MOSCOW, July 22 (R-Sport) – The Moscow Raceway track’s design was not a factor in the death of superbike rider Andrea Antonelli during a race Sunday, the event’s promoter told R-Sport on Monday.
The 25-year-old was killed when he fell on the Russian track’s long back straight in extremely wet conditions and was struck at the base of the skull by a following bike. He was given urgent medical treatment but died of his injuries 40 minutes later.
Antonelli’s death is the first at the Moscow Raceway, which opened last year and was hosting Superbike World Championship racing for the second time.
“The incident had no connection whatsoever to the track configuration,” said Dmitry Dyachenko, a spokesman for Yakhnich Motorsport, the promoter for the Russian round of the championship. “The racer was on a straight, fell and slid across the asphalt surface, and from then on it’s just tragic circumstances.”
Dyachenko compared Antonelli’s death to the crash that claimed the life of another Italian motorbike racer, Marco Simoncelli, in dry conditions at a MotoGP race in Malaysia in 2011. “That’s motorbike racing,” Dyachenko said.
He added that the Moscow Raceway was considered the “the best on the Superbike World Championship calendar for competitions in wet conditions” and that the track had excellent drainage.
Superbike rider Marco Melandri, who competed at the Moscow Raceway on the day Antonelli died, has blamed race control for allowing the fatal race to start, saying that conditions were so wet as to be dangerous.
“I hope that this horrible tragedy serves to open everyone’s eyes. Riders must be better protected,” he was quoted as saying by Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper on Sunday.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, an agency often compared to the FBI, has said it is examining the circumstances surrounding Antonelli’s death.
