11

The French racer Frankie Zapata got arrested and jailed for a few hours for hitting a competitor after the 2nd Moto in pro 1200.

Apparently he was passing a lapper while catching on Farthing and the lapper hit him, damaging his boat and lose all his chances to the title.
The return to the beach got messy and Zapata ended being arrested for assault on the lapper, he was bailed out a few hours later.

Any more details?

AIRICCC

according to the stereotype, thats not very charactaristic of the french...

jetskier79

Didn't hear about the fight, but Zapata got screwed. I'm not laying blame to the lapper though because I had an obscured view of what happened.

What I do know is that at the first part of the last lap, Zapata got in a pretty gnarly tangle, and prior to that he was DEFINITELY pulling in Farthing. Not sure he would have pulled him in by the end of that lap though. Had the race been 2 or 3 laps longer, I think he for sure could have passed him.

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Scott Kalisch

I wonder if this incident will get swept under the carpet by the IJSBA too......

willycrumb

There were many on track incident that could have ended up that way. I was surprised there wasnt more. Some good sportsmanship out there. Some times the emotions get to these guys after working so hard all year and traveling here just to lose it all for some stupid reason.

mpipes

Zapata landed squarely on top of Tim Neff in the corner coming off the front straight. Tim went wide and slowed down to let Franky pass but Franky caught air in mid-turn, slid sideways (in the air) and squashed Neff like a bug!

I hope Neff isn't the guy that Franky tore off after because there wasn't much more either one of them could have done differently in this case, besides just opting not to race at all.

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Mike Pipes

mile9c1

Have they learned nothing from NASCAR?? People love drama

FarthingRacing

The whole point to this story is that everyone on the track has to deal with lappers, as do I that is racing I managed to slow down and get through them without hitting them. He hit 2 lappers in 2 motos not just one. Over my years of racing there have been many lappers in the way and some that have made me loose positions but you can not punch or kick the guy in the face in tech.

The 2nd moto he hit Neff and the 3rd moto he hit Pully that is who he got into a fight with in tech after the 3rd moto not the 2nd.

The same thing happened last year when one of his guys tried to stab Kanomori with a piece of ReeBar in tech after moto 3 because they hit.

Scottie Mac

You know, I have to say, after all these years, I have to agree, I have never seen Dustin take anyone out to make a pass, he usually just makes them look stupid with and inside out.

Besides, Dustin knows what it feels like to get landed on by a french guy, no fun at all.

Good ride D.

Scott

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Thinking this sport class thing may have some 'short term' life in racing!

11

Good to hear the other side of the story, over there on French sites it got pretty heated...