Rival team makes remarkable gesture to honour Luca Salvadori
Italian racer died in an accident in Germany
The Pistard team in Italy’s National Trophy 1000 has withdrawn from the final two rounds of the 2024 season to ensure the late Luca Salvadori is crowned champion.
The motorcycle racing world was stunned last weekend after popular racer and social media personality Salvadori was killed following an incident in Germany.
Salvadori was competing in the Frohberg round of the International Road Racing Championship when the fatal accident happened.
A long-time racer in the national scene in Italy, Salvadori also raced with Pramac in the MotoE World Championship last year.
His death has prompted an outpouring of tributes from the racing community.
However, the Pistard team - who fields Filippo Rovelli in the National Trophy 1000 - has made the biggest gesture towards Salvadori.
With two rounds remaining in the series for 2024, both team and rider - who were Salvadori’s direct competitors - have elected to withdraw in order to allow the late Italian to be crowned a posthumous champion.
Gianluca Galesi Milella took to his social media to say: “Something very bad happened, which I can hardly believe.
“Our direct rival as a team for four years, with [Roberto] Tamburini, [Gabriele] Giannini, and this year with Filippo Rovelli, has died.
“Luca was a great guy, good, sweet, nice, sunny. Those like me who had the pleasure and good fortune to meet him in person know who Luca was.
“The last time I saw him we also talked about this race he was supposed to run in Germany, he was undecided whether to go to save the bike. Instead he went and never came back.
“With Filippo Rovelli we talked about whether or not to go to Imola.
“We will not be present in either Imola or Cervesina to hold the races. We will only be present there to pay our respects to Luca.
“With this gesture we want to make sure that Luca, even though he is gone, from up there can celebrate the National Trophy 1000 title, which he had been chasing for so many years and came close to.
“This year that he could have won it because he had four wins out of six, unfortunately he will not be able to celebrate it.
“The only way for us to say goodbye to him is to not participate in the last two races so that he can win the title.”
