With Victor Steeman (here of us on June 22, 2019 in the rain of Misano on his Freudenberg-Racing KTM), motorsport in Portugal lost one of his most hopeful talents ever. Due to a tragic accident in the first round in the first run on the Autodromo do Algarve, the highest and likeable Dutchman suffered the most difficult multiple injuries, which he did not survive.

Insert on the tragic accidental death of the only 22-year old

After a long creative break of almost a year, we visited a race again when it came to the Circuito de Cataluña near the Catalan metropolis Barcelona. It was a very mixed weekend with many ups and downs, which we would like to come back in a separate article. For us this time, the highlight was neither to be observed in the WSBK nor in the Worldssp 600, but clearly a young man in the youth class. We are talking about Victor Steemann, the clear hero at this event. His performance made us consider whether we would not want to continue our reporting in the foreseeable future.

Smiling Victor Steemann (NED / Kawasaki) as the winner in the first run from his home race in Assen between the left, the second -placed Samuel di Sora (FRA / Kawasaki) and right Mirko Gennai (P3, ITA, Yamaha). In Most (Czech Republic), Magny Cours (France) and Barcelona (Spain), three more racing wins for the best Kawasaki pilot of the 2022 season, before his young life in Portugal was supposed to end (© WorldSBK).

The impressive show of the young star in Catalonia 2022
As a polesitter, he ended round 1 on P1 to only appear in 23th place later. In the twenty-three round, the Dutch, despite two Long-Lap Penalys completed, appeared again in second place. In the end, he made it into the top ten as a eighth and was on World Cup rank 3 behind Alvaro Diaz and before the second race on Sunday. Marc Garcia (both Yamaha). Run two on Sunday he won superior, with more than five and a half seconds ahead of Hugo de Cancellis (FRA / Kawasaki).

Aerial view of the Autodromo do Algarve with the foreground on the right of the curve 14 – here life and career came to one of the best young pilots in the world after a high -tastrophic episode with catastrophic consequences. Before his fatal crash, the young man, born on June 15, 2000 in Zevenaar (southeast of Arnhem).

One who never gave up
With Victor, racing not only loses the Netherlands of one of the most outstanding talents of the past decades. He was someone who never gave up before the checkered flag fell. After his first steps in the Red Bull Rookies Cup 2016, he drove two races for the KTM Fortron Junior Team 2 years later, where he immediately performed his first World Cup point. The following year he joined the Freudenberg KTM Worldsp 300 team for his first full season. For the German team, he immediately turned out to be a stroke of luck and drove over the finish line at the start of the season in Aragon at the first race. With World Cup rank 5, he ended even better this year than his team-mate Jan-Ohle Jahnig, who in turn was one of the most promising talents from Germany.

The Dutchman Koen Meuffels (Freudenberg KTM) in front of Ton Kawakami (Bra / Yamaha) and Manuel Bastianelli (ITA / Kawasaki) photographed by us in Jerez de la Frontera in 2019 – who was fatally injured after his crash in Portimao, Victor Steeman was a teammate The number 17 most successful driver of the KTM team from Saxony this season. When the fifth of the World Cup was a promise for the future three years ago, Victor even fought for the World Cup title in the Supersport 300 young category until shortly before the end of the season this year.

The words of his family for the death of Victor Steeman
“Something that has always been feared as the parents of a motorcycle racer has now occurred. Our Victor could not win this last race. Despite the unbearable loss and grief, we are very proud to be able to tell you that our hero through his death 5 could save other people by donating his organs. We would like to thank everyone for having lived with us in the past few days. We will miss our Victor very much. “