EXCLUSIVE - Joan Mir: “I was in an ICU in 2019, we should have made a documentary!”
“For sure what Toprak did was fantastic”
One rider who particularly appreciates Toprak Razgatlioglu's 'fantastic' achievement in overcoming a serious lung injury to win last year’s WorldSBK title is former Red Bull Rookies rival Joan Mir.
It’s almost a forgotten moment in Mir’s career, but the future MotoGP champion was hospitalised during his rookie premier-class season after a huge testing accident at Brno in August 2019.
A technical failure caused Mir to lose control of his Suzuki into Turn 1 at 300km/h, the resulting accident sending his GSX-RR over the trackside barriers while ambulances rushed to attend to Mir.
Mir was airlifted to a local hospital where a ‘pulmonary contusion’ to his lungs was diagnosed. Upon returning to Spain, he was transferred directly to another hospital in Barcelona for further treatment.
“I was in the ICU. I remember that after one week, I started to stand up. It took that long,” Mir, now a factory Honda rider, told Crash.net.
“The thing is we didn't make a lot of media, the cameras were not filming what really happened.
"We didn't make a documentary! But that doesn't mean it was not hard!” he smiled.
After missing two events, Mir returned to MotoGP action and later claimed the best result of his rookie season with fifth place at Phillip Island.
But the injury took a long time to fully heal, physically and mentally.
“It was very hard,” he continued. “I lost all my strength because when you are one-two weeks in [hospital], you stop doing everything, you lose weight.
“It was also very hard to get back on the bike, because my [accident] was a mechanical problem.
“So then you have to trust the bike again. It was a very difficult challenge.”
“After two months there was still some blood”
“After two months there was still some blood and some air bubbles in the lungs.
“It was hard. A very, very nasty crash. Probably one of the worst I would say that I’ve seen.
“We should have made a documentary [to record it all]! But when you are living through it, everything happens so fast.
“It’s only when you look back that you realise the difficulty.”
Yet just one season later, Mir was crowned the 2020 MotoGP champion.
“A year later, that's fantastic,” he grinned.
Also ‘fantastic’ was Razgatlioglu's achievement last year.
The Turkish star was romping towards BMW’s first WorldSBK crown when he suffered a collapsed lung in a brutal accident with a barrier at Magny-Cours, ending a 13-race win streak and forcing him out of two rounds.
However, Razgatlioglu returned to claim the title.
“For sure what Toprak did was fantastic, to get the title with all that extra difficultly," said Mir.
"So I really congratulate him. He was the strongest last season.
“I'm very happy for him. We’ve known each other since the Rookies Cup in 2014 and he's a nice guy.”
Reigning MotoGP champion Jorge Martin won the 2014 Rookies Cup from Mir, with Razgatlioglu taking a race win on his way to sixth.
Martin joined the Moto3 world championship in 2015, when Mir won races in the CEV Junior series and made his GP debut as a wild-card.
Meanwhile, Razgatlioglu began a different path, eventually leading to double World Superbike title glory, by winning the European Superstock 600 Championship.
Razgatlioglu continues to be intermittently linked with MotoGP and, perhaps if BMW commits to the premier class, could again find himself on the grid alongside Martin and Mir once again.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
