If I recall correctly Kent was rather tall, soft spoken, grey hair that could have been in a pony tail. The way he had you trying different things and claimed that the engine loaded up while in flight would lead me to beleive that he didn't have much of a handle on the situation. When in flight an engine will gain a few hundred RPM over on the ground. This will tend to lean the engine slightly. It's very rare for an engine that is running rich to quit in flight but very common for an engine to quit from being lean. The newer OS construction ( ABN ) is far less tolerant of lean runs then a true ABC construction. Another good sign of someone who really knows engines is they tune the engine according to what it does in flight not what it does on the ground.

Im sure we crossed paths at some point, my main interest during that time frame was IMAC. If you saw somone flying a 40% yellow Extra or an Orange Extra odds were it was me. I also participated in the Triangle series of pylon racing, both .46 modified and unlimited classes. Ended up winning season championships in both classes with Rossi engines.