MotoGP World Championship Honda Rider Marco Simoncelli Dies in Tragic Accident at Malaysian Grand Prix

Marco Simoncelli is shown heading back onto the track at the 4th Annual RedBull Indianapolis MotoGP round during the free practice 3 session of the weekend.  The #58 San Carlo Honda Gresini rider does some stretching on his RC212V on the pit out section before re-entering the track in route to a 4th place time in the session, .763 seconds behind Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner.  Simoncelli would go on to qualify 7th, but would finish the race the next day in the 12th position after suffering tire issues with his Bridgestone tires in the intense heat suffered in Indy over the weekend's events.


With regret and sadness we must report the tragic death of the former 250cc World Champion, who was fatally injured in a crash during the opening laps of the Shell Advance Malaysian Grand Prix round of the MotoGP World Championship earlier today.  Simoncelli crashed and was struck on the track while contesting round 17 of the 2011 season championship.


RIP Marco 'Super Sic' Simoncelli, the '08 250cc World Champion.  You will be missed!
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MotoGP Race Direction held a press conference at the Malaysian circuit to release information concerning the tragic death of Honda San Carlo Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli earlier today. You can read about their statements here courtesy of MotoGP.com:

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2011/Race+Direction+press+conference+Simoncelli+Sepang

You can read all of the offical press releases from Honda, Bridgestone and other teams from the MotoGP World Championship here thanks to RoadRacingWorld.com:

http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=46456

David Emmett's MotoMatters.com has this release about the loss of former 250cc World Champion Marco Simoncelli today:

http://motomatters.com/news/2011/10/23/official_motogp_press_release_on_death_o.html

And Cycle News.com's Henny Ray Abrams filed this story of the death of Marco Simoncelli at the Malaysian circuit earlier today:

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2011/10/23/sepang-motogp-race-canceled/
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Brno MotoGP Round Sees Marco Simoncelli Get His Maiden MotoGP Podium

The San Carlo Gresini Honda RC212Vs of Marco Melandri #33 and Marco Simoncelli #58 are shown in various states of diplay and readiness at the 3rd Annual Indianapolis RedBull MotoGP round in August of 2010.  With the team's direct affiliation with the factory Repsol Honda squad (that operates as a satellite team), the team's garages are side-by-side at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the down-time on track.  However, there is no down-time in the paddock area as team techs work about the garages in preparation for the weekend's events.


Marco 'Super Sic' Simoncelli finally accomplished this last weekend what everyone thought he would do all along, it just took a few more rounds to keep his footing underneath him in order to do so.  Simoncelli got his first MotoGP podium over the weekend at the Czech Republic Grand Prix, following winner Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso home to take the 3rd spot on the box in Brno. 

Having expected to get his first podium almost all year long in his 2nd full year in the premier road racing series in the world, Super Sic has been in contention in no fewer then 6 of the already run 11 events on the series calendar.  But mistakes and overly aggressive riding have cost him to crash out in four of those events (and having to serve a pass-through penalty in another) prematurely ending his quest to stand on the box with the other greats of the MotoGP World Championship.

This is great news for fans of Boris Said's brother, as the series heads to round 12 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for the 4th Annual RedBull Indianapolis MotoGP round on August 26-28.  With the San Carlo Honda rider now having his cherry broken, and also being rumored to be brought under the Repsol  Honda tent for the 2012 season, Simoncelli should again be in top form at the World Capital of Racing come the end of the month.  Here's hoping things keep going the right way for the popular Italian rider.
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Here are a few stories and gallery links from this weekend's Brno round 11 of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship Series.

Team San Carlo Honda Gresini has this press release on Super Sic's virgin podium appearance at the Brno MotoGP round on August 14:

http://www.gresiniracing.com/?lang=eng&IDC=2

BikeSportNews.com has this article about Marco's appearance on the podium at the Brno MotoGP round:

http://www.bikesportnews.com/news-detail.cfm?newstitle=MotoGP-Brno:-Pressure-is-off-for-debut-podium-man-Simoncelli&newsid=5316

Autosport.com also has another article about Boris Said's brothers first MotoGP podium at Brno over the weekend:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93763

GPUpdate.net has this piece on Marco's 3rd place finish at Brno from Sunday:

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/motogp-news/266085/simoncelli-we-never-lost-our-faith/

And last but not least, GPUpdate.net has this gallery of pics from round 11 of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship at the Czech Republic Grand Prix:

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/photo-galleries/7469/2011-czech-republic-motogp-grand-prix-sunday/
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Cycle News.com's Digital Edition has this report of the Czech Republic MotoGP round, filed by Michael Scott:

http://cyclenews.coverleaf.com/cyclenews/20110816#pg39
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MotoGP Sepang Test Ends With Marco Simoncelli On Top of The Boards

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Marco Simoncelli's San Carlo Gresini Honda Racing RC212V sits on display outside the team's garages during the Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP Weekend in August of 2010. The '08 250CC World Champion finished his rookie year in the premier MotoGP Series in the 8th position in the overall standings, and had a great, consistent finish to the season. Throughout the 18 race season, the Honda satellite rider only suffered two DNFs, and finished second in the running for Rookie of the Year to Ben Spies on his Tech 3 Monster Energy Yamaha.
After having ridden a two-stroke based racing motorcycle for years, his overall transition to the more powerful and heavier four-stroke class has shown some great strides after suffering early season teething problems. Setting fast time in the first official test of the season can't be a bad thing for the personable Italian, either.
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Marco Simoncelli lurked around in the top five of testing times during the three day test held at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia last week, but he knew when to go for the gusto on the closing day to set fastest overall time for the first official test of the year in the run for the 2011 MotoGP World Championship. Riding his San Carlo Gresini Honda, the 'Big Hair' rider bested new Repsol Honda teamster Casey Stoner (and his new team mates Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso) in setting the fastest time of the test on the closing day. Eight riders finished the test within .777 seconds of one another, and 10 within just over a second of one another.

