......48

Shoya Tomizawa - Qatar 2010

Racing is dangerous. The week before 'we" lost the lovely Peter Lenz at Indianapolis, the sadness continued at Misano when "we" lost Shoya Tomizawa.  It was too much really.  When there's a death at a race track the air changes, the velocity at which things happen slows down to where you feel you're in some weird time warp. We're made painfully aware in a very short space of time how fragile life is.  For me, I think it wasn't a bad idea not to have a memorial at the race track.  Racing is about going forward, an optimistic sport where one is always looking to get to the front to win.  Everyone who enters or partakes in this sport, or any motorsport where high speed and hard objectives fly together knows the risks.

As I mentioned way back when the incident happened (on this blog).  I met Shoya when I had to shoot some images for Motorcycle Racer Magazine.  Polite, kind and with a permagrin on his face.  Although I can't say I knew him well, but from that point onwards there was always a good morning and a nod when you passed him in the paddock.  Anyways, if someone comes across this post then it's worth remembering that it's always a good point to leave people with good memories of oneself, when that day comes it would be nice to know that people missed "you" in the same way as people miss this talented and rather pleasant young man.