"Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones at this tough and painful time"

Bike Buyers Guide would like to express their condolences to the Hurley family on the tragic death of Sean Hurley.

Sean enjoyed an amazing racing season this year winning the Adelaide Masters Bridgestone Supersport Cup after winning the 2010 Irish Clubman Supersport title, only failing to win one race in the 2011 series. Sean, as part of his prize was invited to the Moto GP  round in Valencia,Spain by sponsors Bridgestone to mark his triumph in the Mondello Park based Championship.

A special online tribute was paid to him yesterday by the Cork Motorcycle Racing & Vintage Club. Our race expert Aidan Lynam added "I cover Irish racing for BBG and as such I get to know quite a few of the personalities within the sport. Sean however was much more than just another rider, and I mean that with no disrespect to the other competitors, Sean was a friend, a friend to me and to everyone else in the paddock. A hard and truly talented competitor on the track, but one who truly cared about the riders around him.

Sean could often be found helping put other riders’ bikes back together between races even though he was helping his ‘competition’, indeed young Wayne Hall, a fellow Clubman rider recalled to me how on a practice day he suffered a heavy fall in Mondello Park, Sean who was right behind Wayne, parked his bike on the ground and rushed to see if he was ok, I think that basically epitomises the man that was Sean Hurley.

He will be sorely missed by all who came into contact with him, he had a perma-smile that could brighten the darkest of days and an easy going/carefree manner about him that we could all learn from. My heart goes out to Sean’s partner Sinead, his family and his huge circle of friends.

Godspeed #109, go easy on big Marco up there.