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Challenging week at Runoffs for 3rd place	Tuesday, October 10, 2023
After the weekend at Grattan, the car was running well, and we won both races, but we knew it was down on horsepower. We checked the cylinder compression and found 235, 205, 191, 205 – not good. A leak down test showed we were losing air through the valves, so we ordered new valves from Brian Crower, removed the head, and had Mike at M&M do a quick valve job on the head. After reinstalling the head, we had great compression (~235 of all four cylinders), BUT when we checked the CR with our Whistler we measured 10.5, considerably less than our maximum of 11.0. We pulled the head off again and found the MLS head gasket that I ordered custom from Cometic to be .093” was actually .100”. It had 5 layers of .010”,.035”,.010”,.035,.010” adding up to 100”. We replaced one of the .035” with an old .025” to get to a total .090” gasket and reinstalled the head. We now measured a CR of 10.8 with good compression. We wanted to get it retuned before the Runoffs, but Corey was getting married and was not available. It was not perfect but it was pretty good. We did the final adjustments on the car, setup and loading the week before. We had tons of help from Carrie who now has some free time during the day as all three kids are in school. She also made us lots of prepared food that we reheated in the oven or microwave that was tremendous. Sunday Sept 24 Kevin and I met real early at the shop to connect the RV and get on the road to VIR at 8am. We wanted to make sure we got there before registration closed at 6pm so we wouldn’t have to sleep outside the gate. Even with some rain and slowdowns, and filling the RV with diesel when we got close to the track, we made it in time and went in to set up our paddock. The last two years at VIR we had reserved paddock spots down by the starting grid with 50-amp power, sewer, and water connections for $250. This year we missed out on that, and ended up on the last spot along side of the incoming road in the grass for $80. Truthfully, it was a lot nicer not being down by all the craziness. We had to run a generator each day and be a bit careful with our RV water usage, but it was fine. We feasted on Carries enchiladas that we put in the oven, and we managed to get a replay of the Packers game connected to the TV in the RV. They were losing 17-0 at half and ended up beating the Saints 18-17. Monday Sept 25 On Monday we had the day to get ready for our first qualifying session on Tuesday and set up the paddock. We set up the big 12’x24’ canopy, connected the new small generator, and unloaded the trailer. Kevin got out and prepared one of our spare sets of Koni 2812 shocks for sale to a fellow Honda racer. We pumped out the car and purchased 93 oct fuel with the marker from the track and put it in the car. We had a blown tire on the tire rack that I bought a replacement for, but I couldn’t find where I put is. I also crawled under the Discovery RV and checked the new gearmotor I installed on the big left pushout. I found the release lever not set which was allowing the pushout to wiggle out while were driving. Kevin installed all the contingency stickers and cleaned the car. We did some riding around to talk with friends and see the cars. Later that day Joe Moser arrived and had not reserved a paddock so he parked right next to us – nice. We were invited to Matt Wolfes paddock just a few doors down for grill steak for dinner. We heated the cheesy potatoes casserole that Carrie had sent with us and took it to the dinner. It was a very good day! Tuesday Sept 26 We sent happy birthday messages to Andy, and got the car ready to go out for our first combined qualifying session with FP & GTL at 8:10am. The car ran well but after one full out lap it lost all drive because the right half shaft had popped out of the transmission. After the session, they towed him back to the paddock where we pulled the shaft out and trying to figure out why it popped. Actually, it had popped out several times earlier this summer, sometimes while just sitting on the trailer, and we didn’t know why. We would push it back in and it would run fine all weekend. We pushed the shaft back in, and took her out for a hardship lap later that day and it popped out again on the out lap – now we have a problem. Kev & I went all over the paddock borrowing shafts from other Integra owners and we studied them all. I called Marty who made all of