During the first runs at the Sunday practics Mark came back to grid. I told him I heard a ticking sound. We packed up and went back to the pits to investigate.

After pulling the valve covers we found a lifter a little loose so it was adjusted and put back together. Fired it up and we still had a ticking sound. We, (he), took it back apart and the intake value next to the one we just adjusted was now ticking. It was not a loose lifter this time.

So it was decided to remove the lifter and see why the valve seemed to be half sticking. Normally you can just pull out a lifter with your fingers. This one would not come out. So after pliers, then vise grips, then vise grips and hammers would not extract the lifter, all the great mechanics at Nationals were baffled what was going on. It is a roller lifter. Garcia came over and they welded a long bolt to the lifter and used a body dent puller to try to extract the lifter. SOL. 5 pound hammer was used next to pund out the lifter using the body puller rig. And the Answer is....

The roller on the lifter was a 1/2 moon. The roller had been punded and the base of the lifter pounded outward also thus it was next to impossible to remove. After looking down at the cam it was clear that a new lifter would not help as the cam was destroyed also. They tried to remove the lifter next the one that was extracted. Same problem. They hammered on that one so long they finally gave up on removing that one.

So this is a pro built motor. Made by a major well know builder in Dallas. Somthing major was done wrong. The engine does not even have 2 hours on it.

Since the lifters are hydraulic it was taking up the gap of the warn parts. They finally could not compensate for the 1/4 inch of missing metal.

In good solo spirt many people have offered rides for Mark and me. We both turned down BM rides. Mark decided to try the ESP offer since it was similar to what he was use to. I decided to go with the Miata due to the course designs.

The engine builder has already offered to replace the motor but that does not help much as nationals only happens once a year.

Editor's note: At the end of day 1, Mark is sitting in 25th spot in ESP. Local STX pilot Todd Milstead is in trophy contention, currently in 7th. We'll be waiting to see what happens for the General later this week. I'm dying to know whose Miata he'll be driving...

Click here for the "Day 2" report.