Shoya Tomizawa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tomizawa on the podium at the 2010 Qatar Grand Prix.
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Nationality | Japanese | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Asahi, Chiba, Japan |
December 10, 1990||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | September 5, 2010 Riccione, Italy |
(aged 19)||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bike number | 48 (retired in honour) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Website | shoya48.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Shoya Tomizawa (富沢 祥也 Tomizawa Shōya?) (December 10, 1990 – September 5, 2010) was a Japanese motorcycle racer. After a successful career in the All Japan Road Race Championship, he switched to MotoGP and competed in the 250cc class during 2009. In the 2010 season he rode in the newly created Moto2 class. Tomizawa won the first race of the new class, at Losail in Qatar, winning by nearly five seconds from Alex Debón and Jules Cluzel. Tomizawa died after sustaining cranial, thoracic and abdominal trauma at the San Marino Grand Prix.
Tomizawa was born in Asahi City, Chiba. He started pocket bike racing at age 3 in 1994, and moved on to minibikes around 2001. While attending Sousa High School in Chiba, majoring in English, he started to fully participate in the 125cc class of All Japan Road Race Championship and gained 2nd place for 2006 season. Rookie of the Year was an added bonus to start the fast-paced career.
Tomizawa appeared on both 125cc and 250cc class in the following year, finishing 3rd in the 125, and 8th in the 250 for 2007 season. In 2008, he focused on the 250cc class and finished 2nd with his eyes set for global challenge. Upon his high school graduation in March 2009, Tomizawa was recruited by new CIPMOTO-GP250 Team, ended his full-time, first international racing year in 17th place with best results at 10th twice at Motegi and Valencia respectively riding a Honda RS250R.