I won't go into details. I'll leave that for the CCS officials once they determine the time is right.
But my thoughts are with all those involved and affected. Tough times are to follow. Stay strong, we're all here for you.
A report has been released here.
http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=32537
We were there today. I felt like all the blood ran out of me when I heard about this horrible tragedy. I have a son out there racing and so do many other folks on this forum. Words do not come close to expressing this sorrow. May God bless the family of this rider and bring them eventual peace. All of us that pray will be praying for this family tonight.
My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to all the family and friends that are involed in this horrible accident.....
Thanks for posting up Travis...my thoughts and prayers to the rider, his family, friends...and everyone else involved your are no doubt in my prayers.
Rest in peace....
Thoughts and prayers sent.
RIP.
Thoughts and prayers to the riders' family. It is a tragedy what happened, and I think it is important that the family and friends of the downed rider and all involved know that we are all here for them.
Agreed. RIP Alex. My thoughts are with your family and everyone else involved. Please do not hesitate to call if you need anything.
RIP
RIP, my thoughts and prayers to his family.
In the name of the all members of the Team Euroracing, our deepest thoughts and prayers for the fellow young rider's family!
RIP Alex!
My Condolences and Deepest simpathy to the family and freinds. My families prayers and thoughts are with you..
Peter.
RIP. Prayers for the family
Rest in peace little brother racer.
A horrible day for the MARRC Crew. I don't care how tough you are, you never get used to this type of tradegy.
Thoughts and prayers for everyone affected.
Sad day for the sport. RIP Alex. Condolences to family and friends.
My prayers and thoughts are with you. Condolences to all freinds and family.
Godspeed Alex. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and everyone involved.
Terrible news
My heartfelt prayers and sympathies for Alex's family and loved-ones
RIP Alex..
Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.
Prayers to family & friends. A tough loss for sure. Wish I had some magic words to say......
So sad. :(
Here is a nice memorial I found in his honor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD2jwBanUyQ
My thoughts are with his family
ToddR
The news yesterday was (and is) absolutely heartbreaking. You could see it wash over the paddock when it happened.
My thoughts and prayers have been going out to Alex, his family, the riders involved and the crew that responded to the incident.
This is a short article from one of our local papers.
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Londonderry+mourns+teen+killed+in+motorcycle+racing+accident&articleId=d32a227b-d304-4edc-a287-24d8a6248ad0
The entire LRRS paddock, workers and Marshalls all, have lost a dear member of our extended family and will be in mourning this weekend. I join with everyone in offering my deepest condolences and any help possible to the Lyskawa family. May the love and memories sustain you through these awful times.
First and last thumbs up to you, Alex. May you ride on forever.
RIP Alex and my deepest condolences to family and friends.
please dont forget everyone else involved in this tragic racing accident. everyone involved in that crash will be affected forever. the other riders involved will have to live everyday reliving every thing that happened trying to think of something that could have been done differently to change the outcome. the fact is that they cant and they will have to live with that forever. they will need our prayers as well as this will be a life changing series of events for some of them.
rest in peace and Godspeed Alex
to everyone else please find a friend that you can talk to at length and repeatedly to help you through this terrible time of recovery and healing that you too must face.
No words can express the emotions and loss being experienced by Alex's family, his friends, those involved in the incident and the racing community. My deepest condolences to Alex's family and all involved; you are all in my thoughts and prayers.
Tough day...nothing I can say to express the sorrow my family and I feel for your family at this time of loss...My family will light a candle and say a prayer in Alex's honor this week in church...
I never met Alex, but have been reading all the posts left by friends, coaches and fellow competitors about him, and all I can say is he was one heck of a kid, you should be proud of what he accomplished in life with the short time he had, many of us would hope to touch half the people your son has in a lifetime...
God bless you Alex...
Dennis Espinosa
CCS AM #254
Godspeed little one, This is just unbelieveable, Loudon has lost 3 racers in barely over a year.........I will miss seeing you bounce around on your pogo stick. Peace, Love, and Prayers to the Lyskawa family, cyber hugs to all...
