Total shit sandwich. I rode in the procession and riding through town that day it was a helmet full of tears seeing the whole entire town outside paying tribute to him.
My competition number is 619, which were “both” of his competition numbers, combined as my simple tribute. Godspeed.
The only way I wish that pass could have panned out differently is if Nicky caught more air off that kerb.
Fuck it doesn’t feel like 3 years already. I still remember we had a trip planned to California that year and mixed in was the laguna seca wsbk round to finish our vacation off. I had never been to a world level race before and was super excited for not only getting to attend a wsbk race but also to watch Nicky racing on the world stage in person. When news of the accident first came out, I was bummed and obviously hoping he’d be ok. Selfishly I also hoped he’d be back in time for the laguna race. Surely it couldn’t be that bad. We all know motorcycle racers are effectively bulletproof, right? Especially at that level. Then as more details began to emerge it started becoming clear that it was more serious than I think a lot of us realized (or at least more than I realized). And before long, whether he would race again that year was no longer even a thought, just hope that he would be ok. I can say with 100% honesty his death is the only death of someone I didn’t know personally that really hit hard. Sure we lose people in the racing community and I feel awful for them and their family’s as it is a tragedy every time, whether it was an on track incident or off. But his felt like losing someone I knew personally. I still remember attending the race that year and Toni Elias winning race 1 as we watched from the tower outside T1. After rolling through the t2/3 area he pulls off the track and goes to grab a big #69 flag held by a spectator and proceeds to do a full lap waving that flag. Very reminiscent of Nicky’s famous victory lap with the American flag years prior. To say it put a lump in my throat may be an understatement. It’s definitely something I’ll never forget. Side note: that’s the day I become a fan of Toni. I never really had a reason to dislike him before aside from him being a Spaniard that came over here, taking our championships. His demeanor often amused me and he seemed like a decent enough dude but I couldn’t cheer for him while he was roughing up all our home grown boys. But that changed that day. Ugh I’m rambling. But this one still gets to me, much like I know it does a lot of other people in this community. Fucking shame. RIP Nicky. You touched more lives than you’ll ever know.
You're just saying all the things we are all thinking. And agreed, other than someone I knew well I've never had a death of someone affect me like it did when he passed.
Miss the hell outta that guy. No sport could've asked for a better ambassador. Always smiling and always happy to do the best in any situation.
Rest In Peace to the last great American to swing a leg over a GP bike and bring it home for the good old USA! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
