Springtime in Virginia; wonderful weather, wonderful scenery, and wonderful racing action in Martinsville. The city is home to one of FURCAR's oldest active tracks, dubbed the "Paperclip" after its innocent appearance, but drivers know that this half-mile arena is one of the toughest tests on the entire schedule.

After enjoying a week off to visit family and celebrate the Easter holiday, drivers were eager to get back into their cars here at the short-track, though some extended their vacations and for the first time this season we have less than thirty entering the race. Results were markedly mixed in the initial practice sessions. With the lap times being so closely spaced, there was not much room for error, and any adjustment made in the garage could make a car even less drivable even if it was intended to help the setup. Both of the Sunshine Racing drivers were posting consistently quick practice laps as were Kenku, Raz Yoshi, and Slidewolf.

In the Qualifying session Mark's crew had taken some pretty big swings at his Q-setup and he ended up breaking the track record even though he was only the second car on the track. Surprisingly, his time would hold up for almost the entire session. Yoshi and Caldoon came close but would start third and fourth. Final time-trialist Kenku just barely managed to eke out a pole position by only .002 seconds over the Howling Wolves Racing car for his first pole of the season. Multiple cars ended up in the wall, which resulted in Mochi, Speed, Wildfox, and Chilton starting at the back of the pack on Sunday. Current points leader Bawlbowolf wouldn't start much better in twenty-third. Kenku would follow up Qualifying with being the fastest car in the final practice session on Saturday to make a convincing bid to win from the pole on race day.

Sunday was beautiful: light winds, temperatures in the 70s, clear skies, and a huge turnout by the still candy-fevered FURCAR fans—a packed house for the STP Gas Booster 500. Close call to start the day for Beino, who almost missed driver introductions. His crew found him in his RV watching the Penguins game and had to peel him away and drag him to the podium so he could race. All the other pomp and circumstance went off without a hitch, though it was noted that a #76 crew member ran up to Belic's car just before the roll-off to hand him a box of Martinsville hotdogs.

Eventually the engines were fired up and our mostly furry field was ready to tackle Martinsville. The cars filed in behind the pace car, testing switches and diving left and right to build up heat in their tires so they would grip into the track when they mashed the gas for the start. The pace car dove off to pit road and left Kenku in charge. He led the field around Turns 3 and 4 with an eager wolf on the outside and a hungry yoshi behind him (figuratively and probably literally as well). The green flag flew and the race was on! Pedals were pressed to the floorboard and the field roared to life but only for a brief moment as they were already letting off the gas to head into turn 1. It was about a clean a start as you could ask for at Martinsville even though some of the cars in that outside lane already had some light cosmetic damage as they bumped off cars from the bottom lane.

At the front Kenku was drag racing with Mark and right on their bumpers were Yoshi and Caldoon. Into 3 and 4 the #88 machine gained a little ground on second place and at the stripe Kenku would lead lap one with Mark now door-to-door with Raz as they began another lap only 20 seconds after the green flag flew. The inside line was just more efficient in the early stages with no rubber from the tires being laid into the track for extra grip, leading to the outside lane drivers trying to dive into line to stop losing ground. Once they managed to get mostly single file, Mark snuck himself into seventh.

Kenku had already put a 1.5 second gap on Yoshi as drivers started to settle into their rhythms, which is key at this track. However, it wouldn't last long as at lap 15 we had our first caution. Edscott had spun coming out of Turn 4 after apparently cutting down a tire when bumping against Belic with his left-front on the lap previous. His car was ok and he would stay on the lead lap after getting fresh tires. Only a few cars from the field headed down pit road under the caution. Kenku led the field to green again. Raz was on the outside this time and for a couple laps able to hang there but there just wasn't enough grip up there to make an outside pass. He eventually wound up in ninth place after the train of cars passed him on the low-side.

At lap 44 we had caution #2, Chance Morgan looking to have also cut a tire, though his car made a bee-line for the outside wall and he was done for the day. In the pits the Wonder Drink Racing team had a bit of a hard time, missing lugnuts on the left AND the right side, costing him a ton of time and spots, ending up mid-pack in seventeenth for the restart. Mark was on point this time and after the green was able to lead a lap, but Oren Hart made an easy pass down the backstretch to take the lead and would build up a gap of over three seconds.