God bless the Lyskawa family. You are in our prayers. We have lost a son and brother. Our hearts are grieving. Rest in Peace Little Brother, Heaven is forever!
Prayer to the family and friends. R.I.P Little man
My heart hurts for the family, friends and racing family. Condolences to all involved. Ride like the wind...you are gone but will never be forgotten.
Sad to hear... More info
http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=32553
There are going to be those who will point the finger of accusation towards Bruce and all of us, proclaiming, "senseless death from a foolish hobby". But as we knelt in turn 3, I began to realize, these tracks we grid upon are sacred ground. There is nothing foolish or trite about a father, investing his love, time and resources into an adventure with his son. And there is no comparison to a hobby of collectibles or tossing a ball around, with the intensity, passion and fullness of life we experience in our racing family. In fact roadracing is not about speed, it is about defining the greatest challenges faced by men, and actually applying those definitions to our lives. Fear, courage, respect, sacrifice, victory, defeat, pain, suffering...Alex understood these, and because of his fathers love, was able to abundantly live these. Make no mistake, this indeed is a tragedy, but it is from a choice to live and experience life in a way that will never come to the masses that define life in terms of age, money, and possessions. It is not without great honor, much love, and deepest respect. The loss of a Son is the cornerstone of my faith, and as much as God watched His only Son die on a cross, Alex has eternal life. You are a good Father Bruce, peace and healing to your family, and courage for all of us to press on, and never forget.
well said chaplain, RIP little man
R.I.P Alex.
I was in the CCS 125Gp race. I did not restart the race. I know several others who also chose not to restart also. We did race the USGPRU race, I had tears in my eyes when I went through turn 3 on the warm up lap.
Always got A smile on my face seeing the school bus on the back of his leathers.
RIP Alex.
Extremely well said Art, you touch my heart!
Very sorry to hear this, prayers for his family, friends and all involved.
Chaplain 220 is right, these tracks are sacred ground.
R.I.P Alex.
My sincere condolences to the Lyskawa family.
Well said Art.
My heart goes out to Bruce and his wife. Foolish hobby indeed. I would have given my right arm for my father to have supported something I loved to do like Bruce did for Alex.
I am sure many of you out there feel the same. It is not about what Alex was doing but how he was doing it. How it was a family project. Too many parents are too involved with work and worshiping the dollar instead of being involved with their family and worshiping God.
Somehow I think the world would be a much better place if it were filled with more fathers like Bruce than if it were filled with the other type...
Wow - I have no words that can express how I feel. Thank you to Art for such a touching and insightful post.
Rest in peace buddy. Prayers for the family, friends and racers from the entire Linhart family.
George Linhart
I can only echo what BamBam and Art has said. Rest in peace, Alex, and my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family, as well as with the other riders involved in this tragic accident. Peace be unto you.
Quote from: bambam on May 27, 2008, 11:53:35 AM
please dont forget everyone else involved in this tragic racing accident. everyone involved in that crash will be affected forever. the other riders involved will have to live everyday reliving every thing that happened trying to think of something that could have been done differently to change the outcome. the fact is that they cant and they will have to live with that forever. they will need our prayers as well as this will be a life changing series of events for some of them.
rest in peace and Godspeed Alex
to everyone else please find a friend that you can talk to at length and repeatedly to help you through this terrible time of recovery and healing that you too must face.
The loss of Alex will be felt for many years to come. I never had the pleasure of meeting him but it is evident from all of the respectful and loving posts that he was a great person. I can not even begin to understand what the loss of a child is to a parent but it is important to lean on your friends and your faith. May God give you the strength to live each day knowing that Alex will always be in your hearts as well as the rest of the racing community. You will be in my prayers.
