Memories of Toprak’s shocking crash: Bridewell’s Ducati a write-off

In 2024, BMW’s first World Championship title was almost not to be. Toprak Razgatlioglu suffered such a serious crash at Magny-Cours that he subsequently missed six races. The crash happened at the fast left-hand Turn 13 when his front wheel lost grip. Whilst his bike skidded off to the left in the direction of travel, the Turkish rider was sent straight ahead. Because the following right-hand bend is more than 90 degrees, a wall has been erected there to prevent spinning bikes from riders who have crashed from colliding with other riders. Razgatlioglu hit the end of this wall closest to the apex of the bend, where only car tyres had been placed as protection. The International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) subsequently imposed several requirements on Magny-Cours to improve track safety, including the installation of additional airfences. However, this does nothing to address the fundamental problem of there being a wall at the end of the run-off area.

Tommy Bridewell was very lucky in his crash during the first Superbike race on Saturday and got away with bruises to his arm, shoulder and ribs, whilst his Ducati was written off following the high-speed crash. When SPEEDWEEK.com popped into the Advocates team’s pit, the bike had already been completely stripped down by the mechanics – not much more than the engine is left in working order.

“Coming out of the corners before that, you’re accelerating from first to fifth gear and have the throttle wide open in that corner,” Bridewell explained in a one-on-one conversation. “Then you close the throttle in the corner and hit the brakes straight away. At that moment, you’re still leaning slightly to the left, so there’s always the risk that what happened to me will happen. A great many other riders take that risk every lap and are riding at the limit. I know the risks there; it can easily catch you out.”

Bridewell thinks the penalty is too harsh

The privateer from England qualified in a strong seventh position on the grid but was demoted to last place because, according to the FIM stewards, he had ignored yellow flags and failed to slow down accordingly. “I think the penalty is harsh; being moved back three places on the grid would have been fine with me,” said Bridewell. “I didn’t see any yellow flags and was only in the yellow sector for a millisecond. So I was dead last on the grid, but even so, I wouldn’t say I overran the bike afterwards. I had a plan for the race and knew I had to be patient. I realised that, at best, I could finish eighth or ninth. Nevertheless, I felt somewhat compelled to attack, because I knew just how strong we are this weekend.”

In Sunday morning’s sprint race, Bridewell will start from seventh on the grid. He’ll then need to finish in the top nine to secure a place in the first three rows for the second main race as well.

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