Ok, gents. Here's my take.
Hicks tested on Thursday with an engine I assembled so I know it was a dead nuts legal one. He was legal the month or so before and close to the limit. At Sear's Point, he blows a 144 or 145 on the HP breathylizer. ??? I know we're at nearly sea level with some humidity/cooler air so I think, "That's strange." I went to the dyno operator and asked if anyone else had been testing high. Nope. But some guys in a 911 GT3 Cup car heard me asking and came to me in the paddock later reporting that their car blew 10 HP above expected and the corvette before them had similar results. So, during Thursday/Friday Hicks, Newmark, Atteberry, Foxx, Buzzetti, Lewis all tested unexpectedly high but consistant with Hicks, who I knew had a totally legal engine. The dyno was clearly reading high and I couldn't penalize our guys for that. I explained to them the data I had gathered on the issue and further explained that the dyno on site was the only tool we had to measure power levels. My solution after talking with the guys was, "There's a problem with the dyno, but you have to deal with THIS PARTICULAR dyno. Go test and tune again and ensure you're legal with THIS dyno THIS weekend." Ron Dale [and his wife :)] were correct about my not enforcing the letter of the law at that point, but I saw a bigger overall problem not caused by the drivers themselves. I believe my course of action, which was to not DQ anybody for that round of dyno testing , was the best, most fair solution. When Atteberry shared his detuning success with FQS setting #4 (no fuel change, retard timing 2.77 degrees, late DME) I shared it with the whole group.
On Sat., I sent the top 3 guys to impound for a "whistler" compression ratio test. This would catch heads shaved too much, blocks decked, illegal pistons, etc , all in 1 shot. Foxx was 10.3, Buzzetti was 10.2, Cantu-Lucero was 9.7 to 1 ratio. All good.
So most guys detuned to be legal per THIS dyno and I saw many dyno sheets showing that.
Sunday's final race came and I watched from trackside. Buzzetti's lines were superior. Foxx appeared to have a faster car but drove slightly lesser, still better than the pack. With the cars in impound, I asked if anyone wanted to see more dyno testing. As soon as I saw 1 hand I gave dyno tickets to Buzzetti, Foxx, and Pina.
So check this out. After setting record lap times of 1:55.5 (Buzz), 1:55.4 (Foxx), then 1:57.1 (Pina) they went to the dyno again. Each car was verified to have proper engine and oil temp, rear tires set at 30 psi, rear tires on the center of the dyno drum, banged off the rev limiter at least once.
Results:
Foxx's 3rd pull was 128.44 HP, 125.58 TQ
Buzz's 3rd pull was 133.20 HP, 133.66 TQ
Pina's 3rd pull was 128.90 HP, 133.96 TQ
So, now the dyno was reading unexpectedly low for a track record setting performance. ??????? I have dyno sheets from Thursday-Sunday.