Quote from: rsvr10002001 on May 26, 2008, 08:21:05 PM
i can't agree more Travis, i was going around a slow rider during the second practice in the carousel and he got scared and turned out into me standing me up straight into the wall in 6. now i have 4 broken bones in my left foot. that is the end of my season. lets see if they can put any more people on the track. I have never seen so many accidents in practice. but at least ccs made money.
Condolences, RIP A.L. All such losses are horrible tragedies, but those of our youngest seem to be particularly poignant in their affect on us all.
I think that the other consideration besides # of bikes on the track has to be types of bikes and average demographics of their riders. If smaller bikes tend to attract smaller riders, then mixing them on a track simultaneously with big heavy bikes carrying heavier riders should be evaluated for any causal correlation with multi-bike accidents and accident damage severity, the latter regardless of whether or not there is any correlation found between multi-class events and amount of inter-class multi-bike incidents. In fact, the factors that correlate to damage severity should be further correlated to the various classes (for both machines and riders), and any correlation to increased accident damage severity in multi-bike inter-class incidents would indicate the need for a change in the rules governing the co-location of disparate classes on the grid.
I speak anecdotally here (having only 1 year of exposure to club racing, with a 7 month hiatus in the middle), but between this latest tragedy, the Connor LaFrance tragedy, and Rory Partin (the latter seemingly an outlier given the absence of class disparity between the accident's constituents, from what I understand), this seems to be a recrudescence of a previously remiss type of crash consequence. If there are any lessons that can be gleaned from this horrible string of tragedies, that if used to implement change might abate this despicable trend, then I'm certain that CCS and other club racing sanctioning bodies will take that learning, evaluate its utility, and apply it to the rules to make participation in this sport safer for all involved.
Big bikes, small bikes. Does not make a lot of difference. One of our veteran riders was badly injured (ended his racing) when he was struck by a F4 (80cc rs125) after a high side. If you take a solid front end shot you are going to get seriously hurt, does not matter what the size of the bike.
While useful and insightful, perhaps a different discussion could be created for the various topics and keep this one on track for the rider, his family, and everyone involved.
Quote from: Chris410 on May 30, 2008, 02:32:43 PM
While useful and insightful, perhaps a different discussion could be created for the various topics and keep this one on track for the rider, his family, and everyone involved.
+1
My condolences to all involved, especially the Lyskawa family.
Quote from: n2racing6 on May 29, 2008, 02:10:58 PM
Big bikes, small bikes. Does not make a lot of difference. One of our veteran riders was badly injured (ended his racing) when he was struck by a F4 (80cc rs125) after a high side. If you take a solid front end shot you are going to get seriously hurt, does not matter what the size of the bike.
I disagree, as I do not think that such an assessment can be made anecdotally; however, as someone else suggested in another post, perhaps this thread should focus on the rider, his family, and the other directly affected parties, rather than the debate of these safety issues.
My apologies for my part in any diversion of the focus from the rider and his family and friends.
Again, RIP Alex. My sincerest condolences to Alex's family and friends.
I am deeply touched by the outpouring of sympathy and love from this racing community. I would like to know what the rest of you racers and race families think about this idea. How about the CCS / ASRA event on or around the Memorial day weekend being known as the Alex Lyskawa Memorial event? From everything I have read about this young man,he was a pretty outstanding individual and touched a lot of lives in his short stay with us. What better way to preserve his memory than to commemorate an event in his honor ? Just a thought and I would be interested to know if anyone else thinks it would be a possibility. God bless and I will continue to pray for his family.
Art well said
2old2fat2slow mentions the word Community when describing racing and CCS, how true! As a father and son team that race, it was tough to watch my son Russ go back out, even harder on his mother. Bruce and his family suffered a terrible loss, I did have a brief chance to meet him and I am sure that Alex would have been back out on the track if this had happened to someone else, this did make it easier for me to send my son out, Their team demonstrated a love for this sport, a love and respect for each other that each of us can admire. The family and the team are in my prayers Alex rest in peace
Again, well said Art. I was in that race and it did scare me, a very sad day.
prayers for Alex and family