those shafts for all of the racers and picked his brain as well. What we concluded was that the last two shafts we got from Marty used a stiff vinyl or silicone rather than a rubber boot. They also pushed the boot as far onto the shaft as they could, beyond the indentation where they should go. That effectively made the shaft act as if it was almost and inch shorter than it should be. That inch provided lots of tension trying to pull the shaft out of the transmission while at rest or moving. The stiff boot added to the tension – especially on colder days which does not affect rubber. So, we took our shaft that popped out and repacked the grease, put it all back together and repositioned the boot so there was no tension from the boot wanting to pull the shaft out of the transmission. Also you should know that once a shaft pops out of a trans, it damages the end so it pops out easier the next time. This shaft was slightly damaged but we thought it would stay in. We worked late to finish the car and had some more of Carries prepared food for dinner. Wednesday Sep 27 We went out in 21st position at 8:10am for our second qualifying session, but with just FP cars, hoping to get a lap to put us up front. Unfortunately, after just three laps we lost drive and he brought it in. The shaft did not pop out but rather the inner joint destroyed itself. Since this shaft did not pull itself out, we believed our popping out “fix” and theory was correct, but the stress we put on the joint over the summer was enough to make it go. We went back and borrowed a used shaft from Trevor Digioni and installed it in the car. By the way, on just those three slow out laps, Kevin went fast enough to move into 10th place. After installing Trevor’s shaft we took her out for a hardship test lap and it ran fine – but for only one lap. It was the first time of the week that the car drove itself back to paddock under its own power…… Also that day we purchased a race Keeper camera for the car that automatically turns on and off, a camera with both front and rear high-def cameras. We decided not to install it in the car at the last minute so we did not take any chances. We are looking forward to using this next year. Diane & Sheryl, and Carrie & the kids showed up about 4pm in time to get through registration. We had lots of fun cart rides with the kids touring the race track on a beautiful day. We walked around the all-party event down the road which was not so great. We played “add-on” story with the kids which was very fun. Thursday Sep 28th We were excited to take her out for the final qualifying session at 8:20am to try to get into at least the first three rows. This session had GTL with us again so it was more crowded. After just the out lap, Kevin pulled into the pits and waited until I saw the leaders coming down the hill into roller coaster, when I told him to go. It was the perfect plan. HOWEVER, Just as I told him to go, they threw a double yellow and they would not let him out of the pits. After a while they let him out and he was right back in the spot where he started in the middle of the crowd. When it finally went back to green, he had a small off. He gathered her up and took one last try at a good lap right at the end of the session. He turned in a 2.09.266, 2.1 seconds slower than our track record, which left him in 4th on the second row – not bad. Had all of our qualifying sessions went better we know we could have taken the pole. There were a couple of faster cars on the straights but nobody faster in the braking and corners. Overall, we had the fastest car & driver. They pulled us into tech for some minor legality checks, camera, shop manual, reverse gear, etc. and released us. We immediately started replacing the damaged splitter board with the spare, put in 8 gallons of fuel for the race and put on the race tires. Actually, as we inspected the front wheels with the race tires, we found cracks in the wheels, so we put the other front wheels on without cracks. We had never seen cracks in our wheels before but they were very small and hard to see. We are certainly getting better at looking for and finding bizarre items that we have never seen before, that could put us out of the race. Of course, those things only happen at the Runoffs race. We spent the rest of the day talking with people and playing with the kids. Then we all went to the All-Participant dinner which was right next to our paddock. Friday Sep 29 – Race Day We are up early to set tire