Marco Simoncelli 125cc (2002-2005) What was 125cc? Grand Prix Did he win any races in this bracket? He ended in 11th place in the final standings with 79 points. What was his best finish? He ended in 11th place in the final standings with 79 points.
Who were his team members?
Who were Simoncelli's team members?
After a successful European 125cc campaign, in August 2002, Simoncelli made his first Grand Prix appearance with Matteoni Racing, replacing Czech rider Jaroslav Hules who stepped up to the 250cc class. Simoncelli, riding an Aprilia bike with the number 37, managed to finish in 27th place in his first race at Brno. In the following race at Estoril, he scored his first championship points by finishing in 13th place. However, he failed to score any points in the next four races and finished the season with three points from six races. He continued with the Matteoni Racing Team for his first full season in 2003. That season, he also started to use the iconic number 58 on his bike. He managed to score points in six races with a best result of fourth at Valencia, the last race of the season. Overall, he scored 31 points and ranked 21st in the final championship standings. In the 2004 season, Simoncelli switched to WorldwideRace team under the name of Rauch Bravo, which also run an Aprilia bike. In the second race of the season at Jerez, Simoncelli recorded his first pole position. In the race, which was held in wet conditions, Simoncelli was in second place when race leader Casey Stoner crashed out with three laps remaining, handing Simoncelli his first victory. However, the victory was his only podium finish for the season. He managed to score points in seven other races with a best result of sixth. He ended in 11th place in the final standings with 79 points. Simoncelli continued to ride for WorldwideRace in 2005, this time under the Nocable.it Race banner. In the opening race at Jerez, he qualified first and then won the race for his second successive win at Jerez. Despite failing to add another win that season, Simoncelli finished on the podium on five other occasions. His consistency earned him 177 points and a fifth place in the final standings. CANNOTANSWER
Matteoni Racing Team
Marco Simoncelli (;
20 January 198723 October 2011), nicknamed Sic (), was an Italian professional motorcycle racer. He competed in the MotoGP World Championship for 10 years from 2002 to 2011. He started in the 125cc class before moving up to the 250cc class in 2006. He won the 2008 250cc World Championship with Gilera. After four years in the intermediate class, he stepped up to the top MotoGP class in 2010, racing with the Honda Gresini Team. He died in an accident at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

Career

Early career
Marco Simoncelli was born in Cattolica but grew up and lived in Coriano with his family since childhood. He started racing minibikes at the age of seven in his hometown of Coriano, moving on to the Italian Minimoto Championship in 1996 at the early age of nine. He won the Italian Minimoto Championship in 1999 and 2000 while also became the runner-up in the 2000 European Minimoto Championship. The following year, he stepped up to the Italian 125cc Championship and he won the title in his rookie year. In 2002, he competed and won the European 125cc Championship.

125cc World Championship
After a successful European 125cc campaign, in August 2002, Simoncelli made his first Grand Prix appearance with Matteoni Racing, replacing Czech rider Jaroslav Huleš who stepped up to the 250cc class. Simoncelli, riding an Aprilia bike with the number 37, managed to finish in 27th place in his first race at Brno. In the following race at Estoril, he scored his first championship points by finishing in 13th place. However, he failed to score any points in the next four races and finished the season with three points from six races.

He continued with the Matteoni Racing Team for his first full season in 2003. That season, he also started to use the iconic number 58 on his bike. He managed to score points in six races with a best result of fourth at Valencia, the last race of the season. Overall, he scored 31 points and ranked 21st in the final championship standings.

In the 2004 season, Simoncelli switched to WorldwideRace team under the name of Rauch Bravo, which also run an Aprilia bike. In the second race of the season at Jerez, Simoncelli recorded his first pole position. In the race, which was held in wet conditions, Simoncelli was in second place when race leader Casey Stoner crashed out with three laps remaining, handing Simoncelli his first victory. However, the victory was his only podium finish for the season. He managed to score points in seven other races with a best result of sixth. He ended in 11th place in the final standings with 79 points.

