Thanks to Kurt, the charging problem has been identified and solved!
The primary culprit was a bad connection where the main power wire connected up under the chassis. The wire was in place, but loose in the 'crimp', and was making intermittent contact. He also found a loose spark plug wire connection (wire was pulled out of crimp, but still in boot), which hopefully explains the hesistation in Turns 5 and 9 late last DE season. Got to see lots of diagnostic procedures, as well as watch the big-ass crimpers get put to work!
DR would be disappointed because no hammers were used. Maybe on the next project!
Also, while pulling out of the garage, the back-up lights were malfuctioning, Kurt fixed that as well.
As usual, Kurt saved the day and I'll make the DE weekend. And he kept me from wasting $ on a new alternator (which would have still not worked right), and saved my new $300 Optima battery! 8)