The second test of the year will see the best road racers in the world return to Sepang on February 22-24 and the final test will be held at night in Qatar on March 13-14, several days before the first round of the season on the Losail Circuit in Doha on March 17-20. With this being the last season for the 800s before the move back to 990s for the 2012 season, these close test times at least help to show some promise of a year of good, competitive racing in the MotoGP Series.

Here's the official wrap up for the 3-day Sepang MotoGP test, thanks to the great folks at Cycle News.com:

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2011/02/03/simoncelli-leads-honda-sweep-in-sepang

Courtesy of Ultimate Motorcycling.com comes this release (with some rider quotes) about the first official test for the 2011 MotoGP World Championship Series season:

http://www.ultimatemotorcycling.com/2011-sepang-motogp-test-results-day-3
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Marco Simoncelli Puts Aprilia on the Podium in WSBK R2 at Imola

You are looking at some more shots of reigning World 250GP Champion Marco Simoncelli and his Team Gilera bikes, team and crew from the Indy round of the MotoGP Championship.

Simoncelli, who as reported in yesterday's post had qualified 8th in his maiden outing on a diesel Aprilia in Imola, pulled off a super 3rd place finish today in the 2nd of 2 races at the WSBK round in Imola, Italy. After binning it while running in the top 5 during the first race, Marco came back for a hard fought and worthy final step on the podium, all the while this being his first outing in race conditions on a diesel after racing for years in the European series on a 2 stroke. Great job Marco! Take a bow!!!

Reigning 250GP World Champion Marco Simoncelli Makes WSBK Debut in Superpole at Imola on the Aprilia

Some of you that follow auto racing, and yes, other then NASCrash, might be looking at

the pictures above and thinking to yourself, 'hmmmmmmm, I didn't know that Boris Said

had a younger brother.' Well, to my knowledge, he doesn't, but to those who follow

the MotoGP World Championships, and are familiar with the current stock of 250GP riders,

you WILL recognize reigning 250GP World Champion Marco Simoncelli in the above shots

along with his team and crewmen from Team Gilera.

Having raced in the European series in originally the 125GP class, and for the last 3-4 years

in the 250GP class, Marco did some testing this last week for the Aprilia World Superbike

Team, and is running the Imola round of WSBK this w/e. He did so well on his initial race

ride on the bike that he made the Superpole cutoff and into the 3rd and final round to

qualify in his maiden WSBK race in the 8th slot, outside of row 2. Quite impressive for

anyone who hasn't raced the diesels on a regular basis, and has been tenured in the soon-

to-be non-existent ring ding classes for the last 6-7 years +/-. Not to mention carrying

the weight of that 'fro around, he must be giving up a couple of kilos in weight in hair alone!

Here are the results of Superpole 3 in Imola that wrapped up a couple of hours before this post,

and after a link to where you can follow the schedule and remaining races in Italy through tomorrow. Keep in mind that Italy is +6 hours to Eastern Daylight Time in America, and in

global terms is GMT+2. Enjoy! Go get 'em Marco!

http://sbk.perugiatiming.com/pdf_frame.asp?p_Round=ITA2&p_Anno=2009&p_Manifestazione=12&p_Gara=01&p_Sessione=Q6A&p_Stampa=RIE

http://www.worldsbk.com/it/news/ultime-news/264.html

http://www.worldsbk.com/livetiming/

The shots above were taken of Marco and crew in the paddock area during the Indy round

of the MotoGP World Championships at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the World Capitol of

Racing, on August 28, 2009. He also won the 250GP main event that w/e on the #58 bike as shown.

You can also find out more about Marco here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Simoncelli

http://www.marcosimoncelli.it/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marco-Simoncelli/20002058251

http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/152597/1/marco_simoncelli_to_make_wsbk_debut_at_imola.html

They Had a Little Road Race in Indy Last W/E.....

...and you might have already heard a little something about it.

For the second year, the great folks at the Indianapolis Motor

Speedway hosted the circus from MotoGP and put on one heck

of a show.

I could get into all the details--Nicky Hayden's #69 Ducati, without the

special paint he ran in the finals, Marco Simoncelli the reigning 250 GP

World Champion--think Boris Said for the hairdo--the Playboy-sponsored

Honda of Randy DuPuniet, and the KTM 125's sponsored by RedBull, or Colin

Edwards' Monster Energy sponsored Tech III Yamaha--but I won't. You can read all that good, technically inspired and professionally written

stuff in the links on the left side of the column or by going to http://www.motogp.com/ or http://www.motogpmatters.com/ or any number of other great sites.

I thought it would be nice to just sit back and enjoy the view.......so enjoy the view!

And thanks for stopping by. Love to have ya!