Simoncelli continued to ride for WorldwideRace in 2005, this time under the Nocable.it Race banner. In the opening race at Jerez, he qualified first and then won the race for his second successive win at Jerez. Despite failing to add another win that season, Simoncelli finished on the podium on five other occasions. His consistency earned him 177 points and a fifth place in the final standings.

250cc World Championship

In 2006, Simoncelli stepped up to the 250cc class, becoming the only rider from the top eight in previous year's 125cc class to make the step up. He joined the Metis Gilera team, an Italian motorcycle manufacturer who returned to the intermediate class after a lengthy absence. His first season saw him end most of the races he finished between 7th and 10th place. His best result was 6th place in the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai. He fought for the "Rookie of the Year" title until the end, finally losing to Shuhei Aoyama by seven points, finishing 10th overall.

In 2007 he continued with the same team. His season was similar to the previous one and he was again 10th in the final standings, without a podium finish.

He had his first 250cc win at the Italian Grand Prix held at Mugello on 1 June 2008 Barberá then crashed into him and Simoncelli won the race by 3 seconds. 

On 8 June 2008 he followed up his Italian victory at the Catalan Grand Prix after overtaking Álvaro Bautista on the last lap after Bautista ran wide with 5 corners of the race left. Simoncelli obtained his third 250cc GP victory at the Sachsenring in the German Grand Prix on 13 July 2008 when he beat Bautista and Barberá by approximately 2.5 seconds. He also won in his class at the 2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix held on 3–5 October 2008, narrowly defeating Bautista.

On 19 October 2008 he won the 2008 250cc World Championship after finishing 3rd in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

Superbike World Championship
He made a one-off appearance for Aprilia in the World Superbike round at Imola in . He qualified on the second row and was one of three riders to crash out of race one at Tosa while running fifth, before fighting through to third in race two, making a forceful move to overtake teammate Max Biaggi to get onto the podium.

On 25 June 2009, it was confirmed that Simoncelli would move up to premier class racing for 2010 MotoGP championship after agreeing to ride with the San Carlo Gresini Honda team.

MotoGP World Championship

2010

Simoncelli got off to a slow start to the 2010 season, having suffered two preseason testing crashes at Sepang; the second of which cracked his helmet.
After finishing eleventh on début, Simoncelli improved over the rest of the season, finishing 16 of the 18 races in the points en route to eighth place in the championship with 125 points. His best finish was a fourth place in Portugal, missing a podium by 0.06 seconds to Andrea Dovizioso.

2011

In the 2011 season, Simoncelli was promoted to ride a factory Honda as part of the Gresini team, whilst Hiroshi Aoyama rode a satellite Honda for the team. Simoncelli was predicted to be the surprise package of the season.
He finished fifth in the season opening race in Qatar, before falling from the lead of the wet race at Jerez.
He secured his highest starting position to that point of second, before falling on the first lap of the Estoril race.
During the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, Simoncelli collided with Dani Pedrosa while they were battling for second. The resulting crash saw Pedrosa break his collarbone and Simoncelli received a ride-through penalty, eventually finishing fifth.
Simoncelli initially rejected blame for the crash, claiming he braked no later than normal, and that he left Pedrosa room.
Before the next race, however, he accepted that he needed to reflect on his riding style.

Simoncelli was required to meet with race direction before the start of the racing weekend at Catalonia.
On the track, Simoncelli secured his first MotoGP pole position, 0.016 seconds ahead of Casey Stoner.
However, a poor start saw him drop to seventh managing only to recover one position to finish sixth. Simoncelli earned his first podium in the premier class, with a third place in the Czech Republic. His best MotoGP finish was second place in the Australian GP at Phillip Island.

Death

On 23 October 2011, Simoncelli was involved in a collision with American rider Colin Edwards and fellow Italian Valentino Rossi during the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit. In fourth position during lap two, Simoncelli's bike lost traction in Turn 11 and it started to slide towards the gravel, but the tires regained traction and his bike suddenly veered across the track into the path of Edwards and Rossi, with Simoncelli hanging down on the right side.

