Earlier at the Road Atlanta circuit, there was a MotoAmerica event ongoing. For this, 58-year-old racer Jeremy McWilliams, who starred opposite Scarlett Johansson, joined the Mission Foods S&S Indian Challengers for the King of the Baggers series. Unfortunately for Williams, in the second race of the season, he suffered an enormous crash. As it happened, the #99 rider simply lost the front end of his bike and slid into the gravel.

Fortunately, the Irishman was fine, but the bike was totaled after barrel-rolling a few times. Obviously, this would have been a massive hit for his hopes of winning. Luckily for the ex-MotoGP rider and the team, the incident occurred in the first Free Practice session. So there would be plenty of time for his team to repair the bike and keep it ship-shaped for qualifying and the race.

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How did the racing community react to the crash?

In all honesty, it surprised some to see him go down, as he was hugely experienced. As one fan put it, “Not often you see someone of Jeremy’s calibre off line!“. Another commented, “That’s racing. Great that he walked away, build him a new one, and get back out there.” Some people even analyzed the accident and said, “Looks like the front end either momentarily didn’t stay planted or he accidentally grabbed the front brake instead of a squeeze. OR just something as simple as the tires weren’t warm enough yet. Glad the racer is ok”.

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Others were disappointed to see him crash, “Man what a bummer. Much respect to these crazy guys. The cojones it takes to race the beasts. But man I love watching it. Better than the super bike race”. There were even observations like, “It looks unsettled, like the front dived slightly for some reason. Idk if that was a rider input thing”. Admittedly, there were some non-racing fans who recognized McWilliams from somewhere, “Jeremy McWilliams the movie star – Under the Skin!”

McWilliams once acted alongside Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson

McWilliams is best known for competing in the MotoGP championships from 1993 all the way until 2014. However, it is worth mentioning that he has other accolades. Among them is a minor acting gig opposite Hollywood star, Scarlett Johansson in a 2013 movie called Under the Skin. To be perfectly honest, this movie had some very controversial themes, but he was grateful for the experience.

McWilliams told the BBC, “I got a phone call from a guy I had never heard of – he was interested in motorcycle riders for this role. At first, I thought it was a wind-up and was waiting for one of my friends to walk around the corner at any moment. Even during the filming of the movie, nobody got to hear much about it. Jonathan is quite guarded in everything he does. Really, they wanted me to turn up and ride a motorbike really fast through the Highlands of Scotland in really awful conditions in snow, ice and rain. In the movie, I look after Scarlett Johansson, I clean up after her, remove somebody. I kill the ones that she lets go,” he said. “It is a strange theme, a really different movie. It was handy that there was no speaking.”

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Now, the rider will be hoping that his crashed bike will be fixed in time for this weekend’s race at Road Atlanta. For that, his team would probably have to work double-time.