Once again, FURCAR returns to Daytona. However, instead of the cool temperatures of February, cars, drivers, crews, and fans are baked under the summer sun. Thank goodness for Daytona under the lights!

Qualifying took place on Friday afternoon with rookies Harry and Draco taking their cars onto the track. They completed their laps, but their crew chiefs knew the boys wouldn’t be taking the pole. Even season points leader Belic Bear had troubles getting up to speed, his lap times just a touch below the rookies’. By the end of the qualifying round, Croco had won the pole, with K’gra Leopard in position number two. Lined up just behind them were Ice road lion and Kenku.

One driver who wasn’t able to complete ANY qualifying or practice laps was Raz Yoshi. Due to the extreme heat wave in the southwest, when his hauler cleared town, the pavement was so hot that many of the tires melted, leaving the yoshi stranded in Arizona.

Saturday evening, the sun was just heading towards the horizon when the FURCAR drivers took to the track. Leading them to the green, Croco took the lead into Turn 1, K’gra and Kenku lined up tight on the outside as the field came up to full speed.

The first casualty of the day was Eric whose engine unexpectedly gave up the ghost just thirty-four laps into the race as he exited Turn 4. With some skillful driving he managed to make it to the inside lane and down onto the flat, turning into an access road in Turn 1 and making his way to the garage.

Pit stops during the caution proceeded without incident, but just before the next round of pit stops, things got dicey at the front of the pack as K’gra and Croco got together, the leopard heading up the track into the outer wall while Croco spun down into the infield. Also caught up in the accident were Mark, Tigris, and Belic. K’gra’s car was a mangled mess, though she was reported to be uninjured after being checked out in the Infield Care Center, and her race day was done. All of the other cars went to the pit road to start repairs, but were otherwise okay aside from blown tires and broken autobody parts. However, the repairs took a long time to complete, even under caution and all dropped a lap or two down. The crew chiefs and pit crews knew that aerodynamics were too important at a track like Daytona for them not to have every fender and front air dam secured tightly with rivets and repair tape.

Taking the lead after the pit stops were completed were Duroc and Kenku. Shockey Rai and Wildfox had fast pit stops and moved up into the top-10. Ice road lion got caught speeding on pit road and had to serve a stop-and-go penalty, dropping him to the rear of the cars still on the lead lap. However, he wasn’t quite caught up with the rest of the field when the green flag waved and he lost the pack.

From there, the pack stayed on track, winding down lap after lap as they swooped through the tri-oval and then around to the backstretch on the shores of Lake Lloyd.

After the final pit stop, Dart Wuffy, having held tightly onto the leaders for the second half of the race, made his move, pushed by Shockey Rai. However, Kenku and Duroc weren’t ready to give up the lead yet and fought hard against the encroaching line of cars as the pack split once more in a mad dash for the finish. In the shuffling during the last couple corners, Dart Wuffy managed to pull ahead of Kenku, with Duroc pulling behind him for a last-minute push for second place. However, Kenku stayed close to the hog with a little rubbing and bumping, holding onto second as both cars swept over the line. Shockey Rai finished fourth and Wildfox fifth. Rounding out the top-10 were Moon Mochi, Oren Hart, Zeke Bawlbowolf, rookie Harry, and Furry Mike.

With Belic’s poor finish, he still managed to hold onto the first place in the season points, though Duroc’s third place finish propelled him up into second, just sixteen points behind the ursine. Cheesebeagle fell one spot to third and Shockey Rai held onto fourth. Moon Mochi zoomed four places into fifth, supplanting Tigris, who moved down into sixth. Wildfox rose up into seventh, Slidewolf into eighth, and Oren Hart into ninth, pushing Zero Fox down into tenth place.

Harry is still holding onto the lead over Draco in the rookie points.

Next week FURCAR dares to take on the wilds of New Hampshire! See you there!

