The enormous solidarity charge behind the fire in a box in the MotoGP paddock

September 22, 2022

It was a few minutes past eight in the evening local time and it was already night in Japan, the teams had already set up their garages and the bikes were ready for the first day of practice this Friday. Some members of the paddock were finalizing details, others had already finished their day, closed the box and had gone to the hotel to rest.

This was the case of the Belgian formation Marc VDS , of Moto2, to which they had assigned box number 12, in the area of the MotoGP teams, a gap between Suzuki and Aprilia .

Suddenly, with no one inside the garage, intense smoke began to come out of the vents, which immediately caught the attention of some of the staff of the adjoining guarantors, as well as other people who were in the vicinity. Suzuki mechanics burst open the garage door, quickly followed by Aprilia mechanics and members of other firefighting teams on hand. The first thing they did was take the bikes out of the box and try to put out the flames.

In a note published by the team hours later, the fire is attributed to the entry of water and its contact with a charger.

“After extinguishing the fire in the box, the relevant inspections showed that the fire started when some rainwater entered the garage and reached the ground, where it came into contact with a charger. That, in turn, triggered some sparks, which then quickly turned into a fire,” the team’s note explains.

“Fortunately, thanks to the incredible work done by all the paddock people who were there, the security and circuit firefighters, the damage was kept to a minimum,” the note continues.

“The Elf Marc VDS team would like to publicly thank the work and great help provided by all our colleagues in the paddock, with a special mention to the Suzuki team who worked with us to clean and rebuild the box as if it were their own,” he explains.

“With all members of our team safe and the garage rebuilt, we are ready to start the grand prix tomorrow,” the note concludes.

But the gesture of the Suzuki mechanics, who not only put out the flames and saved everything they could, but, once the situation was under control, cleaned the two Marc VDS bikes so that they looked shiny at the garage door in the pitlane, was not the only one with a huge solidarity load.

As one of the mechanics of the Belgian team, Guille Carrillo , explains on his social networks, there were many who helped and offered to do it.

“Thank you very much to the members of Suzuki and Aprilia, forcing the (pit) door open, putting out the fire and taking the bikes out of the burning garage. Heroes. But that was not enough for them, they stayed with us cleaning and refinishing. set up the box”, writes the well-known Spanish mechanic on his twitter.

To add, below: “Not forgetting who called us, and other people involved helping, Eric and Pol from Dorna, Albert Talamino (LCR), and people who offered by phone to come help, from Honda, Pramac, KTM, Gresini and KTM-Ajo”.

Without a doubt, a story that could have turned into a true tragedy and that, instead, ended up bringing to the surface the enormous burden of solidarity that exists between the staff of the teams in the MotoGP World Championship.

Fire in the Marc VDS box in Motegi