R.E.S. pits for fuel during a AMA/CCS EBC U.S. Endurance Championship at Daytona in 1991. (Larry Lawrence photo)

Faulty quick-fills aren’t anything new at Daytona. Last week Tommy Aquino was forced to retire from the Daytona 200 when the team’s quick-fill fuel tank stuck open spewing gas all over the Graves Yamaha. It brought back memories of the same thing happening to Scott Russell in 1992. Fortunately for Russell he was able to continue after being doused in race fuel and won the 200 in a thriller over Doug Polen.

The one area of motorcycle racing where you’d think they’d have fuel stops down is endurance racing, but even that was not always the case. This is a photo of R.E.S. Racing making their final pit stop during the opening round of the AMA/CCS EBC U.S. Endurance Championship at Daytona. R.E.S. riders Ray Yoder, Fritz Kling and Kevin Rentzell looked to have the race won, when, just before the team was to pit for the final time the R.E.S Suzuki sputtered to a stop, out of gas.

“With the quick-fill can that we have, you can’t tell for sure if the thing is full,” said R.E.S.’s Fred Kling in a magazine interview at the time. “It’s pretty obvious we didn’t get it filled last time.”

One other explanation of many of the teams running out of fuel was the high winds. Many teams reported higher than normal fuel consumption during that race and several crew chiefs theorized the heavy head wind was the culprit.

Dutchman Racing, with Chris Haldane and Fabian Cortez went on to win the race over Rick Kirk and Mike Harth of Team Mad Dog.