DAY 1 Monday June 25, 2007:  Everybody is working their day jobs so we will not be able to try and unload it until this evening.  Crew Chief Joe Petrie, being an administrative educator, is off work until August so he is out gathering as many parts as possible locally.  We plan to unload and have stripped tonight, figure out what parts are still needed and ordered. 

DAY 3 Wednesday June 27, 2007: Once again, "We have good news and we have bad news, and some more bad news."  First, the engine is still not ready and now we are told Thursday, which is ok, since the second part of the bad news is that there is a lot more damage to the chassis than originally thought.  This is going to set us back at least a day, which at this time we really can't afford anymore set backs.  Luckily we hit it pretty hard last night.  The chassis is bare from the firewall forward with the blown engine torn apart on the stand. It looks like if we get some bent valves fixed we can salvage the heads, and that is about it.  It appears the #1 connecting rod let go.  There were no signs of any heat on or around that cylinder so we are assuming part failure.  You could actually still spin the connecting rod (the part left) around on the crank.  So the plan for today, level, measure, measure, and measure some more before we begin to cut away the damaged section of the chassis.  Prep the chassis for cutting, mock the new piece(s), and replace the bent section and upper control arm mounts.  If we can make it this far tonight we still should be on schedule.  Then plug away tomorrow with some more measuring, more measuring, and even some more measuring.  These steps are actually the most time consuming, everything has to be exactly right or the car won't be the same.  So we have told ourselves that we must pace and make sure everything is done exactly right.  Sometimes when you have a deadline little things are overlooked, however with a team as dedicated as ours we can make sure all of the little are taken care of to ensure the big picture.