Simoncelli was struck in the lower body by Edwards and in the head by Rossi, who weren't able to stop their bikes from hitting him. Simoncelli lost his helmet and Edwards was catapulted from his bike. The race was immediately red-flagged. Edwards suffered a dislocated shoulder. Simoncelli suffered much more severe injuries and was taken by ambulance to the circuit's medical centre. At 16:56 local time, less than an hour after the accident, it was announced that he had died from his injuries. Later, at a press conference involving members of the MotoGP Race Direction, Medical Director Michele Macchiagodena said that Simoncelli had sustained "a very serious trauma to the head, to the neck and the chest", and was administered CPR for 45 minutes.

His body was flown home to Italy, accompanied by his father Paolo, his fiancée Kate Fretti, and Valentino Rossi. The family were greeted by Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Petrucci, before the body was transported to a theatre in Coriano, Rimini, where it was placed in an open coffin. Fans and visitors were then allowed to pay their respects, in a walk-through memorial that included his 250cc World Championship winning Gilera, plus his 2011 MotoGP Honda. An estimated 20,000 people attended his funeral at the Santa Maria Assunta parish church in Coriano on 27 October 2011, which was broadcast live on Italia 1 and Rai 2.

Legacy

Valentino Rossi was so devastated by the loss of his close friend and his role in it that it became the trigger that caused the creation of Rossi's racing Academy project (VR46) to mentor Italian riders. The Rossi academy is meant to ensure that his and Simoncelli’s intertwined legacies will live on far beyond their racing careers. Moto GP riders Pecco Bagnaia and Franco Morbidelli are VR46 academy graduates. Regarding the creation of the academy, Rossi has said “I always say that Marco was the first rider of the Academy, even if the Academy didn’t exist" 

On 3 November, the Misano World Circuit announced plans to rename itself in honour of Simoncelli. At the final Grand Prix of the  season in Valencia, Spain, a tribute lap on race morning was held in honour of Simoncelli, with riders from all three Grand Prix classes taking part along with  500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz, who rode Simoncelli's bike.

Tributes were made in Formula One with Jenson Button dedicating his performance in the 2011 Indian Grand Prix to Simoncelli and IndyCar Series driver Dan Wheldon, who died at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the weekend before, during the 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship. A minute's silence was held at the Grand Prix in memory of Wheldon and Simoncelli. At the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix, Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, along with other members of the team paid tribute to Simoncelli by returning to turn 11 and having a group photo with a banner in remembrance.

On the same day of the accident, all Serie A football matches in Italy held one minute of silence in remembrance of Simoncelli as instructed by the Italian National Olympic Committee President Gianni Petrucci.

On 20 January 2012, the anniversary of Simoncelli's birth, it was announced at a ceremony in his home town Coriano that the town's sports area would be renamed "Palazzetto dello Sport Marco Simoncelli", and that one of the town's bus routes would be re-numbered 58 in his honour.

In 2013, his father Paolo Simoncelli announced the formation of Sic58 Squadra Corse in honor of Marco. The team was created to help young Italian riders develop in the lower levels of Grand Prix racing. The team originally raced in Italian Moto3 series before moving up to the FIM CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship in 2015 and later into the FIM Moto3 World Championship in 2017.

On Thursday 12 September 2013 in Coriano a tribute took place for Marco Simoncelli with a flame and a monument for Marco Simoncelli called "Every Sunday" and every Sunday at nightfall the flame will burn for 58 seconds.

On 23 October 2013, AC Milan paid a tribute to Simoncelli by posting on their Google+ profile, a photo of their jersey in their dressing room with Simoncelli's name on the back.

On 3 February 2014, it was announced that Simoncelli would be inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame and become the 21st MotoGP Legend. The ceremony took place at the Italian round in Mugello.

On 8 September 2016, it was announced that Simoncelli's racing number 58 would be retired from all classes of Grand Prix racing competition. It is the third number to be retired from all classes of Grand Prix racing competition, after Kevin Schwantz's #34 (Schwantz's number was used by Andrea Dovizioso until he moved up to MotoGP, and was last used by Esteve Rabat during his Moto2 debut season in 2011) and Daijiro Kato's #74 (Kato's number remains available for wildcard entries in the 125cc/Moto3 class, albeit since the 2013 season no one uses the number again). CEO of Dorna Carmelo Ezpeleta led a ceremony of remembrance ahead of the Misano GP 2016 race weekend stating: "Today we say to Marco's father, Paolo, that from now this number belongs to the Simoncelli family. Nobody will use it, unless they decide somebody can use this number."