We were into our longest green flag run of the day as Hart led his seventieth lap, but he was having a hard time with lap traffic as no one was just pulling over and letting him by since they wanted to race to stay on the lead lap. Oren had pulled up behind Zero, who was giving it his all to not get passed, but the fox would suffer the same misfortune that the earlier incidents did, his right-front tire was worn down to the beads from driving into the corners so hard and in Turn 3 it gave out, sending him up and into the wall. Hart took the low groove and passed by the wrecking #00 but the force at which he had hit the wall caused Zero to bounce back into the racing lanes and just clipped Hart's back bumper and sent him spinning as well over into the wall at the exit of Turn 4. Both cars would be done for the day.

Time for more pit stops while track crews cleaned everything up. All drivers came down for tires and fuel, and, even though we were still short of halfway, most of the cars had bent fenders, crumpled hoods, missing sheet metal...it's a surprise there hadn't been any debris cautions yet from the things missing on these cars.

It was a girl-powered front row –Tigris and K’gra having beaten everyone out of the pits—as Tigris led the field to green. The ladies stayed side by side for a lap, but, as we had seen before, K’gra was unable to get by on the outside and eventually fell to sixth before being able to fall in line. One lap after that, though Chilton, racing for third at the time, came out of Turn 2 with a bit of excess speed and nailed the wall with the right-side of his car, slowing him down a bit and bouncing him right back into the middle of the track. This caused quite a moment for the rest of the field since they hadn't quite gotten back into their rhythms and most cars weren't even single-file yet. As drivers hit the brakes and tried to avoid the croc, it just turned into a Blues Brothers pile-up. Chilton made it out with just some scratches from the wall as he watched cars spinning out behind him. Most of the field ended up with damage to their cars in some form or another but most were able to get back to the pits for repairs except for Wuffy and Mochi, whose cars were bounced around just a bit too much and their engines had let go.

It was a lengthy caution, which was good for the crews trying to repair the damaged machines. Ice road lion, K'gra, and Caldoon all had missing rear ends that had to be reconstructed out of duct tape.

We were finally ready to get back to racing and Tigris was still up front, having led thirty laps under that caution alone. The green flag waved and things stayed calm for the most part. Just after halfway Swift Fox had lost a couple cylinders and was unable to keep minimum safe speed and was trying to get to the pits but each time he neared the entrance a train of cars would pass by him on the inside, blocking his path. FURCAR officials radioed that they would black flag the car if he didn't get off the track and eventually he had to make a desperation move and flung himself into a small gap between some lead-lap cars but made it through and into the garage. Raz Yoshi had managed to drive back up to second place and was running down Tigris at almost a tenth per lap, eating into her two-second lead. She was having to deal with lap traffic again and the yoshi was able to close in and take advantage. As she tried to pass Duroc coming out of Turn 4, the hog blocked the high line and Raz was able to fly by both cars on the bottom and take the lead.

Raz was able to lap a good portion of the field before the next caution came out at lap 381 when Duroc tagged the wall and left some sheet metal on the track. At this point there were only eight cars on the lead lap, plus Clement who had received the "free pass" under the yellow. Raz' car looked like the one to beat at this point and on the ensuing restart motored away from the field again. There were plenty of battles for position behind him, mainly with Belic and Eric fighting over the last spot in the top-5.

At forty laps to go victory for the yoshi didn't seem as certain as over the past few laps rookie Silaria's car had come to life and was posting the fastest laps each lap. At twenty to go she had managed to catch up to the same corner as Raz and with ten to go she was on his bumper. But the red dino wasn't about to give up this win. He picked up his own pace a bit and mirrored Silaria's lap times. She was able to consistently get good runs into the corner but Raz had better exit speed and would pull away again as she could only manage to get into the outside lane which just didn't have enough grip to make passes in.

With two laps to go she managed to dive to the bottom of the corner entrance and just tapped the #30's rear quarter panel, which sent him up into the higher groove, and she made her pass. The crowd were all on their feet as they watched the rookie and veteran battle. Yoshi managed to keep pace into Turns 3 and 4, getting a good run down the front stretch. Silaria took the white flag but as she went into Turn 1 she was met with the same maneuver she applied a lap before, the yoshi had tapped her left bumper and sent her up the track, gaining the lead again down the back stretch. He successfully blocked the low lane going into 3 so he wouldn't be pushed out of the way again but Silaria drove hard into the high-lane, still unable to make the pass but she stayed door to door as they exited Turn 4. They banged off each other in an epic drag race down the front stretch, their cars seemingly glued together as neither wanted to give up ground and the crowd was going crazy as they crossed the line. It was a photo finish! Perhaps the closest race FURCAR has seen!

