We could smell the cheat as soon as we showed up at CMP this morning; it was clear that we'd be issuing some hefty lap penalties for teams stretching the rules beyond reason.
Sure enough, we handed out penalties galore. This time, we decided to start checking differentials on all the "$500 325e" cars, since BMW never installed limited-slip rears on the e version of the E30. Turns out that five different teams managed to buy a 325e that just happened to come already equipped with the LSD out of the 325iS. What are the odds? Nobody thought to claim they'd just welded the differential, for some reason. The result: penalty laps!
We've also started to get sick of certain themes. We'd seen a couple of cars sporting the Der Truffeljäger von Zuffenhausen aka "Pink Pig" paint job used on the famous Le Mans Porsche 917/20 in the past, but this time three teams showed up with Pink Pig paint jobs. We're also tired of military-aircraft themes, poop themes, and cop themes.
Since this is South Carolina, we were inspired by Congressman Joe Wilson to yell "YOU LIE!" at anyone who claimed their car had zero cheats. Surprisingly effective!
That's it for tonight- come back tomorrow and I'll try to do a few live updates. The TrackGeeks folks should have some live streaming video going once the green flag drops, so check that out. Tomorrow night I'll post the Day One standings.