"California here we come, the pie-in-the-sky land, palm trees and warm sand, though sadly we just left Rhode Island."~

So, FURCAR heads back west this week and travels to one of two California tracks on the circuit, this week's being Auto Club Speedway--a two-mile low-banked superspeedway which would see the fastest speeds this season. More than thirty teams made the trek this week in an attempt to figure out this tricky track and its multiple options as far as racing grooves. Practices were mixed as usual. Some drivers were able to keep consistently high lap-times right off the truck like Cheesebeagle, Clement, and Wildfox. There were also others who couldn't seem to figure anything out and were way off pace, including Clement's teammate Oren Hart and both of the Yoshi Motorsports cars. In news from around the garage, the K9 Racing North America team had brought in a back-up driver for the weekend (Dan Wolfe of Super-GT fame) to be a stand-by for the weekend for Chris Furris who was suffering from an undisclosed illness. Qualifying was much the same as earlier in the week with Beino and Raz posting the two slowest lap times of the day while the #300, #53, and #34 would land in the top-5. P2 would go to Edscott and the pole for California would go to Chance Morgan in his first notch in that column for FURCAR.

Sunday was exactly that, very sunny and bright. Higher temperatures than the drivers had seen all weekend that would no doubt pose problems for some. K'gra almost missed driver introductions for the race as she came back from another beach excursion with relatives in the area. She would make it though and start from deep in the field, hoping to turn her season around.

After all the normal hoopla, the drivers fired up their machines and made their way onto the track, keeping behind that pesky pacecar for four grueling parade laps but soon it was pulling down pit road and handed over command of the field to Chance. It was a clean start as the green flag flew in California, and, while most of the field stayed in their double-file lines into and out of the first corners, by the time they were going through Turns 3 and 4 there were cars in at least five different racing grooves. Morgan was trying out one of the higher lines with Wildfox right behind while Edscott and Cheesebeagle were favoring the lowest one. Duzzy Valo was taking some early risks as he could be seen going below the white line in his own version of “low groove”, but he was making it work, picking up nine spots in just the first five laps with Mochi and Chilton also making good early runs.

Seven laps in and we had our first caution as K'gra had brought her smoking car down pit road. The engine had let go and track crews had to clean up oil on the track. Everyone came down once the pits opened for tires and gas sure but mainly to take early swings at their setups. Roxanne Clement managed to win the race off pit road just in front of Morgan and two penalties came down the wire--one for Eric for too fast entering and Caldoon was hit for speeding on the other end.

We were green again at lap 11 and managed to go through a full fuel run under green with multiple lead changes including Belic and rookie Silaria. As cars started to head down pit road again we would be hit with another caution. Zero, who was running mid-pack, had just come down off the banking but was carrying a bit too much speed causing his brakes to lock up as he mashed the pedal down. He was unable to control his car as it veered into the water-filled barrels at the end of the pit road wall, nailing them causing his back end to swing around 90-degrees so he was blocking half of the pit road entryway. Kenku was unlucky enough to be heading for the pits just moments after Zero and, not expecting to see a car sideways at the entrance of pit road, he was unable to move out of the way in time and T-boned the #00 right at the pit speed of 55mph just as he heard his spotter in the headset telling him that caution was out.

After a lengthy cleanup the rest of the field was able to come down and fill up on gas, some of whom were severely close to running out under the caution laps but everyone ended up making it. Duzzy Valo had managed to take the point on the ensuing restart with Bawlbowolf to his outside and the two rookies stayed nose-to-tail for quite a while. There was no caution but Shockey Rai was seen off the pace right after lap 100 and took his car behind the wall with a transmission failure. Just a few laps later, though, there was a yellow as pole-sitter Chance Morgan, who had been favoring that high-line most of the day, had slammed into the outside wall of Turn 3 after going a bit too high and was unable to keep his car out of the "marbles" and lost control. After going a few laps down with some quick-fixes the team decided to call it a day after being unable to keep up to the minimum speed.

Bawlbowolf was now at the front of the field for the green as Valo lost his edge a little bit, falling out of the top-5. One more round of green-flag pit stops later and with forty laps to go Zeke seemed to have the car to beat, ahead of another rookie, Dart Wuffy, by almost four seconds, though Ice road lion was posting the quickest lap times and was moving towards the front, just cracking the top-5 after passing Belic. Slidewolf, Erickson, and Edscott had gone laps down after not being able to adjust to the track conditions efficiently with now thirty to go.

