What did we learn this time?

So this is our third race with Our Lady. Our second in it's current wing configuation. We were ecstatic with how the car performed. We weren't insanely fast, but we were better than average. For a short time on Saturday morning, when we seemed to be passing everyone in sight it seemed like we almost had a chance to win. Of course our dreams were shattered by the track drying out and bucket full of black flags. All that was before the engine went kaputnik.

So what did we learn?

• Check the engine - We dropped all the oil out of the car last race and did nothing but cross our fingers for this race. We should have at least done a compression check to ensure that we hadn't fried something.
• Buy the better gas cans - The cans we tried to modify were a total failure. The sealant was eaten by the gasoline and all we were left with is a fire hazard. Did I mention one of them leaked all over my new sleeping bag? It was so cold I slept in it in spite of being a spark away from becoming the human torch.
• It's cold in February. - Being able to fully enclose the 20'x10' pop-up tent was a life-saver.
• Keep better records - We still don't quite know what our fuel consumption is or exactly how long we can run on a tank (I think it's about 2.5 hrs).
• Torque everything - I'm not sure what happened to the steering rack bolts, but double-checking the torques on critical components might have caught the problem before it was too late.