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Races by year
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Superbike World Championship

Races by year
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References

Further reading

External links

 Marco Simoncelli Official website 
 Marco Simoncelli Fondazione ONLUS 

1987 births
2011 deaths
People from the Province of Rimini
Italian motorcycle racers
125cc World Championship riders
250cc World Championship riders
Gresini Racing MotoGP riders
Superbike World Championship riders
Motorcycle racers killed while racing
Sport deaths in Malaysia
Filmed deaths in sports
MotoGP World Championship riders
Produce 101 Japan is Japanese reality competition show and a spin-off of the South Korean television series Produce 101. 101 trainees, aged 16–30 years old who are not affiliated with any talent agency, will be competing to debut in an 11-member boy band, with members selected by live voting from the viewers.

Contestants

The spelling of names in English is according to the official website. The Japanese contestants are presented in Western order (given name, family name), while the names of the Korean contestants are presented in Eastern order (family name, given name).

Color key

Position Battle Evaluation Performances (Episodes 3–4)

Color key
Bold denotes the person who picked the team members. Each person, selected via lottery, chose a song of his choice with a maximum of twelve people per song. Afterwards, the highest-ranking member of each group chose five people to be on his team, while the remaining members become their opposing team. There was nobody who chose "Tamashii Revolution" first, so Ryuji Sato was selected to pick the team members.

Group Battle Evaluation Performances (Episodes 6–7)

Color key
Bold denotes the person who chose the team members, with priority given to higher-ranked trainees. Ren Kawashiri was ranked #1 during the first eliminations and chose his team first. The remaining trainees were only allowed to pick four people, and the nine trainees left over were each allowed to pick the team of their choice. Songs were chosen through a medley race consisting of a cargo net crawl, disentanglement puzzle, and balloon popping. The individual winner of each group gets a 20,000 point bonus, the overall individual winner gets a 50,000 point bonus, and the overall group winners get a 100,000 point bonus.

Concept Evaluation (Episode 9–10)

Members of each group are selected by audience vote on their official website between the broadcasts of episodes 5 and 6 (October 24 at 11:30 PM to October 30 at 5:00 AM (JST)). After episode 8, teams with more than 7 members vote on which members will leave, while teams who have less than 7 members have the opportunity to recruit them.

Debut Evaluation Performances (Episode 12)

Color key

Notes

References

 
Produce 101 Japan contestants
Produce 101 Japan contestants
Produce 101 Japan contestants
Produce 101 Japan contestants X-Team is a gang associated with the Bandidos Motorcycle Club. Members are not required to own a motorcycle, and the group is essentially a street gang recruiting young criminals to provide reinforcements for the club. X-Team members carry out crimes on behalf of the Bandidos, such as debt collection and drug dealing, which allows the club to distance itself from violence and crime.

Denmark
X-Team was founded in Denmark in 1997 following the Nordic Biker War. The gang had approximately twenty-five chapters and 350 members in the country at peak strength circa 2002 but the X-Team in Denmark was eventually disbanded after the Bandidos lost control of the gang's members. The Bandidos later former another youth branch called Mexican Team Work.

An X-Team member was arrested on a motorway near Hillerød and found to be in possession of two-and-a-half kilograms of amphetamine. Police stopped the man after observing him being handed the amphetamine by another man, who in turn had obtained the drugs from a Dutchman. Police later found sixteen kilograms of cocaine being stored by the Dutchman at a derelict pub in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. A total of five people were taken into custody in October 2000 in connection with the drug ring.<ref>Fem anholdt efter kæmpe narko-fangst Jan Søgaard, B.T.' (12 October 2000)</ref>

X-Team became involved in a conflict with an immigrant gang in Ishøj in December 2000. A group of between ten and thirty immigrants shot at five X-Team members at an inn on 25 April 2001. On 13 June 2001, three of those who had been shot at were part of a group of five who were arrested in possession of firearms, including a shotgun and a hunting rifle, and a bag of ammunition.

