In the street of San Gregorio Armeno in Naples you can find the traditional “mercatino dei pastori” (shepherds’ market) where detailed models of creche figures have been handcrafted by skillful artists to the delight of Italians and visitors from around the world.

The statuettes aren’t restricted to the classical figures of the Nativity scene, but also includes tributes to contemporary figures, which can range from famous politicians (Berlusconi, Sarkozy, Merkel, Obama, even Bin Laden and Gaddafi have their own figurines), British royalty, sport stars, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and the late Steve Jobs have also been crafted and now the late Marco Simoncelli has also been added to the long list.

This 28cm high terracotta figurine was created by Genni Di Virgilio, whose family has been making nativity statuettes and ornate creches since 1830. “It’s a tribute to this great champion, not only on the track but also in his private life. We will miss his smile most of all, his desire to live and win,” said Di Virgilio.

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Coriano, Marco Simoncelli’s small home town has decided to dedicate a statue to the late GP rider “to keep alive the memory of the great motorcycle champion who died tragically on Sunday October 23rd during the Malaysian GP, a memorial that can be a reference point for anyone who wishes to leave a flower or a thought” reads a note from City Hall. ”

Since the day of his death, the staircase that connects the church to Via Garibaldi has become the de facto symbol of his memory, a place where flowers and notes are left daily, and the city council has identified an area on the left side of the first flight of stairs as a place where to erect the monument, which will be a tangible sign of the affection shown to him by his fans and the citizens of Coriano “.

The Coriano sports hall has also been dedicated to Simoncelli.

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Their are dozens of initiatives honouring the late Marco Simoncelli in Italy, and the latest involves this Iranian leopard cub born at Rome’s Bio Park Zoo last September.

The cub has now been named ‘Sic’ after the Bio Park initiated the usual - let’s give the cub a name - via web and the only rule was the name had to start with an ‘S’ as mommy leopard is called Silki.

The web community answered en masse and Sic’s name was the most suggested over others like Sky, Sugar and Stain.

Paolo Giuntarelli, president of the Rome Bio Park foundation said, “We’re happy that the web community has chosen the champion’s name. The comments that accompanied the name all indicated the joy and happiness that characterized Simoncelli.”

Source | ilrestodelcarlino.it

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The Automobile Club of Milano and the Autodromo of Monza circuit have decided together with Marco Simoncelli’s family to dedicate the upcoming Monza Masters Rally Show to the late Italian rider.

Simoncelli was also passionate about rally racing and had taken part in several editions of the Monza show and just last September he had tried out the official Ford Fiesta WRC car with Mikko Hirovonen.

The event that takes place from November 25 – 27 - and the Master Show takes place on Sunday afternoon -will see the presence of MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso, rally champions like Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sordo and 24 Hours of Le Mans driver Dindo Capello and Max Papis who will be driving a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota Camry.

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‘Dibo’and ‘casino’ are now two more words that non Italian racing fans have been forced to learn over these past two weeks and even if seems like more grief porn, I thought that it would be nice to translate and post Kate Fretti’s words to the hundred of thousands of fans, that with their words and heartfelt partecipation have helped Kate and the Simoncelli’s try to get through this very difficult moment.

Here’s what she wrote on Simoncelli’s Facebook page:

Hello … my name is Kate … .. I am, I was Marco’s girlfriend.
Until 13 days ago, I used to update his website and his fanpage on Facebook, with the help of the guys from Retina.
Like many of us, Marco was fascinated by of the most popular social network … he liked reading your comments a lot after we published a post or a photo or post-race press release .. and spent his time to studying the growing number of fans on his page.

He enjoyed it a lot when on race weekend saw the rising number of Likes. I remember the first Saturday of Malaysia he told me he had win in order to have more fans. Well .. he was wrong, that was not the only way. From the 8,000 we were on that Saturday afternoon, we are now more than 500,000.

By mail, email, Facebook, you’ve have written to me and Sic’s family … and initially I thought that words like: “Your pain is our” were only words of circumstance. But then you continued to write, to call us at home, you came to Coriano in hundreds .. we have shaken hands, hugged, whispered in our ears, you cried with us and your love has been a comfort and is still is helping us not feel alone. To my amazement, I realized that the world is still beautiful and solidarity among people still exsists …. And I can not help but thank you on behalf of myself and Marco’s family.

Continue reading: Kate writes: "DIOBO' che casino avete fatto!"

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Ducati didn’t preview this weekend’s Valencia GP with the usual comments from Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden, instead they had team manager Vittoriano Guareschi doing the talking, and the Italian team is paying tribute to Marco Simoncelli in their own personal way with this touching dedication on all their trucks - Sic nei ns cuori (Sic in our hearts).

Valentino Rossi will debut a special helmet design in memory of Simoncelli, while Andrea Dovizioso will have #58 close to his heart on his leathers and Loris Capirossi in his final MotoGP weekend before he retires, will be running his Pramac Ducati with #58 plate (he was wearing a black arm band with #58 at the pre-event press conference) and no doubt there’ll be other riders, especially the Italians who will have tribute helmets and Sic’s number on their leathers and bike liveries.

“The Valencia Grand Prix will have a different atmosphere than normal because we’ve been thinking about Marco since Malaysia. He’ll be with us in Spain and beyond, but I think there will also be positive feelings in the paddock, because for Marco, racing equalled happiness, which is a concept that I understand very well,” said Guareschi.

Photo source | davidebrivio@twitter.com

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A petition had been started to have the Misano World circuit named after Marco Simoncelli, but the president of the circuit said it was too soon to be making decisions about the matter, as they have in the past rejected renaming the track after Renzo Pasolini, while Daijiro Kato who resided in the area has the entrance road leading to the track named after him.

