This is one of those weeks when you just want nothing to do with motorsports. You can find the horrible video from Sepang on plenty of sites that want traffic that way, we'll pass.
It was an unheard of, freak outcome of a very common fall. Looking at the video from the bike just behind it looks like when he lost the front, Simoncelli may have become wedged under the Honda so the bike could not break free on the tangent. Or maybe he hung on to it thinking he w could save it, who knows. It does not matter, it's just awful.
Our condolences to Marco's family and team. Special thought for Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi tonight, there was absolutely nothing they could do.
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Another Sunday, another tragedy and I can't hope for changes in the future. My deepest condolences to his family...
ReplyDeleteGod bless, and Bless his family and his team!
ReplyDeleteMay he Rest In Peace. Now I am sharing my Birthday with the day he died, this means I will never forget him for the rest of life.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing replay after replay of the Wheldon crash from every angle, it was good to see the speed coverage of the Simoncelli crash. After seeing it live, they only played the reply once, and cut away before the worst part. And they did not show the medics working on him at all. condolences to his family and team...
ReplyDeleteI'm a Malaysian. This is the first death in Sepang circuit. It was a black day indeed.
ReplyDeleteTurn 11 can catch you out, as it's an off-camber entry 3rd gear corner that's a bit tighter than you think, with slippery kerbs.
Ciao Marco.
ReplyDeleteI watched the replay many times - not out of gruesome fascination but to understand what had happened. It looks like he rode the curb a little too much, washing out the front, and just held onto it - he was battling or 4th place.
ReplyDeleteBecause he held on, it put his body in such a position that when the other bikes intersected with his path, there was no room - his upper body absorbed the force of two motogp bikes at full tilt. It's hard to tell if Rossi even realized Edwards was trying to avoid an accident as they were both racing hard.
We'll hear a lot of noise about making changes here,too, but I honestly do not believe this tragedy could have been mitigated by anything. And I'm going to say the same I said about DW - He went out doing what he loved, as a HERO to fans everywhere. Many condolences to the entire MotoGP field and family. Sad day indeed.
I don't know what's more cruel, that he was felled by the wheel of his hero and the person he was potentially be the successor of or, that he was hit in the only part of a rider's body that cannot be protected, the neck.
ReplyDeleteCurious what you guys think about posting a fatal crash video or not. I see Jalopnik and Autoblog both posted Sic's crash and both got a number of negative comments (which somehow are buried, with only one of glowing praise being "featured"...but that's another story).
ReplyDeleteObviously posting the video was a big success, 150K views in a day, I'm sure must make someone happy.
The last time I visited Jalopnik was the day they posted the crap about the jackass guys and the accident that killed one of the stars. It was utterly distasteful and showed absolutely no desire to maintain some sort of ethical/journalistic integrity. I had been a longtime poster and managed to earn a 'star' after submitting material that was used in a feature piece. This was just a few days after Le Mans, and they had posted another article with wholly inaccurate information about where and when the major accidents had happened. In my attempts to correct the misinformation I apparently angered Mike Spinelli and found my 'starred' status revoked for criticizing their lack of fact-checking, and then the jackass article popped up and some fanboys were allowed to say whatever they wanted while my critical comments were buried.
ReplyDeleteOf course, they're being driven by pageviews and advertising dollars so they'll do whatever they can to get eyeballs on the splash page. They'll happily take IP from readers and rarely give proper credit. For several years it was my first view in the morning but I've found life still goes on without it. If you don't feel it right to compete with that kind of amoral journalism, don't try. You'll never win against them, and always lose against your own inner peace. My .02
I don't think it's possible to compete with Gawker for page views. Recently their editors criticized huffington post for having bought Autoblog or something, it's somewhat ironic that Huffington Post had almost the same headline about this crash. And neither are exactly known for covering MotoGP much...
ReplyDeleteBut, as you point out, they need to do that...like a shark.
You're taking the high road and keeping the point of discussing this tragedy dignified by avoiding the crash footage. Those who want to study it for whatever reason can find it elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteNice headline image of Simoncelli riding toward the sea above. A nice tribute.
Beautiful shot of him riding to the "sea of love"! I was a HUGE Simoncelli fan, and so far have refused to watch the footage. It is still too fresh, maybe in the future sometime. In these situation I always try to think about the family, would you like to know that a video of your loved one being circulated like that? Non of us though can understand what his family is going through, but one way out of grief is to concentrate on the good memories, not a brutal crash footage. Good Luck Axis!
ReplyDeleteWell, he was a public figure and this was public event. But it's a fine line between news coverage and huffington post style gawking... Maybe it's not even that fine a line actually.
ReplyDeleteAC, you're doing what you want.
ReplyDeleteSome folks get off on death, they have their sites for it... you don't need to follow the herd for "clicks."
Two Sundays in a row where my evenings were consumed by beer and sadness.
@AC you did the right thing not posting. From what I gather this is a place run by racers so in that tight brotherhood you don't profit off of another racers misfortune. Preserve the good moments in video, don't put a spotlight on the bad by posting those kind of videos.
ReplyDeleteKeep doing what you are doing.
As a Pedrosa fan, I never liked Marco. But this is a terrible loss for Motorcycling; as I don´t like them for example, I miss Raikkonen and Montoya on F1, and I was pretty sure I would miss Simoncelli if he left MotoGP. Now I know I will.
ReplyDeleteCiao Marco, we will remember you everyday the redlight turns off.
Very kind of you talking about the accident as you´ve done, just the same as in Wheldon´s case; you have won a follower here in Spain.