The Monster Energy family has lost one of its own in a sobering example of the dangers elite athletes face every day.

Monster Energy’s rising MotoGP star Marco Simoncelli succumbed to injuries suffered in a freak accident on the second lap of the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang. “Super Sic,” who left this world too soon, at only 24 years of age.

The tall, gangly Italian embodied the best in an extreme athlete and human being. He was as charismatic as he was driven, a favorite of young fans who admired him for his aggression on the track and free spirit off the track. His trademark was his hair, a wild, sprouting mop that seemed to have a life of its own. A week earlier, on the eve of the Australian Grand Prix where he would finish a career best second, he was asked for the dumbest question he’d ever been asked. Without a moment’s hesitation, he said, “When are you going to cut your hair?” he said with a smile, always a smile.

But he was more than a mop-topped free spirit, he was a racer and a good one; he won the 250cc World Championship in 2008, took another run at it in 2009, then moved to the premier MotoGP class in 2009 with the Gresini team, based not far from his home in Cattolica, near the Adriatic Sea.

So impressed was senior management of Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) with his rookie campaign, that they supplied him with a full factory Honda RC212V this season, a coveted jewel given to only three other riders. And he was making the most of it. During the 2011 World Championship he also had two pole positions, his first podium- in the Czech Grand Prix-and a career best second in the Australian Grand Prix the week before the Malaysian race.

Now that dream has ended, at a track halfway around the world, where Simoncelli left this world a better place, and doing what he showed an unabashed passion for  – being a racer.