pressures, install radio & camera and get ready for the race. We head down to grid along with Carrie & the kids, and Grandma and Sheryl. It was Diane’s first time on the starting grid before a Runoffs race – lots of activity, cameras, interviews, etc. We started 4th behind Ira in his Honda DelSol, Hingston in a Miata, and Kannard in his Integra that we used to own. Right behind us was Workman in his Miata, and Campbell in his Miata. It was a beautiful day for a race. At the start, in turn one, everyone tucked to the inside. Kevin went outside and passed for third, then second place behind Ira. On the second lap Kevin ducked under Ira to take the lead right before Oak Tree turn. At the same time Hingston tried to follow him but there was certainly no room and he hit Ira in his left side front and rear. How Ira avoided any damage to put him out of the race is astounding. Kevin pulled out to a 3 second lead and maintained it for several laps. Ira & Kannard were faster in the long straight but Kev could maintain his lead because he was quicker in the rest of the track. While this is going on, Hingston had damaged his right front tire when he hit Ira, and certainly knew it was damaged but did not come in. The flat tire eventually separated from the wheel and went rolling down the track. He continued to drive the car, on the rim, to get back to the pits, where he had someone install a new wheel. So, he is now down a lap or two and decides to go back out to win the race. He gets to Hog Pen and flies off the track, fortunately where no one else was around, and hit the tire wall hard. Of course, at VIR that drew a double yellow. VIR NEVER DOES HOT PULLS. So because of this idiot, all the cars are now bunched up close behind the pace car and Kevin’s 3 second lead is gone. Kevin had a great re-start but with Kannard & Ira on Kevins bumper when they got to the long straight, they eventually drafted and passed. They then held Kevin up in the rest of the track where he could not pass them. That was how it ended with Kannard, then Ira, and Kevin in third. It was really a great race. Kenny drove as good of a race as I have ever seen him do. His Prather engine allowed him to stay up with Kevin and get around. Ira drove well enough to stay close enough for his big Prather engine to keep him near the front but not well enough to pass Kenny. This was Kenny’s 28th try at the FP runoffs and he finally did it. It might be interesting to note that every one of the top cars in this race was running Jesse Prather engines, EXCEPT us. Earlier in the week when we had shaft problems, Jesse posted on Facebook that all of the top ten cars in FP ran Prather engines. I think it was probably more because we were 21 at the time. I apologized to Jesse for being the fly in his ointment. We build a good engine but we could never match the time and effort put into his engines. As podium finishers we were required to go to tech and be torn down for engine inspection immediately after the race. Normally in tech they require you to remove the head so they can measure the valves, the cams, the displacement, the compression ratio and more. We did that, but rather than just put all the parts in boxes and tow the car back onto the trailer, we decided to put it all back together. An hour later we started her up and drove her back to paddock. We didn’t see anybody else do that. That evening we all went to a Mexican restaurant along with Joey & Chad. We invited Kenny & wife but they had to go buy an airplane. Saturday Sept 30 First thing we wanted to get the car finished. We removed the borrowed half shaft and checked the ignition timing before we loaded her up. We were all done and loaded by 10am so we could go watch Joey’s STL race. WOW, what a race. He and Styne were battling for the lead for the whole race, and Joey came out on top. We then watched the EP race which was kind of a mess, but still real entertaining. We were on the road by 1pm and to the shop at 10. We put the RV away but did not unload the trailer – no need to right now. It was a great Runoffs week. We had issues with the car but figured them all out and it ran well. Kevin drove excellent again as usual. The Discovery and inTech trailer were both awesome with no issues. The weather was pretty good all week and great on race day. It was awesome to have Sheryl and Grandma along with Carrie, Walter, Cora & Edwin with us most of the week. My back held out well enough to make it to surgery on the Tuesday after we returned.
