Photo: MotoGP
This past weekend was tragic for high-level motorcycle racing, with two competitors at the IOMTT dying in crashes, as well as Moto2 racer Luis Salom.
Salom’s crash came in Friday’s FP2 session. The 24-year-old rider fell in Turn 12, and passed away in hospital, despite attempts by surgeons to save him.
Salom (pictured above) during had nine Moto3 victories, and earned 25 podiums through his GP career. He’d finished third overall in the 2013 Moto3 series, and second overall the year before that.
The two fatalities at the Isle of Man TT came in separate incidents yesterday. Australian died in a crash in the Sure Sidecar 1 TT. His sidecar monkey, Benjamin Binns, escaped the crash with a fractured ankle. Beare was 27 years old.
The other fatality occurred in the evening practice session Saturday, when Paul Shoesmith, of Lancashire, died in a crash on the Sulby Straight. Details are limited on this crash, at this point.
Shoesmith, 50 years old, had been a fixture at the Mountain Course for years. In 2008 and 2009, he finished 8th and 11th, respectively, in the Lightweight TT, and earned 15th in 2011’s Superbike and Senior TT events. This year, he managed his fastest lap ever in the Superbike TT, a 125.896 mph effort, good for 29th place.
CMG wishes to pass along its condolences to the racers’ families, friends, and teammates in this sad moment.
There is another racing death at the IOM. It happened on Friday night about 8pm the vintage race just outside Castletown we were watching was red flagged and we later found out two riders had gone down also hitting two marshals. one marshal and the rider who died were flown to Liverpool hospital where the rider died. The other rider and marshal were taken to IOM hospital, we did not hear any more information.