Facts about Evinrude/Johnson racing outboards made my OMC

[WaterZebra]

I adjusted all the carbs on every rotary race engine after Parker, There were studs in the manifold and star nuts holding the carbs on. Having physically adjusting the carbs on this engine, I can factually say the nuts were tight when It came off the dyno, After the race not one, but all 8 carb nuts were loose and the carburetors were just hanging. Not ever before or after the Paris race was even 1 carb nut loose, which let me to believe someone loosen the nuts after testing in Brugge and before the race. Posey's engine had all of it's carb nuts tight, though he hit a turn boey and didn't finish the race. As I recall Woods had trouble getting the engine to start at the beginning of the race which would further indicate the carbs were loose at the start of the race. With the carbs loose, the engine would have sucked excess air causing the lean running and bearing failure.

I would assume that the cowl had to be lifted free to get to the carbs, correct? Why weren't all of these race engines "sealed" during inspection before the race?
We used to apply blobs of women's fingernail paint (hundreds of color choices) to critical interfaces (head bolts, carb nuts, etc) for pre and post race inspection.
Actually, for what OMC had at stake for R&D investment, I'm surprised nobody was given the assignment to sleep / stand guard over these boats?