WORDS: Roger Moroney
The moment Fenati buggered his MotoGP career...
SITUATION VACANT:
MotoGP hot-dog vendor…
ou don’t see that every day,” an
imbibing chum of mine said the
other day as the subject of trying to
operate another motorcycle’s braking
system from another motorcycle came up.
It was the “Fenati incident”, which gave the
Moto2 race at the San Marino GP a lot more
spice and breathlessness than this highly
charged and competitive branch of the sport
usually delivers.
And for the first time in a very long time the
evening sports wraps on the usually rugby-
saturated channels showed a spot of Moto2.
Unfortunately it was a slice of Moto2 which
those who steer the sport would have been
left wincing by.
Fenati, steaming alongside Stefano Manzi
on his Kalex casually reached over and gave
Manzi’s front brake lever a short and sharp
squeeze... at around 215km/h.
It was, simply, nuts.
It was so ridiculous that I can only surmise
he chose to reach over and grab the brake
lever because carrying a steel rod to try and
poke through the wheels would have been
72 KIWI RIDER
far too obvious.
His brain fade can only be further added
to by the fact that he probably thought he
could get away with it. But at the GPs there
are pretty well as many camera operators as
there are marshalls, and his folly was clearly
and perfectly recorded... for the world to
watch. As well as the track o cials who
scurried quickly to the flag cupboard to find
the black one to wave at him.
And did he for one clouded moment truly
believe his team would not have a few
words to say.
Which, it transpired, they did.
Well, one word really... “Goodbye”.
Although if they were as angry as Manzi’s
team it may well have been two words. So
he lost his place in the Team Sniper outfit,
as well as losing the opportunity to try out
for the MV Agusta team which is planning to
enter Moto2 next season.
I daresay his only real option at future GPs is
to sell hot dogs in the hospitality tent village.
Or get a job servicing brakes... I dunno.