This weekend was a crazy one for Team BT. First hour into the heat, we started to hear rod knock and possible valvetrain tick. As each driver got into the car, the tired ZC engine from our last race progressively lost power. Natalie ran over to Jay Lam and got his approval for us to put another engine in so we could keep racing. Aki headed to the shop in search for any single cam engine that he could find. By the 2nd hour Brent got slammed into on the right rear, causing the rear trailing arm to bend out leaving us with almost 2 inches of toe out. As he pitted Mark and Jei used a sledge and got the toe back about an inch toe out. During Jei's stint, the car was felt like a drift car, oversteering into and out of corners. As engine performance dwindled, the only way to keep the car running was to keep it above 5k rpms. So what did Mark do when he got in? Kept the car at 5k even during braking just so the car wouldn't die. Mark was able to apply his dance footwork for about an hour. By the time Natalie got into the car, it had little compression. Trying to keep the revs up and fighting the steering wheel just to go straight, she was able to complete 5 laps before the engine finally gave up. This soldier-of-an-engine lasted with knock from 2:30pm to 7:30pm.

We hooked up on the trailer and contacted Aki that we were coming back. By 8:30pm we started tearing the ZC out for an unfavorable D15 Single cam. Unaware if the condition of this motor, Aki, Mark, Jei & Jeremy worked on the swap while Liam and Brent worked on the trailing arm. By 12am the car was back up and running..................wait.......... ...NOOOOO!! As the engine got warm the head gasket started to leak filling cylinder #1. We took a dinner break and re-evaluated our commitment for this race. Discouraged spirits filled the room, and we thought we were done. Fortunately, Brent offered his stock CRX D16A6 engine as a donor. So at 1am on Sunday, Aki, Jei and Jeremy, took the D15 back out while Liam, Mark and Brent drove to Gilroy to pick up the D16.
By 4am we had the car running and on the trailer heading back up to our hotel in Livermore. We crashed for 2.5hrs or so and was at the track by 8am.

Many team members were surprised to see us. Others thought we put in something bigger and better. Natalie took the first hour. She started at 65th and brought us to 55th in the 1st hour.

Aki going 2nd brought us to 48th, Liam to 45th, Jei to 43rd, Brent, 42nd and Mark the "Intimidator" at the last minute squeezed us into 40th place. This 170k mile motor which still surprisingly passed smog, ran like a champ.

So with running on a broken engine, losing 2 hrs of driving, having 2.5hrs of sleep and a crap load of people who reminded us that we were in a tin can, we didn't do half bad. Everyone had a chance to drive and have fun.

Battle Damage:

• ZC Enging Rod Knock/Valve Tick
• RR Trailing Arm Bent - Toe Out
• D15 Engine Blown Head Gasket
• Blown Upper Radiator Hose
• 2 Damaged Doors
• 2 Bent Tie Rods - Wheel Vibration
• 1 Rack & Pinion - Couldn't Find Where "Straight" Was
• 1 Overcharged Battery
• 1 Pool of Battery Acid in the Spare Tire Well
• 4 Chunked Tires - From Running Over Misc Part and Out of Wack Alignment