If he was hitting the rev limiter that hard, it would be very audiable. All the 330s I've seen, has been rated for 4200-4600 wot rpms and a limter set around 4750 I think.

you know when it is fuel flow. you feel motor run out of gas, back off and it goes. ignition timing is the cheapest place to start. then put the light on all 8 wires and watch for misfires. if both runs were same gps, they were probably accurate-at least to each other. you were probably going against tide second run. going faster in the water, but slower in space.