This broke my damn heart to hear after I got off of work last night.
http://wric.com/2016/02/04/legendary-bmx-star-dave-mirra-dead-at-41/
Mirra had been a fixture in Rally America and Red Bull Global RallyCross for the last several years, and he made a one-off appearance in the FIA World Rallycross Championship at the Hockenheimring - his livery from that race appears in DiRT Rally.
Before that, he was one of, if not the best, extreme sports athletes ever. Comparable to Pele, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky - he was all of that and maybe even more. Before I got into motorsports, I was huge into skateboarding/BMX/etc. and at the time, Mirra was the man.
And when he began to embrace rallying and dedicate himself to it after accomplishing all he could on bikes, it led to the boom of rallycross, which saved rallying as a whole from becoming extinct as a mainstream form of motorsport. There would be no FIA World Rallycross or GRC without the presence of men like Dave Mirra. And everyone I talked to who knew or met him from his time as a Rally competitor in any series had nothing but kind, positive things to say about him as a person.
I was shocked, saddened, angered, all of it. A day later and I'm still shaken.
http://wric.com/2016/02/04/legendary-bmx-star-dave-mirra-dead-at-41/
Mirra had been a fixture in Rally America and Red Bull Global RallyCross for the last several years, and he made a one-off appearance in the FIA World Rallycross Championship at the Hockenheimring - his livery from that race appears in DiRT Rally.
Before that, he was one of, if not the best, extreme sports athletes ever. Comparable to Pele, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky - he was all of that and maybe even more. Before I got into motorsports, I was huge into skateboarding/BMX/etc. and at the time, Mirra was the man.
And when he began to embrace rallying and dedicate himself to it after accomplishing all he could on bikes, it led to the boom of rallycross, which saved rallying as a whole from becoming extinct as a mainstream form of motorsport. There would be no FIA World Rallycross or GRC without the presence of men like Dave Mirra. And everyone I talked to who knew or met him from his time as a Rally competitor in any series had nothing but kind, positive things to say about him as a person.
I was shocked, saddened, angered, all of it. A day later and I'm still shaken.
May Dave Mirra rest in peace. 
