[maytag]

Hey y'all:
So, I had what looks to be complete AOS failure at the track on Friday.
My first session was delayed 90 minutes because someone in a new Ford GT oiled-down the track. They cleaned it up the best they could in 90 minutes, but we're talking about nearly 3 miles.... right on the line. So we knew all of our sessions would be shortened.
Long-story shortened: lap #2 I got into the oil-line and took my first on-track spin. I kept it on the asphalt, so I got going again. I noticed almost immediately a big blue / white cloud behind me, but I've seen the "Boxster Smoke Bomb" a number of times, so I thought it'd burn-out, as usual, and be fine. Seconds later it was clear this was not that simple, so I found a place to get off-line, pull off track and shut the motor off. I was of course frustrated.... and hopeful I hadn't done any damage. 30 seconds later I noticed all the other cars were stopping on the track! I was hopeful that whatever incident prompted that would distract from my own embarassment of being IN THE DIRT, haha! Moments later, I heard whistling, then saw someone waving at me from the flag station across the track. I took my helmet off so I could hear him say "Get Out of the CAR! You're on FIRE!" YUP. Little flames shooting out the exhaust (remember: motor was off).

They put me on the flatbed and took me back to the pits. Once there, I tried to turn the motor over; it turned for a split second, then stopped. HARD.

So, I towed it home and forgot about it (as much as I could) until today.
First things first:
The exhaust was full of oil. Every pipe-joint is dripping, as is the header-flange. I suspect the fire was simply the fuel that was still being dumped into the motor in cylinders that weren't firing, due to so much oil.
The little "vent / drain" that sits on the bottom of the air filter housing (that I remove to get to the middle spark plug on the left side) was also full of oil, suggesting it was WAY up in the intake as well.
When I pulled the middle plug on the right side, that cylinder was completely full of oil; ran out into my armpit as I removed the plug.
None of the plugs look like they have any physical damage to them, from anything hitting them. And once they were all out, the motor turns freely with the starter motor. I can hear what to ME sounds like normal valvetrain noises, nothing more. It was clearly hydraulic-locked on that cylinder.

SO: it seems I MIGHT have dodged a bullet. TWO questions, for those of y'all who know:
1) What else should I check before buttoning it back up? I mean, should I drop the pan and look for bent rods? or?
2) I'll replace the AOS, but I'll be honest: any PCV system that includes such an easy path for the oil to dump into the intake, such as we have with this AOS system, seems like a design-failure. For decades, we've been dumping PCV into catch-cans which then vent to atmosphere, or to header-pipes, and drain back to the sump. Why don't we simply do that with these motors? What am I missing? Is there a better design on the market already? What are y'all racers doing?

Thanks again for all of the knowledge base here. 'preciate your time for me!