CFINVOKE behaves badly when combined with CFLOCK

I am using ColdFusion 9 standard on a 32-bit version Windows Server 2008 virtual machine with 6 GB of RAM.

Since migrating an application from a physical server running CF 8 to this new virtual machine running CF 9, I have experienced a very strange behavior.

I am using the CFINVOKE tag (as a web service) to pull down data.  When the web service code is wrapped in a CFLOCK, the request eventually times out with no response.  It appears that the request is stuck waiting to receive the exclusive lock and the ten second window passes.  If I call the web service directly, bypassing the CFLOCK, the request goes through with no problems.

Why would the combination of these thwo tags cause this problem?

Here is what the code looks like in Application.cfm:

<CFLOCK Name="DataPullIntranet" Type="exclusive" TimeOut="10">

  <CFTRY>

    <CFIF IsDefined("URL.ResetData") or

          Len(Application.MediaTrackerCacheDate) is 0 or

          DateCompare(Now(), Application.MediaTrackerCacheDate, "d") is not 0 or

          Not IsDefined("Application.qHomepageNews")

    >

      <!--- cache frequently used queries --->

      <CFINCLUDE Template="RefreshNews.cfm" />

      <!--- reset cache once a day --->

      <CFSET Application.MediaTrackerCacheDate = Now() />

    </CFIF>

    <!--- likely that lock has timed out, initialize data sets to empty --->

    <CFCATCH>

      <CFSET Application.qHomepageNews = QueryNew("NewsID") />

      <CFSET Application.MediaTrackerCacheDate = Now() />

    </CFCATCH>

  </CFTRY>

</CFLOCK>

Here is the web service code in RefreshNews.cfm:

<!--- cache news --->

<CFINVOKE

  WebService="#Application.MediaTrackerServiceURL#"

  Method="GetNewsForHomepage"

  ReturnVariable="Application.qHomepageNews"

>

  <CFINVOKEARGUMENT Name="Domain" Value="#CGI.Server_Name#" />

</CFINVOKE>

Why would the web service time out when combined with a CFLOCK?  The lock is exclusive, but the data refresh should only be triggered by the first request each day.  The rest of the requests should each receive the exclusive lock one at a time, but bypass all the other code and immediately release the lock.  My server is not pegged at 100%, so it does not seem like there are too many requests waiting to gain the exclusive lock.

Any ideas would be appreciated,

Michael Grove