,
 | |||
| Showing the “Can Do” spirit the team brought with them, the Gruppe-S/Autosport Dynamics guys with Eddie Kim diagnosed the car properly over Saturday night. They found a connector pulled out on fuel injector #3 and theorized that as the wire heated up and cooled down, it would make and break contact with the injector. This caused a situation where the car would run perfect when cold, but ran on three cylinders when hot. With the wire repaired the engine was now singing a full song. | |||
 | |||
| Edik was also able to weld the control arm back up and get out for practice on Sunday for Race Two. While, initially, it seemed like a victory, it was short lived as they found out that a shock was also going bad and leaking oil out of the shaft seal. With no spare parts, Edo would have to run the suspension as is. | |||
 | |||
| Practice was harsh on Landry as well. The TSX blew out an axle boot and lost grease. However, it appeared to happen late in the session as the axle did not show any signs of immediate damage and the boot was replaced for Race Two Qualifying. | |||
 | |||
| Now it was time for the drivers to see how they would line up. That's right, it was now Qualifying time for Race Two! | |||
 | |||
| While it seemed that Buttonwillow had enough of Michele, she was pretty determined to give herself to the track again. Going over “Magic Mountain,” she mis-shifted into first gear. She did seem to catch it in time and the engine didn't suffer any damage, but now the check engine light would flutter on. Since the CEL is not tied in with the OEM ECU, it was determined to be because of some detonation and higher octane was used to quell the problem. The problem remained on her mind right up until the start of the race. However, it should now be noted that with an engine working correctly, her lap time of 2:11.471 was within 5.262 seconds of Edo and 3.282 seconds behind Landry. | |||
 | |||
| While Landry had a great qualifying effort for Race Two, with a 2:08.189, it would all be for naught! During his run in the qualifying session, the same axle boot would again rip. With no more spare boots, Landry could not repair the car and not wanting to take a risk in destroying the axle further, he retired before the start of Race Two. This would mean that, if Michele could pull full race points, she would be the 2012 Tuner Under Champion. Don't be fooled, though, as we have seen during this Buttonwillow and at Sonoma Raceway, anything can and will happen. |