Kannard wins Runoffs	Monday, October 2, 2023
THIS IS THE SCCA ACCOUNT OF THE RACE - IT WAS SO WELL DONE I DECIDED TO RE-POST IT HERE. Cliff Ira’s been fast in his No. 36 Cliff Ira Motorsports/JPM Honda Civic Del Sol Si, winning F Prod in 2021 – the first year he brought the car to the Runoffs. He’s also started the SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® in second and third, but this year was the first time he’d earned the Tire Rack Pole. But to his left for the green flag was Bill Hingston, whose qualifying time was less than half a second off Ira’s – and like Ira, this was the best he’d ever qualified at the Runoffs. These two were followed by Ken Kannard, who was two decades deep into his hunt for Runoffs gold, and two-time Runoffs champ Kevin Ruck, who was undoubtedly looking to better the silver medals he’d earned at the last two Runoffs. The 20-car field neared the start line as the second race of the weekend on Friday, Sept. 29, as one of 23 races taking place on Hagerty Race Days at the 2023 SCCA Runoffs at VIRginia International Raceway. Ira timed the start perfectly, jumping into the lead, followed by Hingston with Ruck on the outside – Ruck made the pass stick for second place through Left Hook. Exiting Oak Tree on the opening lap, the field was single file but stacked up as the front-wheel-drive race cars of Ira and Ruck pulled from the group into Roller Coaster. At lap one’s conclusion, the top five were Ira, Ruck, Hingston, Campbell, and Kannard, but through Turns 9 and 10, Ira and Hingston came together, dropping both back. Up front, Ruck capitalized, putting a gap on the field. Kannard also gained from the melee, placing him second followed by Campbell, Mason Workman, and Ira. It didn’t take long for Workman and Ira to pass Campbell, but by lap four of 15 – and turning laps a full second faster than Ruck – Ira worked his way up to challenge Kannard for second. Ira’s speed on the front straight was impressive, allowing him to pull alongside Kannard multiple times by start/finish, but was unable to make the pass stick – then working lap seven, a full-course caution flew when Hingston impacted the tire wall on VIR’s fast west side. That caution grouped the field, completely erasing the near three-second advantage Ruck had built over Kannard and Ira, followed by Workman and Campbell. The green reemerged for the start of lap eight, with Ruck, Kannard, and Ira going three wide exiting Turn 1 – but that move only opened the door for Workman and Campbell, as Ira dropped to fifth. Workman took full advantage through South Bend, clinching second from Kannard, although the power of Kannard’s No. 51 Northwest Cable/Hoosier/G-Loc/OPM/JPM 1995 Acura Integra GSR had him back in second place by Roller Coaster. That excitement offered Ruck clean track, as he pulled away in his No. 73 Hoosier/Wilwood/AEM 1990 Acura Integra GSR once more. “The restart couldn’t have gone a whole lot better,” Ruck said. “The car was hooked up in a groove running [fast] times – the car was great. I was able to not get a draft effect – those guys have to draft and I can run on my own. I knew in sector one and sector three I had the best car out here, but I knew once we got into some drafting, it was going to be hard.” Working lap 10, Ira had battled back into third, but he had his work cut out for him as Kannard made the pass for the lead through Roller Coaster and Hog Pen. This dicing opened up an opportunity for Ira, who was now on Ruck’s bumper, challenging for second. Then on lap 11, Ira passed Ruck, then challenged Kannard for the lead on the front straight. Ruck put his nose in the action too, but the three settled back into a tight Kannard-Ira-Ruck train exiting Left Hook. The battle for the lead raged, with Ira finally making the pass while working lap 13 into NASCAR Bend – but Kannard wouldn’t have it, staying side-by-side and reclaiming the top spot one turn later. Ira was glued to Kannard’s bumper on the final lap, with Ruck just over a second behind in third. Onto the front straight, Ira tried the draft once more, popping out for the checker. “I thought I could totally beat him to the line,” Ira said of the final run out of Hog Pen. “My gearing was really killer right there, and I faked inside to make him come over to go outside, but I did it a tick too early, so I lost the draft.” At the stripe, it was Kannard over Ira by 0.123sec, and Ruck in third. Workman and Campbell rounded out the top five. “I had a better gap coming out of Oak Tree [on the final lap], but I saw [Ira] coming because he had a really good run through Roller Coaster and Hog Pen, so I knew he was going to be there,” Kannard said after spraying the Mazza Sparkling Wine in victory circle. “And sure enough, I look at my mirrors coming out of Hog Pen, and he’s there. But he just didn’t have enough to get it done.” This win marked Kannard’s first SCCA National Championship – something he’d been racing for since his first Runoffs appearance in 2001. “I’ve chased [a National Championship] for over 20 years, and I’ve won a lot of races, but this one has eluded me,” said Kannard. “It’s a relief to get one done.”
