The Truth About Borja Gomez’s Death: Interview with Filippo Fuligni

_{By Edoardo Vercellesi
Photo Credits: Edoardo Vercellesi}

On July 3, 2025, the world of motorcycle racing was shaken by the death of Borja Gómez Rus, at just 20 years of age. A talent still not fully expressed despite a national Supersport title in 2021, a second-place finish in the Spanish Superbike Championship the following year, and fifteen starts in the Moto2 World Championship. In 2024, he had entered Honda’s radar and during this winter he had replaced the injured Iker Lecuona in World Superbike testing, in addition to racing CBRs in both the ESBK and the JuniorGP Stock 600.

It was in this latter category that Gómez lost his life during the first day of track activity for the third round of the season at Magny-Cours. It was the JuniorGP’s debut at the French circuit, a regular stop in the World Superbike calendar that has witnessed historic moments such as the breath-taking 2012 season finale, where Max Biaggi won the title by just half a point over Tom Sykes. Given the stature of the venue, the rumors that circulated following Gómez’s accident immediately struck as really odd: serious organizational failures, a lack of track marshals, slow emergency response, and riders left alone on the track to assist their injured colleagues. A surreal and paradoxical scenario that we were willing to investigate.

After waiting a few days to reflect with a cooler head, we went straight to the source and interviewed Filippo Fuligni, who was unfortunately involved in the crash and stayed by Gómez’s side during the long and ultimately futile wait for help. At 26, with over a decade of experience on both the Italian and international scenes, Filippo is one of the top riders in the JuniorGP Stock 600. Together with him, we reconstructed the events in detail, painting a dramatic picture.

Filippo, first things first: who was in charge of the sporting activity that Thursday?

“Thursday sessions are private free practice sessions, because the team or the rider pays for the slots directly to the circuit. However, these sessions are included in the official race weekend schedule, which we download directly from the JuniorGP website. So, even if they’re not directly managed by the JuniorGP, you’re there for the JuniorGP event, not on your own behalf. And that’s the case for every race weekend. The JuniorGP organization (Dorna) washes its hands of it a little, I’d say.“

We’ll let you speak freely. Tell us what happened.

“Thursday included two 40-minutes free practice sessions, and we were in the middle of the first one, which had started about seven minutes earlier, so we had done two or three laps each. Conditions were perfect: dry track, temperature around 23°C. Coming out of Adelaide (Turn 5) Alberto Garcia, Borja Gomez’s teammate, had a technical issue and lost some water, probably mixed with other substances, so it was very slippery. From Adelaide he continued until Turn 9, where the bike was picked up and took away. Two riders behind him passed over the line of fluid, one nearly crashed. Then Borja came through and crashed while braking for the Nürburgring chicane (the fast chicane after Adelaide, ed.). He lost the front under braking and had a normal low-side crash. The accident happened around 12:07. Borja got up and ran toward the tire barriers, probably – and this is my interpretation – because he realized something was off: crashing on the third lap of a free practice session, for an experienced rider like him is unusual. There were no flags or warning lights in that corner, and only one marshal, who didn’t go to help him move the bike. About 22 seconds later, Joan Santos crashed. But what happened in those 22 seconds? Borja waited a little, then, since no one came to help him and the next three riders didn’t crash (because they didn’t hit the fluids), he went to pick up his bike. His only mistake, probably, was turning his back to the track—so he didn’t see Santos go down.”

So Santos arrived at the Nürburgring chicane without any flags being shown?

“Exactly, he’s absolutely not at fault: even though 22 seconds had passed since Borja’s crash, there was no warning of any kind. Twenty-two seconds, in our world, is an eternity.”

Several marshals have told us that in case of danger, the yellow flag must be shown immediately, they don’t need to wait for orders. Within a couple of seconds, the flag should be waving.

“I told the police the same thing, this is extremely serious. Everything that happened was completely avoidable. In that part of the track, there was only one young marshal, and he did nothing, no flag, no assistance. Under normal conditions, even during free practice, as soon as you go down in a crash you have at least two marshals reaching you right away. If the flags had been shown, any rider would have slowed down. Maybe they would’ve still crashed, but at a lower speed. At Magny-Cours there are also light panels, but they are meant as a supplement, not a replacement. Instead, they were used as a substitute for marshals, because on Thursday and Friday, wherever there were panels, there was no one present.”