Now a little less than two weeks after Simoncelli’s untimely death, the Santamonica SpA who owns the Italian circuit, held a meeting yesterday evening and came to the unanimous decision to accept the outpour of requests and dedicate the Misano World circuit to Marco Simoncelli.

“We owe it to the memory of Sic, to his family and to the hundreds of thousands of fans who admired his courage and humanity, and to the many sports and media personalities that gave voice to this spontaneous and moving request. We are happy and proud to associate Misano with Marco Simoncelli, a champion in sport and in life,” said Luca Colaiacovo, CEO of Santamonica SpA.

The circuit owners have also made a commitment not to use Simoncelli’s name in any marketing and sales initiatives related to the Misano Circuit.

Source | eurosport.it via motoblog.it

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While the Ricardo Tormo circuit is paying their respects to the late Marco Simoncelli by placing a 16mt long and 1.60mt high mural at the entrance to the circuit so fans and paddock personnel can write their own personal tribute messages to the Gresini rider, which will then be given to Fausto Gresini, Dorna’s event manager Javier Alonso has confirmed that on Sunday, before the start of 125cc race (the last ever before switching to Moto3), all three racing categories will rev their engines for a minute of ‘casino’ as requested by Paolo Simoncelli.

As the racing community is saying good-by to one of their own, others like Italian street artist Michele “Enko” Costa has prepared his own personal murale to honour Simoncelli.

The 11mt mural is located at Riccione near a very busy underpass that connects Viale Emilia to viale Verdi at the Viale Portovenere intersection.

Costa started drawing the murale the day before Simoncelli’s funeral and features the late rider, his racing number and helmet, leaving a white space where fans who pass by can write their tributes to Super Sic.

Hopefully the city of Riccione will consider this art and not a crime and not paint over the whole thing in their fight against graffiti artists.

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Many call it mourning sickness whenever someone famous dies, but in this case we call it respect and this is how more than 1,500 Czech fans paid their respect to Marco Simoncelli last Sunday at Brno circuit.

Simoncelli got his first ever MotoGP podium at Brno just last August, finishing third and the tribute began at 2pm - the same time that MotoGP races start - with a minute of silence followed by the Italian national antham, before these fantastic racing fans set off for a memorial ride around the Czech circuit to honour the late Italian rider.

Another video of the tribute after the jump.

Continue reading: Czech fans pay tribute to Marco Simoncelli at Brno (w/videos)

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Valentino Rossi’s inseparable buddy Uccio has asked via Twitter for ideas on how Valentino could pay tribute to his late friend Marco Simoncelli in the upcoming MotoGP season finale at Valencia.

This is just one idea of the ideas on how they could change the livery of the GP11 that a fan posted on a Facebook page. I like it, how about you guys?

Source | sportmediaset.it

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Jorge Lorenzo has hit out at his father Chicho, after the elder Lorenzo decided to make public his feelings regarding Marco Simoncelli talent during the most inopportune moment, the day of the Italian rider’s funeral.

Lorenzo who had several disputes with Simoncelli earlier in the year over the Gresini rider’s riding style and aggressiveness, was at Simoncelli’s funeral yesterday to pay his respects and was hugged by a forgiving Paolo Simoncelli, which laid to rest any words and rivalry that had previously happened. Lorenzo also wrote these touching words in the memorial guest book, “I will miss you forever, I’m sorry that we had words,” which moved everyone who read them.

Unfortunately Lorenzo returned home to Spain to discover that his father has written, “Simoncelli wasn’t mentally prepared to race. To race at these levels you also have to train mentally. And he crashed in a similar manner several times before.”

A very angry and shocked Lorenzo, who has had problems with his father in the past Tweeted: I’d like to thank the fans for the reception they gave me which makes me even more ashamed of my father’s comments which are out of line. I hope nobody thinks that I agree with what he says, because this could unfortunately have happened to any of us. “

Souce | as.com

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Hoodies and jeans, and dozens of red ballons with his racing #58 and his name, were released in the air as an immense and silent crowd gathered to say good-bye to Marco Simoncelli at his home town of Coriano today.

A very composed and dignified Simoncelli family, Paolo, Rosella, daughter Martina, who bares an amazing resemblance to her older brother, and long time girlfriend Kate Fretti, comforted others around them.

Also waiting to say good-bye was the Gresini team in its entirety, as was Yamaha’s and Ducati’s. Valentino Rossi, Loris Capirossi and wife Ingrid, Andrea Dovizioso, Mattia Pasini, Simone Corsi, Jorge Lorenzo, Raffaele De Rosa, Andrea Iannone, Manuel Poggiali, Sete Gibernau, Lucio Cecchinello, Filippo Preziosi, Claudio Domenicali, Giacomo Agostini, Livio Suppo, Shuhei Nakamoto, Franco Uncini, Vittoriano Guareschi, Gianfranco Guareschi, Mauro Sanchini, team mate Hiroshi Aoyama, Michele Pirro, Alex de Angelis, Tony Cairoli, Marco Melandri, Randy de Puniet, Giacomo Agostini, FIM president Vito Ippolito, IMF President Paolo Sesti, Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, Dr. Claudio Costa, Alberto Tomba, the Italian Minister of Sport Giorgia Meloni, local authorities and Simoncelli’s two motorcycles, his 2008 World Champion Aprilia 250cc and his Honda RC212V, which were placed on either side of the casket that was covered with white flowers and his AGV helmet.

The religious ceremony was officiated by the bishop of Rimini Francesco Lambiasi, who added to his homily “Marco, teach the angels to wheelie.”

Continue reading: Family, friends and fans say final good-bye to Marco Simoncelli

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