Positions Vacant

[lindsay]

Will we be reading an add in the Positions Vacant column of this weeks news paper.

Wanted Urgent for Kmart Racing Team
Refueler that can calculate fuel load needed
to 100% not 99%. must be available for Bathurst
race weekend October:p:p

[Martin Thomas]

I for one am sick and tired of the team that makes the fewest mistakes winning. Its time for some real parity, Put that fuel man on a different team each race to even the season up......
:D

[Grubby]

There has been a lot said recently about parity and the dominance of the TWR cars.
The weekend showed that they too are human and errors/mistakes and mechanical failures can happen to anyone.

Beware...........They will be back..

Grubby

[admin]

There was 20 litres of fuel left in the tank at the end.
Was purely a mechanical failure of a fuel pump.
Apologies to the race co-ordinator and refueller can be logged here guys!!
Admin

[brchi17]

20 litres of fuel left ?

But this doesn't explain why the fuel light came on ?

I'm no mechanic, but if the fuel pump failed, why would the empty light come on.

I read in the Herald-Sun (Melbourne) & AVESCO website that they had told the Toddler that it was touch and go if they could make it.

Doesn't make sense!

[terrine]

i am sure they showed on the telecast the telemetry in the pits and it showed the fuel light flashing 3 laps from home........

r/peter

[Gary]

According to the telecast the low fuel light came on, on about lap 155-156, which was comfirmed by Murphy on the incar camera.
Low fuel does not mean fuel pump failure or fuel pick up problems as this sensor has to have no fuel touching it -be uncovered in the tank for it to come on according to Skaife who was with the Channel 10 commentators when the incident was unfolding, Skaife even said he would be lucky to have 2 good race laps on the reserve tank not 5 laps.
Maybe there was a fuel sensor failure which meant they changed to their reserve tank unnecessarily.
Any team will say "mechanical failure" and most will never admit to getting their calculations wrong and not putting enough fuel in on their last pitstop as the refuelling process governs the length of their pit stop. A few seconds saved in the pits is a few seconds saved on the track.
Less fuel- shorter pit stop , a good strategy providing you get it right.
We can only go on what we hear and what we are told by the driver and Channel 10 commentators at the time.
How does Admin know there was 20 litres left in the tank? Were they in the pits at the time when the car finally made it way back to the pits as I think it came to a stop just past the finish line after receiving the chequered flag?
I guess we will never know.
Failure to secure a race win so close to the end of a race has happened to a lot in the past and will happen to a lot in the future.
So close and yet so far.
That's motor racing. Grin and bare it.

[Senator1]

To me it's an easy way out, rather than admitting someone stuffed up.

[Grubby]

They did show the telemetry from the pits and the fuel light was on. ( to the best of my knowledge ).
However - after the safety car peeled off Murphs car should have got close to 2 full laps. He didn't even get close to this though ?

Skaife said during the telecast that when the light comes on they would get roughly one lap. The exact same thing was said at Bathurst last year. If they were going to get 1 lap at Bathurst 6.213km on a demanding circuit, surely they should have got 2 laps in Queensland on a flat 3.121km track.

We may never know. Maybe the refueller is off the hook and will go to Bathurst after all. Lets hope so !

Grubby

[wacpt]

I re-watched the tail of the race and from my observations, as soon as the safety car left the track, Murph shot off then suddenly power was gone before his "Spin". Seemed to have enough fuel to raise enough dust to cover a desert getting back on the track and he did make it to the finish line. Anyone had fuel pick-up problems in their cars, if so, you would know that the car doesn't always stop dead, but putters, farts, jerks but still keeps going at a greatly reduced speed, unless it is a total failure in which case it would stop dead, where as low fuel in a standard car will cease to be picked up as the level of the car changes making the car stall. It can be re-started a few times but you wouldn't get far.

Fuel pick-up's in race cars are not the same as a family car. It's my understanding they lie horizontal in the lowest part of the tank remaing submerged constantly which allows for changes in the level of the car. A family car is inverted vertical, that is it is sucked upwards with the lowest part of the pickup no where near the bottom of the tank to prevent crap being picked-up of the bottom (and yes they do have a gauze filter on the end).

