Apart from the hugely-publicised demolition of the Harris Suzuki at the hands of Josh Brookes, the other story that has gone around the world is the one of Sydney privateer, Michael Murray, who had this happen to his immaculate TZ350D.
Pit lane, Saturday afternoon, Phillip Island, qualifying for the Island Classic. Mike’s engine had loaded up with fuel so they took it to the roller starter to turn it over and pump the excess fuel out of the cylinders. Spark plugs had been removed, what could go wrong? Well, what went wrong was that, the ignition on the bike was accidentally bumped into the “On” position. As soon as the rollers turned, the spark from the spark plug leads, lying on the top of the cylinder head next to the spark plug holes ignited the fuel roaring out of the holes and the bike erupted in flames. Poor Mike. He couldn’t bale out of the bike, all he could do was get his body as far away from the flame as possible. Quick action by a fellow competitor in the next pit had the fire out in around 3 seconds. That seems like an instant and it is really, but, standing there and watching it happen, it seemed like an eternity.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t quite the end of the story. In the ensuing confusion, a mechanic moved to the side of the bike to help Mike off the bike and check that he was OK and accidentally stepped on the starter for the rollers and the whole thing happened again! Again, quick action prevented any injury to Mike and minimised damage to the bike and they rode later in the day without any apparent harm from the incident.
It was a scary incident and one which illustrated the fact that, no matter how you prepare, something can go wrong. It also illustrated that quick action can save lives. At the Riders’ Briefing last Saturday morning at Wakefield Park, the Clerk of the Course publically thanked Roger Quinlan for his quick action and acknowledged the debt that all those around the incident owed to him for his quick and decisive action.
In other matters the announcement this week that Damian Cudlin has scored a full-time Moto2 ride for 2012 in a well-funded team was balanced out by the announcement from Anthony West that he will not be riding in MotoGp in 2012 after all after having failed to raise the necessary funds to pay for his ride with the Speedmaster Team. He also noted that the MZ Team has yet to pay him what is owed to him for his riding last year, what a surprise. Latest word is that Ant MAY be off to the BSB for a ride there. Let’s hope so, he’s too good a rider to retire yet.