Road racing is mourning the death of Portuguese rider Luis Carreira who was killed in a crash during qualifying at the Macau Grand Prix in Southern China on Thursday.

The 35-year-old was an experienced competitor who previously competed at both the North West 200 and Isle of Man TT.

He was involved in an incident at Fisherman’s Bend and and later succumbed to his injuries.

Mr Carreira rode for Northern Ireland’s CD Racing team in 2011, earning his best ever result at the TT, where he finished 13th in the Superstock event.

He also finished 11th in the Supersport class at the North West 200 in his debut at the event during the same year, which was wiped out by torrential rain and an oil spill.

Tributes have poured in following the tragedy, with 19-times TT winner John McGuinness expressing his sympathy on social networking microsite Twitter.

Yorkshire’s Ian Hutchinson also paid tribute to the fallen rider on Twitter, saying: “Very sad news of the passing of luis carreira... My thoughts go out to his family and friends.”

Tyco Suzuki ace Conor Cummins added: “RIP Luis. Shocked to hear the news. God speed.”

Mr Carreira was riding a Suzuki GSXR-1000 for the Benimoto Raider-Cetelem team.

He had been a regular at Macau since 2004, achieving his best result of fourth in 2008.

Fellow Portuguese competitor Nuno Caetano has withdrawn from the event following the tragedy.

Michael Rutter, who is chasing a record eighth victory at Macau on Saturday, is on provisional pole position following the shortened first qualifying session.

The SMT Honda rider was 1.6s ahead of Martin Jessopp on the Riders Ducati with John McGuinness on the second SMT Honda machine third, a further second in arrears.

Stephen Thompson was the leading Northern Ireland rider in 12th place on the T&R Motorsport BMW, with newcomer Jamie Hamilton missing out on the session following a minor crash.

Reports suggest fellow rookie Lee Johnston has been ruled out of the event with a blown engine on his Ducati.

Saintfield man Davy Morgan is also competing at Macau.


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