Let’s go back to the accident.

“Santos got to the Nürburgring chicane and lost the front: he fell off the bike, but the bike regained grip, stood back up, and went straight toward Borja, hitting him from behind. On a 600cc you get there in full fifth gear, over 200 km/h. The impact must have been at least 130–150 km/h and, with the bike weighing about 170 kilos, a hit like that can only be fatal. I arrived about ten seconds later, and still, after two crashes, there were no warning signals and no marshal helping the riders. As I got closer, I saw some dust, so I instinctively rolled off the throttle and slowed into the braking zone, but I was right on the fluids and abruptly lost the front. I stopped sliding fairly quickly, far from the runoff area, and I climbed over the tire barriers because something slippery was clearly on the track. As soon as I climbed there, the red panels lit up, but they didn’t indicate what kind of danger it was. There was no yellow-and-red flag (signaling any potential change in grip conditions on track, ed.), which would have been appropriate to show considering the three crashes in thirty seconds. If I hadn’t waved my arms to warn others, more riders would have gone down. Once everyone was through I got off the tire wall. I saw three bikes on the ground and Santos was standing, but I couldn’t see the third rider. While walking back to my bike, my eye caught Borja’s body, completely motionless. I froze for a few seconds because it was a nasty sight. I went looking for help, but I saw no urgency from the staff to assist Borja, so I took off my helmet and gloves and went back to him myself. I couldn’t move him, so I slightly unzipped his suit. His eyes were open, but lifeless. I tried to feel if he had some pulse and if he was still breathing. I felt something vital, I don’t know if it was just a reflex or if he could still be revived. Had there been even the slightest chance of reviving him, the delay in assistance made it vane.”

When did the emergency services arrive?

“The ambulance arrived between seven and ten minutes after the impact, which is a lot: on a racetrack there should usually be three ambulances, and they must arrive within three minutes at most. There was only one doctor on the ambulance. I was there with just one marshal and a member of the Laglisse team (Gomez’s team, ed.). On that note: someone who’s not a marshal or a doctor should not have free access to the track, while he was free to climb over the barriers, reach the crash site, talk on the phone with the team, identify his rider, and go pale. I had to take him away because he didn’t know what to do. I honestly don’t know how I managed to handle the situation. I even sent away my teammate’s father, who was there with his young daughter. There were four other people beside the track, setting up Dorna’s cameras. Obviously, they were just doing their job. Back to the emergency response: the ambulance arrived and took care of Borja. When they removed his helmet, I realized there was nothing left to do: he was bleeding from his ears and had visible fractures to his arm, leg, and probably his neck. They tried to resuscitate him, but very mildly. I didn’t get in the ambulance with him, I stayed to help the marshals to move the bikes out of the runoff area (a couple more had arrived, so there were four of us in total). Honestly, they didn’t seem very capable: my bike had a bent exhaust and they couldn’t lift it. I asked if they had a crane, and they said yes, but it didn’t arrive until forty minutes later. Then a Dorna official showed up and asked me what had happened, and my spontaneous reaction was: “I should be asking you what happened! Where were you? Why are you only here now? Why is no one else here?” He replied that they weren’t in charge that day, the circuit was. That really pissed me off, because if you come to assess the track conditions to try to go on with the schedule, that means you are involved. And then you tell me there’s nothing on the track, while I’m telling you three of us have crashed. If you show up twenty minutes after the accident, of course the water we crashed on has already evaporated, given the temperatures. He seemed completely clueless, he couldn’t know that Borja’s teammate had had a technical issue, because his bike was already back in the garage. Only the Laglisse team knew it had spilled water. The other three bikes (mine, Gomez’s, and Santos’s) were seized until the next day for police procedures. In the end, they did wash the track—but by then, there was nothing to clean.

What happened during the rest of the day?

