Connect-a-thon test and Redhat 8

If this is the wrong newsgroup for this post I apologise and please
point me in the right direction (I also posted to comp.protocols.nfs).
I am running the connect-a-thon tests from a client using Redhat 8
with the latest NFS patches to three different vendors NFS servers
products. It uses V3 to all servers. It is during test7 'link and
rename' that I am seeing this. To most NFS servers when the 'unlink'
is done it will be followed by an ACCESS call and then a LOOKUP call.
To one NFS server the ACCESS call is followed by a GETATTR instead.
This is consistent throughout the test as seen in a network trace. My
question is why the client would treat that Server differently? Here
is the code from test7:
************
if (unlink(new) < 0) {
error("can't unlink %s", new);
exit(1);
}
if (stat(str, &statb) < 0) {
error("can't stat %s after unlink %s",
str, new);
exit(1);
}
if (statb.st_nlink != 1) {
error("%s has %d links after unlink
(expect 1)",
str, statb.st_nlink);
exit(1);
}
********************

The client is doing a "stat" and I don't undertand why this would
generate GETATTR calls instead of LOOKUP to this specific product. All
mount options are consistent. Two of the products (one LOOKUP and the
GETATTR one) run on the same OS so the same server resource is used to
keep everything consistent. Any infomation is appreciated.

Patch