearby Cattollica for a late lunch on Thursday, still with body clocks a little askew after the Atlantic trip, and we figured that getting a bit of food was the thing to do. Pasta on the outskirts or a delve into the labyrinth by the Adriatic coastline for something different? The former won as our stomachs rumbled, but pretending that we understood exactly what the waiter said in Italian soon caught up with us when the world's biggest starter arrived (seafood still sizzling in the pan) and the world's biggest pan of spaghetti followed. Once the density of that hit us about 30 minutes later, we decided that the waiter was trying to say, “Are you sure you wanna eat all of that… ?”
Toby Moody
An explosive combination
Italy is known for having all sorts of different police, from the Carabinieri to the Stradale to the Finazia, etc. Surely the most bizarre police presence in the paddock on Sunday morning were the sniffer dogs with 'Esplosivo' written on their collars. Bombs are not known to have made an appearance in a motor racing paddock, but at least it got three guys in for a bit of behind-the-scenes stuff on the end of the leads of a couple of black labradors.
Toby Moody
It’s a sell-out
However, some police were kept busy as it soon emerged that the cheap merchandise guys had been hard at work in the run-up to the weekend making all sorts of Valentino Rossi/Ducati/46 kit. The t-shirts were already out before the announcement, some being self-made by the odd fan, but proper organised stuff was now on the streets. Flags, t-shirts and the odd cushion with a botched-up out-of-date 990cc Ducati on it and just 'Valentino Rossi' across the bottom are now within the safekeeping of the authorities after a Friday-night swoop. It didn't prevent a few other future Ducati riders from wearing one in honour of their hero, though.
Not camera-shy
The Rossi fan club were out in force in the run-up to the race, organising a massive beach party on the Friday night. Their army of people put up a load of posters on all the lamp-posts of the surrounding area, but not many were remaining after the weekend as the trophy hunters were out there taking them home for their garages and workshops… and one person ripped the brand-new on-board gyroscopic camera off the back of Rossi's Yamaha when he stopped on the cooling-down lap having run out of fuel. That won't be much use on a scooter on the Bologna ring road…
Toby Moody
Marc’s sixth sense
Marc Márquez and his Red Bull Ajo Derbi returned to their winning ways after crashing out of the Indianapolis lead. “He learned a lot of things at Indy,” Emilio Alzamora said of his rider, words that were said wisely rather than in disdain of the 17-year-old, and the young Spaniard was all smiles with his sixth win of the season giving him a nine-point championship lead.
Remembering Shoya Tomizawa
However, the fun and sunny smiles were soon forgotten. The Misano weekend will unfortunately be remembered for all the wrong reasons after the terrible death of 19-year-old Japanese rider Shoya Tomizawa during the Moto2 race. In the 21st century, accidents of this magnitude are fortunately fewer, but still carry the strength to remind us that freak accidents can happen… and it happened to Tomizawa. Falling off the bike wasn't the cause of the injuries he succumbed to, but the blameless following riders who had nowhere to go at nearly 200kph. There was nothing they could have done to avoid the accident that has left the paddock in shock. Tomizawa was one of those people who was always smiling and always happy with life. He was the ultimate 'can do' kind of guy. I met him properly for the first time at Jerez earlier in the year and was bowled over at how his reaction to winning at Qatar was not just a show for the cameras. It was there all the time – totally heart-on-his-sleeve stuff. For such a paddock favourite to be there one minute and gone the next makes it hurt all the more.
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