‘Goodbye Chrissy’: Hundreds turn out to pay respects to fallen BSB racer

A cavalcade of 200 motorcycle riders revved their engines in honour of one of their own as they followed a hearse carrying British Superbike rider Chrissy Rouse to a packed funeral service at Emmanuel College, Gateshead.

More than 1200 family, friends, and fans from across the country, many wearing pink T-shirts sporting his CR69 number, packed a service held in the sports hall to remember the 26-year-old, who died after a crash at Donington Park earlier this year.

A former pupil at the college, tributes flooded in from the world of racing, teaching and family for the Crowe Performance BMW team rider who was competing in his first full season of BSB. He was involved in a crash on the opening lap of the penultimate round, on October 2, passing away in hospital on October 6, just ahead of his 27th birthday.

“He always told me ‘If anything happens, I absolutely love what I am doing’. Then he would pull down his visor and ride away,” his mother Karen told mourners. “He certainly lived his nearly 27 years in the fast lane. Our boy’s life has been filled with and surrounded by love and racing has given us all that.”

His father Martin, added: “You will always be our first thought in the morning and our last thought at night.”

Chrissy, the 2020 British National Superstock champion, sports commentator and Chasin’ the Racin’ podcast host, was both a student and teacher with the Emmanuel Schools Foundation.

Emmanuel College principal Matt Waterfield said: “I cannot tell you how heartbroken we are to have lost one of our finest former students and much-loved colleagues.

“How are we to honour Chrissy’s memory? May I suggest that we do so by living our lives as though every day counts, believing the impossible to be achievable and by putting love and the service of others before everything else.”