TWO MAJORS WINS AT GRATTAN	Monday, August 21, 2023
We have been getting ready for this race for quite some time. We needed this race in order to complete three events and get qualified for the Runoffs race in September AND to make sure the car was all going to perform next month at the Runoffs. On Wednesday the week before the event, Sheryl, Kevin and I met at the shop to remove the Cora engine & synchro transmission and install the Edwin engine with the reconditioned dog box transmission. Two days later Kevin & I finished the major items in the install and tightened all the fasteners. Finally on Sunday before the event Nolan helped me check clearances, do final checks and start her up. On Thursday before we left for Grattan, I took her to SloMo for a dyno tune & test and it was fine, but a half dozen hp down from where we wanted it to be. On Friday Kevin and Carry came to do setup on the car and load the race trailer since I wasn’t much help with my bum back. We had a few issues with the car not wanting to start and popping the left half shaft out and leaking oil, but we went anyway. We left at 2pm with plenty of time to get there before registration closed at nine. However, along the way we came to a complete stop for 45 minutes due to an injury accident in a construction zone. We decided to cook our dinner and finished just as the road opened up. We arrived at 845 just in time to register. There were only about 85 entries so there were plenty of paddock spots inside of the track. We paddocked right between Mat Wolfe and Lance Loughman. The weather was actually cool Friday night but it was gorgeous all-day Saturday. We took her out Saturday morning for qualifying and to temper a set of 4 new Hoosiers. Everything ran fine except the transmission. All the gears slid in and stayed in just fine, except 2 to 3. It didn’t want to go in sometimes but slid right in other times. Kevin turned in a 127.094 which took the overall pole by ¾ of a second over Lance Loughman in EP. There were no other FP cars entered. At the start of the race Lance raced past Kevin down the straight to turn one but Kevin out braked him to maintain the overall lead. After that Kevin just pulled away. After 21 laps he won the race with a 40 second lead over Lance. He lapped about half the field of other EP, HP, GTL, STL and B-Spec cars. We turned in a 1:26.511, and Matt set a new B-Spec record while winning his class. Right after the race we checked the car, added fuel, changed tires, installed new Wilwood front brake pads, and I put in a new display program to adjust the alarm limits. Then we went to the famous Saturday night dinner which was pretty good. They had smoked chicken and brisket with potato salad, bow tie pasta salad, green bean casserole, and rolls. They also had at least a dozen local micro-brewery beers to pick from. Sunday morning it was already getting warm on its way to 90 degrees. We decided to put in the driver’s side pushout on the RV early since Kevin had experienced trouble with it wanting to go in, the previous weekend. Sure enough, it didn’t want to go in, so we grabbed four guys from Lance’s crew to help push it in. We bought some more 93 octane fuel from the track for $6/gal. The 100octane we used to run was $11/gal. We took the car out with another 2 new front Hoosiers to temper those for the Runoffs. With only five laps, Kevin was still on pole with a 1:28.212. We decided to utilize the cool suit since it was so hot. We got it all out and added a gallon of water and 5 frozen water bottles and it worked fine. Since we had some time and the engine was still warm, we decided to check the compression in all four cylinders. Sure enough, only #1 was where it should have been, 2 & 4 were a bit low, but #3 was really low. They moved 5 cars from group 7 into our group to save time. The only fast one, a Porshe, did not show up on Sunday. He would have been in front of Kevin. Kevin started on pole and never looked back. He beat the second-place car by 50 seconds over the 23-lap race. He lapped 15 of the 20 cars on track and turned in 1:26.184 which was his best ever lap at this track. And that was with the transmission still acting up with the 2-3 shift. The two wins from this weekend propelled Kevin to the championship of the Northern Division of SCCA. We were also keeping an eye on the battery since the Dewalt charger was only charging it part way. In the Sunday race, with 25 total laps, and running the cool suit pump for most of it, it finished the race but finally gave him a low voltage warning on the cool down lap. He also got a low fuel pressure warning on the last lap – GREAT TIMING.