With two laps left and running on reserve, Murph should have made it, so why didn't he? I'm not saying he wasn't low on fuel, but low fuel won't cause the dramatic speed drop Murph suffered, and if he did run out of fuel then, how did he make it back to the finish line?

We may never know, but sometimes the obvious isn't always the correct answer.


Keep smiling

[oldxr]

I supose the Skaife/Bright car didn't really lunch its self either, they lose one round for the season and they can't even admit they stuffed up and lost the race.
They were beaten by their own miscalculations, skaife even comented on the stone bros fully fueling their car, saying they should have only put in enough to get to the end of the race.
(just like the KMart team).

GET OVER IT HOLDEN YOU LOST.

[lindsay]

Well I didn't mean to start a domestic or hurt anyones feelings
(Admin) I was only having a bit of a joke.
I was as devastated as Murph was , it meant that I lost both my 1st & 2nd picks in finishline.
I watched it back on my video and to me it looked like the car only made to the line on it's own momentum.

PS. Mr Refueler sorry if I upset you , but I will be keeping a close eye on you at Bathurst to make sure you don't lose a Murph podium spot.;) ;)

[ferrari fan]

No such problems in Monza for the Boys including Eddy:D

[admin]

I do have quite an inside run on a lot of these goings on and I was passing on what I thought would be some unbiased input into why car #51 slowed.
The "20 litres left" comment was from no-one associated with TWR, no-one from Kmart, but an independant promotions guy whom I spoke to on the phone from QLD500.

[Mazda]

Quote from

http://www.sportal.com.au/v8x.asp?i=news&id=30535

"In a race that featured six safety car periods and a brief shower, it came down to the final three laps when Besnard passed Greg Murphy as he ran out of fuel.

Murphy's fuel warning light came on just before the final safety car at lap 154 of 161, but he stayed in front up until the penultimate lap when Besnard charged past and took a popular victory."

WELL DONE FORDS
Good to see a $2 part broke Skaifes winning streak.
The part was probably purchased from K-Mart Tyre and Auto Care.

[Grubby]

Neither HRT or KMart have tried to shift the blame or point the finger. As I said earlier it shows that they are human & mistakes do happen. ( just not very often ). The info on the fuel as admin said has come from a third party not TWR.

Bring on Bathurst

Grubby

[wacpt]

Just read the V8 Supercar Site report and these are the comments of Richo about the Murph

On the incident with Murphy, he said there wasn't much he could do. "Murphy had a big fuel surge in turn three which is when David got through. Then in turn six he absolutely stopped, I jumped on the brakes and someone hit me and then I hit him and turned him around."

Read the Race story (http://www.v8supercar.com.au/news/latestnews/news display.asp?gid=4219)

At least it ALL made for a great race and an interesting finish. One for the ford fans.

Bring on Bathurst

[frosty]

This is the extract that appeared in the Melbourne Herald Sun dated 17th Sept 2002. by Motoring editor Paul Gover.

"The car that ran dry to cost Greg Murphy and Todd Kelly the Queensland 500 just two laps from the flag on Sunday still had 20 litres of fuel in the tank.

But the petrol was trapped, unable to keep the K mart Commodore's faltering V8 alive, after three of its six fuel pumps failed.

The failure was discovered when mechanics stripped the back end of the car.

"It is just gut wrenching. It really hurts," Murphy said.

"The boys pulled it apart and straight away they could see fuel. So they knew something must have failed.

They knew how much it should have had, which was around 20 litres, so they were happy to see the fuel.

"The guy who had done those fuel calculations, Eric Pinder, is too smart to make that sort of mistake. I'm glad we had a mechanical failure, not a brain fade."


End of quote..

[GTSCoup]

Thanks for that post Frosty.

For everyone else, Apologies to the race co-ordinator and refueller can be logged here guys (AND ADMIN)!!

GTScoup