As Moon Mochi and Wuffy battled for second place, Ice road lion was able to pounce on them both, jumping from fourth to second in one corner as he dove to the bottom and was able to motor past. He now set his sights on Zeke, closing the gap by tenths of a second every lap. And the leader, having to deal with lap traffic, wasn't being helped at all. The #29 had just put Wildfox a lap down and could see that the Jetpack Racing machine was closing in. At fifteen to go there was less than a second between the two, and as much as the wolf tried to find extra speed he was no match in the end. He was caught and gobbled up by the coyote with eight to go and would end up finishing in that second position. Ice road lion would cruise on to victory at Auto Club Speedway by over two seconds. He cheered into his headset as he did an extra-long burnout on the front stretch. Moon Mochi had managed to take the spot over Wuffy and the two would finish third and fourth with Chilton rounding out the top-5. Swift Fox managed to find his way up to sixth and Chris Furris, who ended up running the full race without needing to do a driver swap, finished in seventh just inches ahead of Duroc. Mark and Belic would be the last two drivers in the top-10.

He was unsuccessful at claiming victory today but rookie Zeke Bawlbowolf now sits atop the FURCAR standings with his solid run today along with being first in the Rookie-of-the-year standings as well. He has managed to impress consistently and is definitely one to watch out for to take the Cup this season. Jo Speed and Caldoon both drop a spot but sit at ten points behind the leader. Duroc managed to improve seven positions with his finish and now sits tied with Slidewolf for ninth overall but FURCAR gives the edge to the wolf for having achieved more poles. On the other end Shockey Rai falls seven slots with the mechanical failure.

Our drivers will look forward to the coming week off to relax with their families over the Easter holiday but be certain that they'll be eager to get back to racing when we head to tricky little Martinsville in two weeks. Expect to see only a handful of cars not battered and bruised by the end of that one. So enjoy the time off, everyone and we'll see you in Virginia!

Best possible driver combination: 234 points - Biffle, Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Mears

Week 5 Standings – California 3/24/13

WEEK

1) (7) Ice road lion (Jetpack Racing #40) – 225

2) (8) Zeke Bawlbowolf (Zeke Bawlbowolf Racing #29) – 221 (ROOKIE)

3) (23) Moon Mochi (Monster Blue Eyez Nation #42) – 217

4) (15) Dart Wuffy (Wolf’s Den Racing #88) – 207 (ROOKIE)

5) (19) Croco Chilton (Crocosaur Racing #15) – 206 (tie broken by more top-10 drivers)

6) (14) Swift Fox (SF Racing #45) – 206 (ROOKIE)

7) (29) Chris Furris (K9 Racing North America #85) – 201 (tie broken by winner)

8) (10) Duroc (Hog Juice Racing #50) – 201

9) (12) Mark (Howling Wolves Racing #64) – 196

10) (17) Belic (Kodiak Racing #76) – 195

11) (20) Silaria (One Horn Racing #05) – 194 (ROOKIE)

12) (22) Duzzy Valo (G-Shep Racing #09) – 187

13) (5) Roxanne Clement (Sunshine Racing AMX #53) – 183

14) (24) Furry Mike (WWE-Furs Racing #21) – 181 (ROOKIE)

15) (4) Cheesebeagle (RaceToTheCheese Racing #300) – 180 (tie broken by more top-5 drivers)

16) (13) Tigris (HyperLynx Racing #84) – 180

17) (25) Jackie Rae Caldoon (Tanuki Trax #02) – 178

18) (30) Raz Yoshi (Yoshi Motorsports #30) – 171

19) (9) Jo L.T. Speed (Flame Driven Motorsports #44) – 167 (ROOKIE)

20) (31) Beino (Yoshi Motorsports #13) – 163

21) (11) Eric AKA Phantom (Phantom Impulse Racing #41) – 161 (ROOKIE) (tie broken by more top-10 drivers)

22) (3) Wildfox (Wildfox Motorsports #34) – 161

23) (27) Oren Hart (Sunshine Racing AMX #77) – 160

24) (2) Edscott (SABco Autosport #42) – 158

25) (21) Jasper Erickson (iBolt! Racing Group #25) – 154 (ROOKIE)

26) (26) Slidewolf (Team Vault-Tec #9) – 150

27) (1) Chance Morgan (Tygerfox Racing #70) – 146

28) (6) Shockey Rai (Carolina Speed Racing #86) – 138

29) (16) Kenku (Wonder Drink Racing #88) – 135

30) (18) Zero (Alcoholocaust Motorsports #00) – 134

31) (28) K’gra (Ragdoll Physics Racing #21) – 132

SEASON (points behind next driver, positions moved this week)

