Clutches will fry. Engines will overheat randomly. Homemade wiring harnesses will melt down. Honda racers are going to blow head gaskets and throw rods. BMW E30s will develop undiagnosable electrical problems.

That's how the works; you start with 90 cars and maybe 55 will be running at the end of the first day of racing. The 2009 Gator-O-Rama was no exception, though the cool weather seemed to reduce the number of burning-brake incidents. I counted at least three Hondas with blown head gaskets, another two with wayward-rod-induced holes in engine blocks, a Jaguar XJ6 with some combination of head gasket and/or burned-piston woes (not that it really matters, since car-parts stores in this part of the country don't stock any Jaguar parts), a Toyota with a bad rod that may end up racing tomorrow with three pistons and one empty cylinder, several Detroit bombers with fuel-system ailments, and the usual assortment of not-yet-diagnosed-but-ominous leaky/rattling engine symptoms. Here's a gallery showing some of the fun that was had a few hours ago, fun that I'm sure continues even as I write this. Tomorrow, some bleary-eyed racers will head back onto the track after an all-night wrenchfest, while others will have nothing to show for their labors but skinless knuckles and a pile of scrap metal.