Several members provided logistical support to the killers of Claus Bork Hansen, a former Bandidos member who was shot dead in Vanløse, Copenhagen on 21 March 2001 after being expelled from the club amid an internal dispute.

In May 2001, two members were convicted in Taastrup of extortion, theft, trafficking in cocaine and amphetamine, and unlawful possession of machine guns and assault rifles.

X-Team members Mads Thorsen and Ken Olsen were each sentenced to a year in prison after being convicted of violence, extortion, threats and drug trafficking in Vordingborg in July 2001. The crimes related to threats and violence carried out against a former X-Team member and his girlfriend, who owed Olsen and Thorsen money for drugs which had been given to them for resale. The man was beaten at an apartment in Stege, and his girlfriend attempted suicide due to the pressure put on her by the pair.

X-Team members Martin Ilievski and Igor Stojanovski shot and wounded two men in the head with a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol following a dispute at a party in Hvidovre on 9 December 2001. Ilievski and Stojanovski then robbed a Danske Bank branch in Skovlunde of kr990,000 in January 2002. The pair were convicted of attempted murder and armed robbery, and were each sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment at the Østre Landsret (High Court of Eastern Denmark) in October 2002. An accomplice in the robbery, Asan Rusti, was sentenced to three years' for driving the perpetrators' getaway car, while a fourth man, Casper Wiinblad, was sentenced to one-and-a-half years' for handling the firearm used in the shootings.

A gang war involving the X-Team and the Red & White Crew – the Hells Angels' equivalent of the X-Team – in Næstved broke out on 6 January 2002 when shots were fired in an apparent feud over a young woman. Following a number of armed clashes, a villa belonging to Red & White Crew member Brian Lielbardis was targeted in an arson attack on 5 September 2002. Allan Lilsby, who was seen by a witness with two others near the burning villa, was arrested close to the scene. His two suspected accomplices were not apprehended.

Seven members were prosecuted in Næstved in June 2002 for extensive drug trafficking in east Zealand.

Two X-Team members were arrested on suspicion of trafficking in a large quantity of drugs on 24 September 2002 after a police raid on the gang's premises in Bagsværd uncovered hashish.

Three members of the gang were arrested after a man was beaten, stabbed twice in the leg, and robbed of his mobile phone and moped on 14 June 2003 in Horsens.

Finland
X-Team has approximately sixty-five members in Finland.

In September 2005, X-Team member Markku Tapani Lahtonen was sentenced to eleven years in prison for murder. The case was solved by a wire planted in the gang's clubhouse, which recorded conversations that implicated Lahtonen.

Members of the Bandidos' and X-Team's Espoo chapter were among twenty-one people charged with importing and distributing amphetamine in January 2008.

The X-Team branch in Oulu – established in the spring of 2013 – has been investigated for crimes of violence and extortion. Police suspect the crimes are related to debt collection.

X-Team member Antti Niilo Raatikainen, along with a Bandidos member and a club hangaround, were convicted in October 2016 of violently extorting money from a man in Tampere in the spring of 2014.

In March 2017, four members of the X-Team and two members of the Bandidos in Tampere – including the chapter president – were prosecuted for a number of crimes relating to fraud, embezzlement and forgery which took place between 2013 and 2014.

Germany
There are twenty-one X-Team chapters in Germany.

The X-Team chapter in Aachen was among six branches of Bandidos and its support clubs banned by the ministry of SPD MP Ralf Jäger on 26 April 2012. Over six-hundred police officers were involved in subsequent raids on the chapters' headquarters and members' residences.

On 28 April 2012, an X-Team member used his car to force a member of the Gremium Motorcycle Club off the road near Westerkappeln. The Gremium member fell from his motorcycle and suffered bruises and abrasions.

A nationwide ban on wearing the emblems of X-Team, as well as the Bandidos and seven other groups, in public came into effect on 16 March 2017.

