Safety in motor racing improves with every passing year, but there's no doubt that it's still a dangerous sport. That's what they found out the hard way in Macau this weekend, where two competitors, we're saddened to report, were killed in racing accidents. Held in a part of China widely regarded as the Monaco of the Far East, the Macau Grand Prix is a Formula Three event that is supported by several other races, including motorcycles and touring cars where the heavy tolls were taken this weekend.

The first took place when Portuguese rider Luis Carreira was killed on Thursday when he crashed his motorbike in the Superbike race. A veteran racer, Carreira had competed in the Macau Superbike race seven times before, and had also raced numerous times in the grueling Isle of Man TT, among other events. The crash occurred during the qualifying session. Less than 24 hours later, tragedy struck Macau's Guia Circuit a second time when Philip Yau (40 years old from Hong Kong) crashed his Chevrolet Cruze touring car into a barrier at high speed. Yau had raced in and won previous events at the same circuit.

The car burst into flames and rolled to a halt before rescue workers cut the mangled car open, extracted Yau and transported him to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead 40 minutes later after attempts to revive him failed. These were not the first deaths that occurred at the Macau Grand Prix, after crashed claimed lives in 1994 and 2005. A spectator was also killed at the event in 2000 when a car left the track. Officials in charge of the event and facility, however, insist that the track is safe for racing, and did not suspend any of the other races this past weekend.