Perfect possible driver combination: 243 points – Johnson, Harvick, Stewart, McMurray or Kurt Busch, Waltrip, Mears

Week 7 Standings – Daytona 7/6/13

WEEK

1) (9) Dart Wuffy (Wolf’s Den Racing #88) – 212

2) (4) Kenku (Wonder Drink Racing #88) – 205

3) (5) Duroc (Hog Juice Racing #50) – 201

4) (15) Shockey Rai (Carolina Speed Racing #86) – 197

5) (12) Wildfox (Wildfox Motorsports #34) – 185

6) (16) Moon Mochi (Monster Blue Eyez Nation #42) – 184

7) (8) Oren Hart (Sunshine Racing AMX #77) – 176

8) (13) Zeke Bawlbowolf (Zeke Bawlbowolf Racing #29) – 175

9) (18) Harry (Tuffed Racing #42) – 168 (ROOKIE) (tie broken by more top-5 finishers + race winner)

10) (21) Furry Mike (WWE-Furs Racing #21) – 168 (tie broken by race winner)

11) (10) Draco Elijah Potens (Valiant Motorsports #57) – 168 (ROOKIE)

12) (23) Beino (Yoshi Motorsports #13) – 164

13) (19) Cheesebeagle (RaceToTheCheese Racing #300) – 159

14) (17) Slidewolf (Team Vault-Tec #9) – 150

15) (3) Ice road lion (Jetpack Racing #40) – 148

16) (7) Jackie Rae Caldoon (Tanuki Trax #02) – 145

17) (14) Zero (Alcoholocaust Motorsports #00) – 137

18) (6) Tigris (HyperLynx Racing #84) – 133

19) (1) Croco Chilton (Crocosaur Racing #15) – 131

20) (22) Belic (Kodiak Racing #76) – 130

21) (11) Mark (Howling Wolves Racing #64) – 112

22) (2) K’gra (Ragdoll Physics Racing #21) – 109

23) (20) Eric AKA Phantom (Phantom Impulse Racing #41) – 99

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

1) Belic (Kodiak Racing #76) – 1257 (n/a, +0)

2) Duroc (Hog Juice Racing #50) – 1241 (-16, +1)

3) Cheesebeagle (RaceToTheCheese Racing #300) – 1219 (-22, -1)

4) Shockey Rai (Carolina Speed Racing #86) – 1218 (-1, +0)

5) Moon Mochi (Monster Blue Eyez Nation #42) – 1155 (-63, +4)

6) Tigris (HyperLynx Racing #84) – 1137 (-18, -1)

7) Wildfox (Wildfox Motorsports #34) – 1134 (-3, +4)

8) Slidewolf (Team Vault-Tec #9) – 1116 (-18, +2)

9) Oren Hart (Sunshine Racing AMX #77) – 1114 (-2, +4)

10) Zero (Alcoholocaust Motorsports #00) – 1110 (-4, -2)

11) Mark (Howling Wolves Racing #64) – 1103 (-7, -5)

12) Dart Wuffy (Wolf’s Den Racing #88) – 1094 (-9, +5)

13) Jackie Rae Caldoon (Tanuki Trax #02) – 1080 (-14, +1)

14) Croco Chilton (Crocosaur Racing #15) – 1077 (-3, -2)

15) Eric AKA Phantom (Phantom Impulse Racing #41) – 1074 (-3, -8)

16) Ice road lion (Jetpack Racing #40) – 1051 (-24, +0)

17) K’gra (Ragdoll Physics Racing #21) – 1039 (-12, -2)

18) Harry (Tuffed Racing #42) – 1028 (ROOKIE) (-11, +0)

19) Kenku (Wonder Drink Racing #88) – 945 (-83, +2)

20) Beino (Yoshi Motorsports #13) – 922 (-23, +0)

21) Raz Yoshi (Yoshi Motorsports #30) – 844 (-78, -2)

22) Edscott (SABco Autosport #42) – 738 (-106, +0)

23) Zeke Bawlbowolf (Zeke Bawlbowolf Racing #29) – 612 (-126, +2)

24) Draco Elijah Potens (Valiant Motorsports #57) – 609 (-3, +0) (ROOKIE)

25) Furry Mike (WWE-Furs Racing #21) – 604 (-5, +1)

26) Duzzy Valo (G-Shep Racing #09) – 518 (-86, -3)

27) Taylor French (Zeke Bawlbowolf Racing #30) – 184 (-334, +0)

28) Chris Furris (K9 Racing North America #85) – 176 (-8, +0)

ROOKIES:

1) Harry (Tuffed Racing #42) – 79 points (n/a, +0)

2) Draco Elijah Potens (Valiant Motorsports #57) – 42 points (-37, +0)

SEASON STATS:

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

CAREER STATS:

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