Norway
X-Team operates ten branches in Norway. While X-Team chapters are usually established in locations where the Bandidos already have a presence, there have been instances where branches have been founded in cities where the Bandidos have failed to organize. One example is the X-Team branch in Trondheim, which was founded in 2002. A previous attempt by the Bandidos at settling in Trondheim failed when two leading members of the support club Bronx '95, which was intended to serve as the precursor to a Bandidos chapter in the city, were shot and wounded by the Hells Angels on 17 December 1995.

The leader of the X-Team in Trondheim was sentenced to one year and four months in prison in May 2002 after being convicted of drug possession and multiple violations of the gun laws. He was in possession of amphetamine, pills, two knives and a loaded Kongsberg Colt pistol when he was arrested in November 2001.

Sweden
There are seven X-Team branches in Sweden, the first of which were formed in the early 2000s.

X-Team has been involved in a conflict with the Original Gangsters (OGs) that was initiated by nightclub altercation between Amin Mosavi and Kennedy Acar, the younger brothers of the two gangs' leaders, on 15 June 2002 in Gothenburg. Acar – the brother of OGs leader Denho Acar – told OG enforcer Goran Kotaran of the event, and Kotaran decided to murder Mosavi's older brother, the leader of the X-Team, for what his younger brother had done. The following night, Kotaran went to the X-Team leader's apartment, and took firing position in the flower arrangements outside. He identified a person who he shot dead with eight shots. The person he murdered was, however, not the X-Team leader, but his younger brother, i.e., the person actually involved in the quarrel the night before. This triggered a series of violent events between the X-Team and OGs, involving bombs hand grenades and firearms. The violence led to a police crackdown on criminal gangs in western Sweden in 2004 which resulted in seventy gang members being sentenced to a total of 171 years in prison, and the two gangs entered a truce the following year when the Gothenberg X-Team was upgraded to a regular Bandidos chapter. The truce broken, however, on 4 July 2007 when Denho Acar's successor, Wojtek Walczak, was attacked by X-Team members in Halmstad. Walczak was sentenced to ten months in prison in January 2008 for an assault on an X-Team member that took place in November 2007.

X-Team and the Red & White Crew fought a war in Gothenburg between 2006 and 2009. Three Red & White Crew members were charged with the murder of an X-Team member who was shot in the head with two different weapons on Hisingen. Another X-Team members was also wounded in the shooting.

A struggle for control of the drug trade in the Gårdsten and Lövgärdet areas of northeast Gothenburg between X-Team and the Gårdstensalliansen (Gårdstens Alliance) gang began in August 2008. An X-Team member was shot dead the following month, and X-Team were eventually forced out of the area.

A conflict between Bernard "Berno" Khouri, leader of the Södertäljenätverket'' (Södertälje Network), and Dany Moussa, the founder of the X-Team in Södertälje, resulted in a war between the groups over the control of Södertälje's criminal market which lasted for several months. On 23 December 2009, X-Team member Mohaned "K-Sigge" Ali was shot dead at an illegal gaming club by a member of the Södertäljenätverket. In a revenge attack, three people associated with the Södertäljenätverket were shot and wounded in a drive-by shooting on 1 April 2010. One of the men – Sherbel Said – was left paralyzed from the chest down. On 1 July 2010, two men armed with a pistol and a Yugoslavian made Kalashnikov rifle killed Yaacoub and Eddie Moussa, two cousins of Dany Moussa, and wounded a third man at the same gambling club where Mohaned Ali had earlier been murdered. Forensics found that Eddie was shot seventeen times and Yaacoub fourteen times. Police assembled a team of over sixty officers to end the turf war in Sodertalje. Two X-Team members were found guilty on 26 October 2010 of attempted murder for the April shooting. On 1 August 2012, eighteen members of the Södertäljenätverket were found guilty of committing crimes in their feud with the X-Team. Bernard Khouri was given a life sentence for ordering the murders of Mohaned Ali and the Moussa brothers, as well as additional crimes, while Abraham "Torpeden" Aho was sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment for carrying out the murder of Mohaned Ali on 29 August 2013.

References

Organizations established in 1997
1997 establishments in Denmark
Bandidos Motorcycle Club
Street gangs
Gangs in Denmark
Gangs in Finland
Gangs in Germany
Gangs in Norway
Gangs in Sweden
Gangs in England