The following story appeared in the BMW club track day hand book, this is the unedited version if anyone is interested!
In the motorcycling community I am known for riding long distances, in the working world as a welder, in the pub for drinking Guinness mixed with coke and in everything else my tendencies to run out of petrol, this is partly due to my dislike of deploying my wallet until it's absolutely necessary to do so!
The moral of the story is, no matter how much you are enjoying the track, the situation, or the company, you still need to take care of the essentials and know the procedures, or you will suffer!
Of the numerous times I have run out of fuel, in most of the vehicles I have owned, 2 specific occasions spring to mind, both impossible to hide, cover up or deny. The first was at Cadwell Park whilst competing in the Vincent club race meeting. I'd had quite a successful day, the meeting had run smoothly with no stoppages and about 4.30 over the PA came "attention paddock, attention paddock, the first 24 riders down to the warming up area can have an extra 10 lap race". Sayings about 'gift horses' and 'he who hesitates' came to mind and it seemed like a race in itself to get kitted up and down the slope to the warming up area hoping to be at the front end of the rush!
I was one of the first 24 to get there and led the race for about 6 laps. Then, running flat out after Mansfield (in the days before the chicane before the left turn into Cadwell's famous Mountain), there was that all too familiar misfire on one cylinder that told me my one litre air cooled boxer was running out of petrol.Being a weakling I made the instant decision to make it back to the paddock and avoid pushing what seemed like half a ton of heavy metal up the slope beside the mountain. My principal regret about this incident (apart from the obvious and not winning), is that I did not stop beside the track to let the second and third place riders know they were dicing for the lead.
Another memorable catastrophe was in Germany, to be continued...
In the motorcycling community I am known for riding long distances, in the working world as a welder, in the pub for drinking Guinness mixed with coke and in everything else my tendencies to run out of petrol, this is partly due to my dislike of deploying my wallet until it's absolutely necessary to do so!
The moral of the story is, no matter how much you are enjoying the track, the situation, or the company, you still need to take care of the essentials and know the procedures, or you will suffer!
Of the numerous times I have run out of fuel, in most of the vehicles I have owned, 2 specific occasions spring to mind, both impossible to hide, cover up or deny. The first was at Cadwell Park whilst competing in the Vincent club race meeting. I'd had quite a successful day, the meeting had run smoothly with no stoppages and about 4.30 over the PA came "attention paddock, attention paddock, the first 24 riders down to the warming up area can have an extra 10 lap race". Sayings about 'gift horses' and 'he who hesitates' came to mind and it seemed like a race in itself to get kitted up and down the slope to the warming up area hoping to be at the front end of the rush!
I was one of the first 24 to get there and led the race for about 6 laps. Then, running flat out after Mansfield (in the days before the chicane before the left turn into Cadwell's famous Mountain), there was that all too familiar misfire on one cylinder that told me my one litre air cooled boxer was running out of petrol.Being a weakling I made the instant decision to make it back to the paddock and avoid pushing what seemed like half a ton of heavy metal up the slope beside the mountain. My principal regret about this incident (apart from the obvious and not winning), is that I did not stop beside the track to let the second and third place riders know they were dicing for the lead.
Another memorable catastrophe was in Germany, to be continued...