As the rest of the field drove into the pits, Silaria and Raz drove their cars back to the front stretch while they waited for word on who had won. It wasn't like the Officials to take this long. After a few minutes the two drivers had climbed out of their cars and waved to the fans since there wasn't much else to do at this point. After shaking hands they were seen making elaborate hand gestures as they discussed their tactics over the last few laps. After what seemed like an eternity (probably 3 or 4 minutes to a FURCAR driver), the PA system crackled to life and announced that after careful replay and transponder analysis FURCAR could not determine a clear winner for this race. Raz and Silaria would both be declared the winner with no second place to be awarded. The two drivers stood bewildered for a moment at the thought of a tie for the win but in the end they got back into their cars and did an impressive dual burnout from the start/finish line all the way to Turn 1. It was interesting getting both cars to fit into victory lane but they managed it and began a multi-team celebration. How they would split the trophied Grandfather clock remained to be seen.

In other Martinsville news Duzzy Valo who had a quiet day but a strong final stint finished in third just inches ahead of Jo Speed with Eric managing to take that fifth spot away from Belic at the end. Jackie Rae, Tigris, and Clement were the last of the cars to finish on the lead-lap. One of the reasons that the final result took so long to announce was that FURCAR was also looking into another photo finish, the one for tenth place, and in an odd coincidence they also determined it to also be a tie. FURCAR released a press statement later stating that they would be looking into all the scoring stations and all the car's transponders before the next race just to make sure this wasn't a fluke. So Croco and Mark both take home tenth place. Beino managed twelfth in a good overall showing for Yoshi Motorsports with Slidewolf, Cheesebeagle, and Edscott rounding out the top fifteen.

With their respective wins Raz jumped up the leaderboard by five spots into twelfth overall and Silaria gained three to move into twenty-second. Bawlbowolf would fall behind Caldoon and Speed again in the standings with Jo Speed moving back into the lead. Duzzy Valo managed to crack into the top-10 in points and Ice road lion took the biggest hit today, dropping seven positions to fall to fifteenth.

With all this excitement and controversy the FURCAR teams would need a bigger track next week, good thing we're heading to Texas Motor Speedway. What furry nonsense will unfold over there? Tune in and find out!

Perfect possible driver combination: 242 points – Johnson, Kahne OR Kyle Busch, Bowyer, Gordon, Ambrose, Martin

Week 6 Standings – Martinsville 4/7/13

WEEK

1) (3) Raz Yoshi (Yoshi Motorsports #30) – 241 (dead heat)

1) (11) Silaria (One Horn Racing #05) – 241 (ROOKIE) (dead heat)

3) (22) Duzzy Valo (G-Shep Racing #09) – 230 (tie broken by higher top-5)

4) (28) Jo L.T. Speed (Flame Driven Motorsports #44) – 230 (ROOKIE)

5) (17) Eric AKA Phantom (Phantom Impulse Racing #41) – 228 (ROOKIE) (tie broken by higher + more top-5)

6) (9) Belic (Kodiak Racing #76) – 228 (tie broken by more top-5 finishers)

7) (4) Jackie Rae Caldoon (Tanuki Trax #02) – 228

8) (15) Tigris (HyperLynx Racing #84) – 226

9) (14) Roxanne Clement (Sunshine Racing AMX #53) – 220

10) (26) Croco Chilton (Crocosaur Racing #15) – 216 (dead heat)

10) (2) Mark (Howling Wolves Racing #64) – 216 (dead heat)

12) (19) Beino (Yoshi Motorsports #13) – 214

13) (6) Slidewolf (Team Vault-Tec #9) – 213

14) (25) Cheesebeagle (RaceToTheCheese Racing #300) – 209

15) (10) Edscott (SABco Autosport #42) – 207 (tie broken by more top-5 finishers)

16) (1) Kenku (Wonder Drink Racing #88) – 207

17) (27) Wildfox (Wildfox Motorsports #34) – 204 (tie broken by winner)

18) (7) Ice road lion (Jetpack Racing #40) – 204

19) (18) K’gra (Ragdoll Physics Racing #21) – 202

20) (23) Zeke Bawlbowolf (Zeke Bawlbowolf Racing #29) – 196 (ROOKIE)

