I met Curtis several years back at the Paducah contest. At that time he was dealing with some health issues, and was extremely busy with his machine shop business. I forget what industry he catered to, but his shop was a fairly small job shop and he wore a lot of hats there. I think his email listed here on the list may not be the same as his business. Maybe one of the other guys here that know him will see this and fill us in. I have purchased several of his back plates and they are first rate, so I hope he's alive and kickin' still. If you can't come up with a metal back plate, just cut the needle valve bracket off the plastic one, use some sort of gasket sealer on the back plate, and don't over torque the screws, and the engine will be fine. I have several that I run that way.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee