[changzuki]

Post Stage 1 / Pre Stage 2 fuel refill...
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Around 12:30 in the Watkins Glen Raceway garage, there was a gathering for instructions about the Stage 2 Road Rally.
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For this portion, several pages stapled together were found in our race packets. There was a rule sheet, narrative, scoresheet, Sherrif's letter, and this amazing paper full of hieroglyphs called a "Tulip Map" (...wonderful..) In the 288 mile trip down to the hotel south (of the racetrack), there were a grand total of 5 turns and I screwed up the 2nd to the last one.
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What do you suppose I was going to do with a Tulip Map? So now, the Stage 2 Rally wasn't looking too hot.


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During the next half hour of batting this around, the prospect of arriving home before nightfall was looking better and better, so much so that I and asked Sheepdog 44 if he would be ok with my friend Pete staying with me for this Stage 2 portion just in case.. Taking one for the team, he agreed and Team Centurion had officially split-up; Sheepdog 44 found a Stage 2 ride with Aerostang, and Centurion remained at the track. After the cars started Stage 2 (leaving the garage for Valero) I had a lengthy discussion with Pete who encouraged we go for it and do Stage 2. I agreed to make a final decision after the Valero fuel up, so off we went. Being maybe only 10 minutes away from Valero didn't give me a lot of time, and it started raining a little harder.
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As we made the descent to Valero, the 1st omen showed up only a couple miles from the raceway.
Weeebooo - weeeeebooo - weee-booooo!!!!!
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Then 15 minutes later, we were on "The Endless Road to Nowhere"... The "Curse of the Tulip Map" had kicked in and now we were lost... Luckily a traffic light was in sight, but there were no clues as to where we were. With cars in the rearview, we pulled over to let them pass...
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BINGO! WE JUST GOT LUCKY!!! The cars behind us were sporting their Green Grand Prix numbers and likely took the same wrong turn we did. We were saved and only had to follow our new tour guides to the gas station!
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As quickly as we got lucky, we got unlucky! Seems the other cars wanted to makeup time for the bogus turn and even barreling along against the Kubota's governor (65 mph) we couldn't keep up - and that convoy faded out of sight..
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At least 15 minutes later we ran across civilization and in the distance was a "Burger King"; we had hope!
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Looking beyond burger world, it appeared there was a gas station and as we wheeled a little closer there it was - VALERO!
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Upon entering the Valero station there was one of the two cars we saw earlier (the Mini) so maybe timewise we weren't too far in the hole.
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We had to wait for the cars to clear to gain access to the one and only diesel pump. Moving 10 more feet it was now time to remove the 2 gallon tank for the official fill-up. I remember saying to Pete that we must be on a little slope or something because there was still plenty of fuel visible in the sight glass.
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Recap: This was after driving up Mt. Ararat to the track, driving 100+ miles on the track, then making a wrong turn onto the scenic route back to Valero, and we still had what looked to be roughly 3/4 of a two-gallon tank of fuel remaining!
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Really?.....Really!
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As I removed the filler cap and the fuel Marshall was approaching the tank, I remember saying to Pete, "This is going to be really interesting. There's still a lot of fuel in there."
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Remembering fuel-fill #1, the goal was to fill the tank to the top of the sight glass just like before. As the fuel Marshall squeezed the trigger the fuel began to flow. As the pump's digital display sprung into life we watched and held our breath - but not long enough to turn purple. Or even red . In fact, not really long enough to qualify as holding our breath - the pump handle just clicked. The fuel was even with the full line on the sightglass and the pump's digital display showed less than half a gallon.
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Actually, it was approaching the "neighborhood" of having used a measly 1/3 gallon. We all just stood there like we had been slapped . I asked the fuel Marshall if I could rock the tank to make sure there wasn't an air bubble and he said sure. This made no difference; the fuel fill was over. Pete ran some quick numbers on his iPhone, the fuel Marshall laughed, the scorekeeper wrote down the odometer and fuel numbers and said "Nice job", and I went into thermal shock....
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At the counter I told the clerk I just filled up on the diesel pump. She laughed and said, "Is that all it took?" It was her statement that began the repeat of exactly what the last couple of years have been like when folks respond to the mpg numbers affixed to the front of Centurion's fender.
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This was bittersweet news at best. The idea that not just a car, but this car, could pull those kind of numbers seemed very surreal..
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But it just did...
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How?.... The Devil is in the details.....
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~CrazyJerry