21) (20) Furry Mike (WWE-Furs Racing #21) – 191 (ROOKIE) (tie broken by more top-5 finishers)

22) (24) Shockey Rai (Carolina Speed Racing #86) – 191

23) (8) Duroc (Hog Juice Racing #50) – 189

24) (21) Swift Fox (SF Racing #45) – 187 (ROOKIE)

25) (29) Moon Mochi (Monster Blue Eyez Nation #42) – 183 (tie broken by winner)

26) (13) Dart Wuffy (Wolf’s Den Racing #88) – 183 (ROOKIE)

27) (5) Oren Hart (Sunshine Racing AMX #77) – 176

28) (12) Zero (Alcoholocaust Motorsports #00) – 159

29) (16) Chance Morgan (Tygerfox Racing #70) – 151

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

1) Jo L.T. Speed (Flame Driven Motorsports #44) – 1157 (ROOKIE) (n/a, +1)

2) Jackie Rae Caldoon (Tanuki Trax #02) – 1155 (-2, +1)

3) Zeke Bawlbowolf (Zeke Bawlbowolf Racing #29) – 1133 (ROOKIE) (-22, -2)

4) Belic (Kodiak Racing #76) – 1110 (-23, +2)

5) Cheesebeagle (RaceToTheCheese Racing #300) –1107 (-3, -1) (tie broken by race win)

6) Mark (Howling Wolves Racing #64) – 1107 (-0, -1)

7) Roxanne Clement (Sunshine Racing AMX #53) – 1090 (-17, +0)

8) Tigris (HyperLynx Racing #84) – 1083 (-7, +3)

9) Eric AKA Phantom (Phantom Impulse Racing #41) – 1082 (ROOKIE) (-1, +4)

10) Duzzy Valo (G-Shep Racing #09) – 1081 (-1, +5)

11) Slidewolf (Team Vault-Tec #9) – 1071 (-10, -2)

12) Raz Yoshi (Yoshi Motorsports #30) –1068 (-3, +5) (tie broken by win)

13) Croco Chilton (Crocosaur Racing #15) – 1068 (-0, +1) (tie broken by more top-5 finishes)

14) Beino (Yoshi Motorsports #13) – 1068 (-0, -2)

15) Ice road lion (Jetpack Racing #40) – 1064 (-4, -7)

16) Duroc (Hog Juice Racing #50) – 1047 (-17, -6)

17) Edscott (SABco Autosport #42) – 1037 (-10, -1)

18) Shockey Rai (Carolina Speed Racing #86) – 1011 (-26, +0)

19) Wildfox (Wildfox Motorsports #34) – 1006 (-5, +1)

20) Kenku (Wonder Drink Racing #88) – 1005 (-1, +1)

21) Oren Hart (Sunshine Racing AMX #77) – 993 (-12, -2)

22) Silaria (One Horn Racing #05) – 985 (-8, +3) (ROOKIE)

23) K’gra (Ragdoll Physics Racing #21) – 952 (-33, +1)

24) Zero (Alcoholocaust Motorsports #00) – 934 (-18, -1)

25) Moon Mochi (Monster Blue Eyez Nation #42) – 913 (-21, +1)

26) Furry Mike (WWE-Furs Racing #21) – 896 (ROOKIE) (-17, +1)

27) Dart Wuffy (Wolf’s Den Racing #88) – 883 (ROOKIE) (-13, +1)

28) Swift Fox (SF Racing #45) – 830 (ROOKIE) (-53, +2)

29) Jasper Erickson (iBolt! Racing Group #25) – 787 (-43, -7) (ROOKIE)

30) Chris Furris (K9 Racing North America #85) – 679 (-108, -1)

31) Chance Morgan (Tygerfox Racing #70) – 630 (-49, +0)

32) Kai Lehtonen (Fluffy Fasttrack Motorsports #3) – 176 (-454, +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) – 71 points (n/a)

2) Jo L.T. Speed (Flame Driven Motorsports #44) – 70 points (-1)

3) Silaria (One Horn Racing #05) – 55 points (-15) (tie broken by race win)

4) Eric (Phantom Impulse Racing #41) – 55 points(-0)

5) Dart Wuffy (Wolf’s Den Racing #88) – 54 points (-1)

6) Furry Mike (WWE-Furs Racing #21) – 41 points (-13)

7) Swift Fox (SF Racing #45) – 38 points (-3)

8) Jasper Erickson (iBolt! Racing Group #25) – 26 points (-12)

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