Simocelli

God Bless

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Barry Russell

Photo: the light fading at Sepang as we said goodbye to Marco Simoncelli

MotoGP lost one of its favourite characters today. In just his second season in the premier class, 24 year-old Marco Simoncelli always presented a threat to the established ‘Aliens’. In the process he extended the hot-headed notoriety he had earned in the junior classes, but this was generally seen as reflection of his will to win.

Simoncelli’s charm and self-effacing nature ensured that even his critics found it impossible to stay mad with him and his much anticipated first MotoGP win would have been hugely popular. He wore his big heart on his sleeve and his obvious love of racing motorcycles for a living drew ever increasing numbers of fans in a way that only his friend Valentino Rossi could beat.

As everyone’s worst fears were confirmed this afternoon, riders and mechanics wept openly in the paddock and many sat slumped on the pit wall while they tried to come to terms with the news. On the other side of the track spectators were standing around in disbelief or hugging each other and sobbing.

During the morning I had been discussing with some of my Indonesian friends about why MotoGP is so popular in their country. One them, Ucha, told me, “I respect and admire the riders so much because they put themselves in danger every time they race in order to entertain us.”

Nobody on the current MotoGP grid gave more of himself to entertain us than Marco Simoncelli and I hope that the love and sympathy I saw at Sepang today and pouring from my social media feeds will console and strengthen his family in their moment of loss.

God speed, Marco.


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Author Mark Gardiner: Make Noise To Memorialize Marco Simoncelli At 10:30 a.m. Sunday

Nov 04, 2011, ©Copyright 2011, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

©Copyright 2011, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail:

A couple of days ago, after I read Paolo Simoncelli (Marco's dad) comment that Marco would rather have a minute of all the MotoGP bikes at Valencia revving their motors than a minute of silence, something occurred to me...

What if we all did that, all around the world? Something a little less than a minute of silence; say, 58 seconds. And something a lot more (noisy).

At first, I thought we should all do it at exactly the same time, but the more I thought about it, I realized that 10:30 a.m. in Valencia is the crack of dawn on the west coast of the U.S., and late at night in Japan. And, I liked the idea of people doing it at 10:30 in their own time zone, creating a 'wave' that would begin about 12 hours before the Valencia rev-up, way out in the western Pacific, and end about 12 hours later in Hawaii. We'd literally wave good-bye.

I wrote a blog post to that effect, and it generated a few hundred extra hits that first day. Then, in the next 24 hours, it generated thousands of hits. Someone coined a hashmark, #MakeNoiseForMarcoSunday, on Twitter. I created a Facebook group with the same name. Now, the question is, can we create a global event in the 3 days (roughly) we have before the official Valencia memorial?

Wouldn't it be great if, all around the world, motorcyclists stopped what they were doing at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, and revved up their bikes? If they make a video of it, or just want to comment about it, they can do so on the #MakeNoiseForMarcoSunday Facebook group.

Please help to make it happen! Popularize #MakeNoiseForMarcoSunday on your blog, website, Twitter, bathroom wall,.. anywhere you can. For more information, people can check my blog (www.bikewriter.com) or search #MakeNoiseForMarcoSunday on Facebook.

I have this idea that Marco -- who had often been a divisive figure in racing, although he was widely popular among fans -- could be a unifying figure in the wider community of motorcyclists.

Thanks.

Mark Gardiner
Kansas City, Missouri
 
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