Dang, Tom! Your mechanic sounds like he's spending too much time sleeping with your wife and not focusing on the priority of prepping the car. I'd fire his silly arse.
At least you didn't get protested for attempting to deliberately sabotage following racers' cars by purposely throwing random hardware on the track.
Next time, either safety wire / Loctite everything, or at least paint everything a bright, unique color so you can more easily locate your stray bits after the race.
Always a good read, and good to see you can smile about it while having the time of your life!