“They immediately canceled all Thursday track activity. I stayed at the scene with the ambulance for quite a while, then I spent some time with the team, avoiding all the people who wanted to know what had happened. I met with a few experienced riders (David Sanchis, Hector Garzò, Alberto Ferrandez, etc.) to oppose continuing the weekend, while the team managers met with Dorna who, basically, washed their hands of it: they left it up to the teams to decide whether to go on or not, but imposed that those who chose not to race could not dismantle their garage or structures until Sunday, under threat of fines. So Borja’s team had to stay there until Sunday, consumed by grief. I don’t think that’s right. It was decided to go ahead with racing, something that I and many others felt was wrong. On Friday morning we went back to Dorna to say we disagreed, and they just repeated what they had already told the teams. Having lived the accident firsthand, I was not in good spirits and didn’t want to stay there. Even now I struggle to sleep because the scene keeps coming back to my mind. Since I was forced to remain at the circuit, though, I figured I might as well race, to isolate myself and try not to think about it. I was really upset to be disqualified in Sunday’s race after winning it, I wanted to dedicate that result to Borja. We weren’t close friends, but we’d been racing together for many years and he was a good guy, always nice to talk to or train with. His family members are also really kind people.”

Were there any other critical incidents during the weekend?

“On Friday morning, I went trackside to watch Matteo Gabarrini, just to distract myself a bit. I was at Turn 14 with Efren Vazquez when two riders from the European Talent Cup crashed. We were stunned: there was one marshal on one side of the track and a female marshal on the other, he was standing with his arms crossed, and she was gesturing at him to go help. The riders picked up their bikes by themselves and got back on track on their own, but it took two full laps without any intervention. On Saturday and Sunday they seemed a bit more alert. During the races, as soon as a crash or any dangerous situation happened in the final two laps, they showed the red flag. I saw an example of this while I was speaking with the police on Saturday morning. We were in an office above the final chicane when a Moto3 rider had a highside and was left in the middle of the track. As soon as it happened, I told the officer: “Look, there are two marshals. If they work properly, one will wave the flag and the other will run to help the rider, while the marshals at the previous corner will show a double yellow flag because the rider is in the middle of the track,” and that’s exactly what they did. “If the rider doesn’t move, they’ll throw the red flag within ten seconds,” and that’s what happened. They even stopped the other riders before pit lane because the ambulance had to cross the track to enter. I said: “If they had followed this procedure on Thursday, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here right now.” We ended up talking for an hour and a half, I even missed part of qualifying because of it. None of the officers spoke English, but luckily one of them spoke a little Italian, and with the help of gestures we managed to understand each other.”

Who did the police speak with?

“They spoke with me and Santos who, poor guy, is very young (born in 2005) and had no idea what had actually happened as he got injured too. I tried to tell his team not to let him know his bike had hit and killed Borja, to avoid traumatizing him. They also spoke with the Laglisse team member who was trackside and with the doctors who assisted him, I think. They said he died instantly, at 12:07; I disagreed and told them that he was still breathing when I was with him. He died while waiting for the ambulance.”

If they declared the rider dead on impact, meaning at the circuit, why wasn’t the circuit seized and the weekend suspended?

“I’d say canceling the day was considered enough, even though it seems absurd to me. The body remained at the medical center only for a few hours on Thursday, then they took it away. And what Borja’s family told me was truly appalling. Borja had traveled to Magny-Cours with just a friend. While waiting for his relatives to arrive, on Thursday and Friday, his body was kept in the refrigerator unit of a florist shop because Dorna (or whoever was responsible) didn’t take care of finding a morgue.”

Had you ever found yourself facing such disorganization? Was this an isolated incident, or is it something recurring?