TWO WINS AT MID OHIO	Monday, May 15, 2023
For our second outing of the year, we took the FP Integra to the OVR Race of Champions SCCA Majors race at Mid Ohio. Although Mid Ohio has fallen into a state of repair it is still one of our favorite places to go. It is also close enough so we can have family & friends come to watch the race. This event was not a Hoosier Super Tour but just a Majors race so it was only a two-day event. Two weeks earlier we went to Pittrace and experienced a power loss with the Discovery RV so we took it in to Peterbilt Caterpillar service in Grove City. They replaced the #2 injector and I picked it up on Thursday. The next day we loaded up and took it to Mid Ohio. Fortunately, it ran very well. Before leaving on Friday night we went out for Mexican dinner with Carrie & the kids. We were in run group seven so our first session on track wasn’t until 11:00 am. It wasn’t raining but it had rained all night and most of the morning so we went out on the intermediate tires that Kevin had cut at the Runoffs. We sure have used those tires a lot with all the rain we have experienced lately. Kevin did an out lap, then got on the power to set a qualifying time. Around turn 12 he felt the car lose all drive power so he coasted all the way to the finish line to set a qualifying time. That lap put us in 12th place over all and second in FP out of the 14 cars that went out . There were only two FP cars , us and David Strittmatter in his Integra. By that time Carrie & the kids had arrived so they helped me use the Yamaha cart to tow it back to our paddock. Turns out the right half shaft had popped out of the transmission which eliminated 90% of the drive to the wheels. We had never had that happen before. I had installed the new spare right half shaft just a few days earlier because I wanted to check out the old one. We thought I just didn’t get the new one all the way in. As we re-inserted the shaft, we noticed that you could wiggle it and it would pop out again. Kevin went into the trailer to get the spare half shaft that I removed earlier. He noticed that it was not the same as the one I installed. He discovered that I had installed the left half shaft which is slightly different. Turns out it was in the box labeled right instead of left, and I didn’t notice the difference. As we got the car all ready to go we were happy to see Andy, Sarah, Drew, Nolan, & Bryn, and Sheryl & Diane arrive to watch us race. The kids had fun taking rides on the Yamaha and the Navi, and we had lunch in the RV. The Saturday race was a 25-minute race that started at 4:00 pm and Kevin started 12th. By turn one he was in 5th and by the end of the first lap he was in 4th. He passed the other FP Integra for 3rd overall and first in class, and went after the two faster EP cars. He decided not to interfere with their race since he had a comfortable lead in his class. Late in the race one of the EP cars hit one of the remaining puddles and it send him off track. Now there was no race going on in front of him. On the last lap he reeled in the EP Datsun 240Z and passed for the overall lead and win. It was a very fun race to watch for all of our 12 fans. After all of our fans left we found the new right half shaft had blown it’s inner seal and sprayed grease all of the underside of the car. We removed that shaft and re-installed the other shaft, and added oil to the transmission. We went to the dinner provided by the Ohio Valley Region of SCCA which consisted of spaghetti & meatballs and beer. It was a beautiful evening. On Sunday we went out for our second qualifying session. We really didn’t need to get a faster qualifying time but we wanted to take advantage of the session to temper a set of new Hoosier tires. Kevin went down to grid and laid back so he would go out last. He does four laps that start slow and get progressively quicker up to the last lap, that he stands on. His best lap was about 1 second faster than his best lap from the day before. That put him on overall Pole. We were surprised to see David Strittmatter in his FP Integra had taken second in front of all of the EP cars. The front row was all Integra. The race was the boring race that yesterdays should have been if Kevin had started at the front. After a crowded turn one at the start, Kevin managed to keep the fast EP cars behind him so he could pull away. He took the overall checker and finished 17 seconds in front of Strittmatter, and 22 seconds in front of the fastest EP car Sam Halkias. We went to pick up our checkered flags and our trophies and received a great surprise. All the trophies that were presented for the weekend had a picture of our Integra on the front. It was very cool. It was a great weekend with two wins, the car ran great, the RV ran great, but best of all - we had a huge contingent of family that came to watch us race.