1) Zeke Bawlbowolf (Zeke Bawlbowolf Racing #29) – 937 (ROOKIE) (n/a, +3)

2) Jo L.T. Speed (Flame Driven Motorsports #44) – 927 (ROOKIE) (-10, -1) (tie broken by win)

3) Jackie Rae Caldoon (Tanuki Trax #02) – 927 (-0, -1)

4) Cheesebeagle (RaceToTheCheese Racing #300) –898 (-29, -1)

5) Mark (Howling Wolves Racing #64) – 891 (-7, +1)

6) Belic (Kodiak Racing #76) – 882 (-9, +3)

7) Roxanne Clement (Sunshine Racing AMX #53) – 870 (-12, +3)

8) Ice road lion (Jetpack Racing #40) – 860 (-10, +14)

9) Slidewolf (Team Vault-Tec #9) – 858 (-2, -4)

10) Duroc (Hog Juice Racing #50) – 858 (-0, +7)

11) Tigris (HyperLynx Racing #84) – 857 (-1, +1)

12) Beino (Yoshi Motorsports #13) – 854 (-3, -4) (tie broken by more poles)

13) Eric AKA Phantom (Phantom Impulse Racing #41) – 854 (ROOKIE) (-0, -6)

14) Croco Chilton (Crocosaur Racing #15) – 852 (-2, +5)

15) Duzzy Valo (G-Shep Racing #09) – 851 (-1, -1)

16) Edscott (SABco Autosport #42) – 830 (-21, -3)

17) Raz Yoshi (Yoshi Motorsports #30) –827 (-3, +1)

18) Shockey Rai (Carolina Speed Racing #86) – 820 (-7, -7)

19) Oren Hart (Sunshine Racing AMX #77) – 817 (-3, -3)

20) Wildfox (Wildfox Motorsports #34) – 802 (-15, +1)

21) Kenku (Wonder Drink Racing #88) – 798 (-4, -6)

22) Jasper Erickson (iBolt! Racing Group #25) – 787 (-12, +1) (ROOKIE)

23) Zero (Alcoholocaust Motorsports #00) – 775 (-12, -3)

24) K’gra (Ragdoll Physics Racing #21) – 750 (-25, +0)

25) Silaria (One Horn Racing #05) – 744 (-6, +0) (ROOKIE)

26) Moon Mochi (Monster Blue Eyez Nation #42) – 730 (-14, +1)

27) Furry Mike (WWE-Furs Racing #21) – 705 (ROOKIE) (-25, -1)

28) Dart Wuffy (Wolf’s Den Racing #88) – 700 (ROOKIE) (-5, +0)

29) Chris Furris (K9 Racing North America #85) – 679 (-21, +0)

30) Swift Fox (SF Racing #45) – 643 (ROOKIE) (-36, +0)

31) Chance Morgan (Tygerfox Racing #70) – 479 (-164, +0)

32) Kai Lehtonen (Fluffy Fasttrack Motorsports #3) – 176 (-303, +0) (ROOKIE)

33) Colimarm (Procyon-Cyclone #57) – 170 (-6, +0) (ROOKIE)

34) Kasey The Husky (KTH Racing #35) – 131 (-39, +0)

ROOKIES (points behind next rookie)

1) Zeke Bawlbowolf (Zeke Bawlbowolf Racing #29) – 64 points (n/a)

2) Jo L.T. Speed (Flame Driven Motorsports #44) – 54 points (-10)

3) Dart Wuffy (Wolf’s Den Racing #88) – 50 points (-4)

4) Eric (Phantom Impulse Racing #41) – 41 points(-9)

5) Silaria (One Horn Racing #05) – 35 points (-6) (tie broken by more top-5 finishes)

6) Furry Mike (WWE-Furs Racing #21) – 35 points (-0)

7) Swift Fox (SF Racing #45) – 33 points (-2)

8) Jasper Erickson (iBolt! Racing Group #25) – 26 points (-7)

9) Colimarm (Procyon-Cyclone #57) – 6 points (-20)

10) Kai Lehtonen (Fluffy Fasttrack Motorsports #3) – 6 points (-0)

SEASON STATS:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1puSi7iCherQmpBOGdRR3JlR3c/edit?usp=sharing&pli=1

CAREER STATS:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1puSi7iChereEZ6TEFnLVFTSGFXY2JjNndkeXFxQQ