WORDS: ROGER MORONEY
PHOTO: HONDA
MARQUEZ WILL BE OUT TO
ENSURE MORONEY NEVER OPENS
HIS CELEBRATORY BOTTLE...
I
THE DREADED DNF
am in mourning.
Well no, maybe that’s too emotive a term.
Let’s say I am crestfallen.
Well no, maybe that’s too confusing a term.
Perhaps I am bewildercated.
Well no, I don’t think that’s a real word, not
that such literary rules ever meant much to
me. I’m peeved… yeah, maybe that’s it.
Peeved, with a slice of disappointment and
sadness mildly blended in. For it has been
two Moto GPs in a row that the chap with
the 46 on his back, who I have followed since
he was sliding about on 500cc two-strokes,
has made it to the results sheets with letter,
rather than numbers, attached to his name.
Valentino Rossi… DNF.
On the mathematical side of things, if he
were to have taken maybe a brace of runner-
up spots over those past two events, it
equates to 40 points.
And in this competitive game you just can’t
make that up again… unless six other flash
chaps decide to retire mid-season.
Ahh, it hassa beena badda run for The
Doctor who, I fear, may seriously begin
contemplating where he will go from here in
terms of the 2020 season.
88 KIWI RIDER
Will he call it a day?
Or will be discover eight more horsepower
for his Yamaha?
Not that the thing seems to need it, judging
by Maverick Vinales’ remarkable and
blistering pace at the very, very fast Assen
track up there in the northern Nederlands.
On that note, I was up there in ‘77 and was
blown away by the pace generated by the
500s on that great flowing circuit. And it
was an occasion that, despite the sounds of
barking strokers blasting away across the
landscape, I heard the biggest roar I have
ever heard at a motoring event… although
ok, maybe the decibels at Bathurst on the last
lap would be equally impressive but I’ve been
there so that don’t count.
It was about two laps to go and Frenchman
Christian Estrosi was leading and leading very
well.
From local boy Wil Hartog with Barry Sheene
back behind him. Estrosi was fast and that
looked to be it… until the bike slid from under
him on a fast right-hander just before the
line-up to the finish line.
A slide to the dirt carried out in front of a
packed stand.