Well,
Before race #2 on Sunday, I hit the starter button to run the motor a bit. "Click". So I check the voltage at the battery and the starter - 12.5v. It is the solenoid then, right? Whip out the old one, fire in the new one - "Click". Same reading at the starter and battery, but the wire to the solenoid when engaged is now <9v. WTF???
Has to be the starter, right? Whip out the starter, fire in a new one. "Click". ARGH! Now we are looking for a wire shorting out in the solenoid circuit, a duff switch, etc. Whip in another starter, car starts multiple times and runs fine. Whatever.....
A couple laps into the race (under yellow) the ignition system fails and comes back a few times, and, deciding that discretion is the better part of valor and should we go green again (turns out we didn't) I didn't want to be *that guy* that again puts us under yellow by having to retire the car somewhere on track, I pull into the paddock and retire from the race.
I put the 4amp charger on the battery, and wait. For a couple of hours. It will not take a full charge, so the problem is clearly the battery. Replace the Odyssey dry cell with a new one, and the car runs great all weekend. Problem solved
My question for you folks is simply, "Where did my critical thinking fail?" As in, without a load tester at the track, how could I have easily diagnosed the problem earlier and saved myself a lot of effort and swearing?
best
bt