WORDS: Roger Moroney
The moment Fenati buggered his MotoGP career...
SITUATION VACANT:
MotoGP hot-dog vendor...
“Y
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
70 KIWI RIDER
through the wheels would have been 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 officials who scurried quickly
to the flag cupboard to find the black one to
wave at him.
And did he for one clouded moment truly be-
lieve 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.