“I had never faced this level of disorganization in official race sessions. But in France, it’s not the first time strange things have happened: when my brother Federico crashed (also at Magny-Cours) in the Supersport World Championship, he fainted due to a lung issue, and the emergency response was very slow to arrive. During the 2015 CEV Moto3 race at Le Mans, Tony Arbolino crashed at the first chicane on the opening lap: the following lap, we arrived there in a big group and found an ambulance in the middle of the track. Going back to Borja’s incident, the fact that it was a semi-official test day is no excuse for the level of disorganization we saw. This is a world championship organized by Dorna, not a cheap track day. The safety standards must reflect a world championship level. I actually looked into the entry fees for that test day, considering how poor the safety was. It cost €300 per rider, with four categories of over thirty riders each. Are you telling me that there was not enough budget for three ambulances and proper safety? That really pissed me off, because my team (Promo Racing) organizes the private JuniorGP tests and always ensures there are three ambulances, proper marshals, and solid safety measures. At the Estoril tests, I didn’t even have time to stand up after a crash before four marshals were already there with me. You simply cannot be careless with these things. And marshals need to be properly trained, not just given a quick course.”

Do the layout or facilities of the circuit bear any responsibility for what happened?

“Magny-Cours has many chicanes with high curbs, which are more suited for cars than for motorcycles, and where the possibility of crossing the track while crashing isn’t remote. In this case, though, I don’t believe the layout played any role in the accident. The circuit is fairly safe, the problem lies in the organization: when Santos crashed, he hit the tire barriers on the left and got hurt because there were no air fences, which were added the following day.”

“A bit like what happened in 2024 with Toprak Razgatlioglu,” added World Supersport 300 rider Marco Gaggi, who was with us during the interview. “Where he crashed there were no air fences, which were added the next day and are still there today.”

Fuligni continues: “One issue with Magny-Cours are the light panels, which cannot replace flags or marshals. In a car you’re seated and looking straight ahead, so it’s easier to see them. On a bike, however, flags are much easier to spot when you’re leaning because they’re lower and closer, while the panels are tall and only decently visible on the straight. This is even more true for amateur riders: professionals are used to high speeds and can notice what’s around them, even photographers, while amateurs have to focus much more on what they’re doing. You can’t expect them to glance sideways and spot the panels.”

Is there anything else worth pointing out about what happened and how it was handled?

“I think I’ve said everything. I repeat, had the procedure been properly followed (yellow flags, the right number of marshals on track to help riders, etc.), maybe something still would have happened, but it would’ve been a matter of bad luck. Not like this, this was negligence.”

Do you think there will be any consequences?

“Certainly not against Dorna, maybe against the circuit. It depends on what the family decides to do.”

This sad event brings us back to the usual dilemma: to race or not to race? In the event of a fatal accident, should the program continue or be halted? If there’s no clear protocol people rely on sentiment, but by now there are many precedents where racing continued.

Fuligni: “In my opinion, stopping is more respectful toward the family, the team, and the people close to the one who passed away. But there should be a procedure where the organizer (Dorna, in this case) accepts a financial loss, because if you cancel the weekend, you have to refund teams or reorganize elsewhere. Especially in lower-level championships, many riders pay to race. Do you make them lose the money they’ve already spent? Should the team give it back and take the hit? Do you have to spend more money for another race? It’s a complicated system, not to mention the obligations of TV rights.”

Gaggi: “Unfortunately, I experienced it with Dean Berta Viñales’s death. We had a meeting to decide whether to race or not: in Supersport 300 we were split down the middle, and the organizer made it clear that the opinion of the Superbike riders was more important. They decided to race, and we had to go along with it. Personally, I think we shouldn’t race in these cases, but the dilemma is: do you cancel just one day, or the whole weekend? With Viñales, it went the same way as with Borja: he died on track, and they stopped the day’s program, but resumed the next day.”

Fuligni: “This time, I think it wasn’t right of some riders to decide not to race and then change their mind just because everyone else was out on track and they risked losing championship points. Then, there are those who change their mind to take advantage and get a good result seeing that many aren’t riding. The only one who stuck to his decision was Sanchis, who didn’t race. In my opinion, it needs to be clear: either everyone races or everyone goes home, which I would’ve preferred, just to clear my head. You can’t leave people in the paddock doing nothing for days.”

Gaggi: “Me, on the other hand, couldn’t distract myself when Viñales died, every lap I passed through that corner I kept thinking about it. I still think about it today, actually, because we had a great relationship.”