Flora van Limbeek, the mother of World Superbikes star Victor Steeman has passed away from a suspected heart attack just two days after her son died following a horror multi-rider crash during a race in Portugal.
Steeman had won four Supersport 300 World Championship races this season before crashing at the Algarve International Circuit on Saturday. He was airlifted to a hospital in Faro, but it was confirmed on Tuesday that he had passed away as a result of his injuries.
His mother, Flora van Limbeek, who was one of his biggest fans has now been confirmed dead at the age of 59, with Racesport.nl reporting that she suffered a cardiac arrest on Thursday afternoon at her home in Lathum in the Netherlands.
Following the double tragedy in the space of just two days, the family has released a statement asking for their privacy to be respected.
It read: ‘The Steeman family would like to process this immense grief in peace. We would therefore like to kindly but urgently ask everyone to respect this request through this message.
‘The kind request is therefore not to send cards or other attentions to the home address in Lathum.
‘To give everyone the opportunity to share their grief and to support father and husband Steeman and other family in this bizarre and difficult time, we will come up with a special message about the possibilities for this later today.
‘Our thoughts are with father and husband Willem, further family and loved ones in this difficult and difficult time. Words are not enough to comfort you in this great loss. We wish you a lot of strength and strength for the coming time.’
This statement follows another emotional message that the family put out earlier in the week after Steeman’s death.
That message read: ‘Something you have always been afraid of as a parent of a motorcycle racer has now happened. Our Victor could not win this last race.
‘Despite the unbearable loss and grief, we are extremely proud to share with you that our hero, through his passing, was able to save five other people by donating his organs.
‘We would like to thank everyone for the way you have lived with us over the past few days. We will miss our Victor enormously.’
Steeman’s death came less than a week after British Superbikes rider Chrissy Rouse, 26, died of head injuries after being struck by another rider in a race at England’s Donington Park circuit.