Finally got the car out to test modifications	Monday, May 1, 2023
We finally got the car out to the track for the first time this year. We changed a lot of things on the car and really needed to test it all: - Re-assembled the Edwin engine after being torn down at the Runoffs and put it in the trailer as our spare. - Removed from spare status and installed the Cora engine back in the car. - Modified the COP bracket for better reliability - Installed a new throttle cable with different bracket - Replaced all four injectors - Replaced all four coil-on-plugs - Replaced all four iridium spark plugs - Had the car tuned for 93 vs 100 octane - Replaced both front fenders & both doors, new graphics and wrap. - Tightened the loose shifter mechanism in the DogBox transmission - Built two new spare knuckles with studs, bearings, ball joints Kevin and I met at the shop on Thursday before the race weekend to do setup and load the car. The setup went well but we discovered the chassis batteries in the RV were totally dead. I went to Batteries+ and got two new batteries exactly like the old ones. I guess I can’t complain since I installed those batteries in May of 2013 – yes, 10 years! We left for the track on Friday about 2:30pm and arrived at the track about 530pm. The on-line waivers we both filled out actually worked when we got to the guard shack. It was raining when we got there and continued to rain most of the night so we never opened the trailer. It was nice to have a reserved, powered parking space #8 for the rig. Our first session was qualifying at 9:30 Saturday morning. It was misting and the track was damp. We decided to leave the intermediate tires on the car that were there when we ran the runoffs last October. Those were the old rear tires that Kevin cut to make intermediates. They ran well at the Runoffs and ran well here. The car was near perfect except the shifter was a bit chunky between 2 and 3. We had the fastest lap on everyone else by 5 seconds. Our next qualifying session was at 1:15 so we changed the tires, added fuel from a can that Kevin had brought from Honda R&D street pump, recalibrated the Throttle Position Sensor in the AEM Infinity and went out. The car was horrible! The car was pushing and not turning like it should, the shifter got worse, and the engine lost power. Kevin brought it in early since it was running so bad. After downloading the data, we found that the engine was running hot with EGT’s of over 1600 degrees and the top speed and acceleration was way off. I had heard from Chris Childs that EGTs should never be over 1550 degrees F. After seeing those temperatures, we thought we had better look at the spark plugs. Sure enough, #2 and #4 were melted. After lots of discussion we thought the only way to create those problems was either we accidentally put low octane fuel in the car, or we changed the tune back to the 100-octane calibration. Either way we thought putting 100 octane fuel from the track would cure the overheating problem. We pumped out all of the gas from the car and $12.50/gallon later we put in 5 gallons of 100 Octane from the track. Because of the poor running in the last qualifying session, it left us starting the Saturday race in 5th position, 3rd in class. The car ran fine in a mostly dry track but it took several laps to get around the 3rd & 4th place cars so Kevin could chase down the 2 leaders. He finally caught and passed the STL Prelude and that only left Charley Campbell left to pass for the win. Kevin got within a couple seconds when he dropped a tire off the track as he was holding the shift lever to keep the transmission from popping out of 2nd gear. That dropped him way back to 3rd in class which is where he finished. Saturday evening, we added fuel, got the rain tires ready, put the car up on stands, and covered her up to get ready for an all night rain. We put the Yamaha cart and everything else in the trailer. After that we had some of the cold pizza and beer provided by the Steel City’s region of SCCA. On Sunday morning I went to talk with some of the track people to see if I could get a quart of diesel fuel. The Discovery had lost some power on the way to the track and we thought maybe the fuel filter needed to be changed. I always keep a spare on hand but we needed some loose diesel so we could refill the new filter before starting the engine. They were super helpful and brought be a container of diesel. After we had the race car ready to go we changed out the filter and all went well. Unfortunately, it did not fix the power problem on the way home. At race time it was still raining pretty good, so we put the rain tires on and started the race in 3rd position. The amount of water on the track and still coming down was huge. Kevin got up behind Charley but when he did he was flooded with water from rooster tales from Charley and from lapped cars. Because of that he couldn’t see anything. It wasn’t so much just rain on the windshield or fog but rather the sheer amount of water. It would have taken a glass windshield and fast running wipers to make a difference. It was very frustrating for Kevin. At one point when he had some pretty open track in front of him, he turned in the fastest lap by 2 seconds. This was one time where starting position is everything. A second place with no damage to the car in these conditions is always a good thing. So, before Mid Ohio in two weeks, we had to fix or replace the transmission, figure out the octane/engine tune problem, and try to diagnose the power loss in the RV…..anything else?