"Live from the Sonoma Raceway, this is FRN...the voice of FURCAR."

The California sun was out in the Napa Valley for the FURCAR Furry Cup Series' first road race of the 2015 season at the world famous Sonoma Raceway, one of the more popular tracks for fans of road racing no matter what cars are out. While there are a few configurations that are used at this facility, the one that the Furry Cup cars run on measures 1.99 miles around and consists of 11 turns and is a roller coaster ride of a circuit that goes uphill up to the short chute between Turns 3a, 4 and 7; the 5th and 6th turns are not used for stock cars any more. It takes a steady paw and intense concentration to keep the car on the track, much less finish the day on this winding course in Victory Lane.

The novelty of Furry Cup cars on a road course brings fans out all along the west coast, while some also make the trip out to the raceway just a short jaunt over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. When the cars did make it out on the track, one of the hottest drivers on the circuit over the past few weeks was at the top of the practice charts as Shockey Rai showed to be quick during the session, followed by rookie William Megarda, who credited his open-wheel experience for getting him acclimated to stock car road racing. When qualifying came and went, it would be a pair of FURCAR road racing aces taking the front row as Croco Chilton and Jackie Caldoon, both with road course wins to their resumes, sitting on the front row, with the #15 setting the pace with a lap of 92.213 mph, while the #02 was less than a tenth of a second behind. Both the crocodile and tanuki can use good runs on the twists and turns of the Sonoma Raceway to get back into the thick of the Season 2 title hunt. "I feel like I'm better than the majority of the drivers here on road courses," said Chilton when interviewed, "We just gotta get it done on Sunday."

When Sunday did roll around, the first part of the race went by without much of an issue, though Chilton was only able to lead the first lap before Caldoon would take the lead and pull away. She would quickly build up a sizable lead as the laps clicked off, though trouble would find Iceroad Lion at lap 30 of 110, with the overall leader getting tangled up with E.J. Stripes. The Season 1 champion made contact with the Coca-Cola 600 winner, forcing Stripes off the track exiting Turn 7 going into the esses. When Iceroad didn't let him back in right away, the tiger dumped him into the tire barriers, scattering tires and badly damaging the #40 car. Needless to say the veteran was not too pleased with the rookie's tactics as he waited for his Jetpack Racing team to attempt repairing the car. The race would have to be red flagged for about ten minutes while repairs were made to the tire barrier.

Once the race resumed, it became apparent that most of the teams would employ a two-stop strategy. It also became apparent that a new contender would emerge as Mitch Brown, winner of the previous week's race at Michigan would come out and take the lead a couple laps after the green flag came back out, starting 5th and charging through the pack while waiting until the Turn 11 hairpin to make his moves. By lap 40, he was out front, but Caldoon was nipping at his tail, while Dart Wuffy and Ty Vulpintaur had carefully worked their way through the field and were up front a few laps later, with Dart taking the lead at lap 50. But then another contender came up as the familiar #34 Chevrolet of Wildfox was picking off cars left and right - literally - and at lap 53, he was in the lead and pulling away from the pack. It looked like the popular fox would claim his first career road course win as he had taken a huge lead on second-place Mitch Brown.

But on lap 75, the caution would fly for Coco Bennington getting off course in Turn 10, a fast right-hand turn that is known to sneak up on drivers of all walks and rides. Coco's Ford was battered pretty badly, forcing her to the garage and out of the race. This was within everyone's pit window and everyone dove onto pit road to get fuel and tires so they could be good to go to the end. The green flag would come back out at lap 78...as would Iceroad Lion in his wounded #40 car. But before he could think about going after E.J. Stripes for what he did to him earlier in the race (if he were in that mindset), he would find disaster once again exiting Turn 7. Unfortunately for him, he wouldn't be as lucky as he and Draco Potens would tangle and end up heading into the inside tire barrier, ending both of their days before the checkered flag. "Hope he learned his lesson," said Iceroad after the race when asked about it, "I like racing with E.J. a lot, but he can't be doing stupid stuff like that at that point in the race."

Once the green flag came back out at lap 84, Wildfox would grab the lead and leave everyone else chasing his tail, stretching the advantage out to nearly ten seconds. It looked like he had the race in the bag and was going to claim that elusive first road course win. But a monkey wrench was thrown into that plan with just ten laps to go as the rear axle would break on polesitter Croco Chilton's car as he exited Turn 11, sending the right rear wheel assembly bounding out of control while still attached to the axle; fortunately it would get caught up in a fence before it could hurt anybody, but the crocodile was fuming after that as he was sitting in 4th place at the time. This left Wildfox in a predicament as he and his crew chief debated their strategy of whether to stay out and retain the lead, or come in and get tires. They decided to stay out...and much to their horror, just about everyone else still in the race came down to take tires, with only Eddie T. Wolf and Kasey the Husky staying out with him.

The first one off of pit road turned out to be the #88 of Dart Wuffy being the first off of pit road from 3rd position, with Vulpintaur, Brown, Caldoon and Megarda following behind. The green flag would come out with seven laps to go, and Dart would make an aggressive maneuver going up the hill to Turn 2, sticking his nose in between Eddie and Kasey, making it three-wide in an area where only two-wide is dangerous. By the time they got back into the short chute, Dart was in 2nd and stalking Wildfox. It would only be a lap before the #88 would take the lead...and never looked back as Dart Wuffy would be the one picking up his first career road win, with Vulpintaur 2nd, Brown 3rd, and Wildfox fading back to 4th. Jackie Caldoon would round out the top-5. As far as points go, Mitch Brown would take over the Season 2 lead from Kasey the Husky, who now sits 18 points back of the new leader. Wildfox remains 3rd, while Ty Vulpintaur and Shockey Rai round out the top-5. In the overall battle, Iceroad's misfortunes would cost him the points lead, slipping him back into a tie for 2nd with Eddie T. Wolf, 61 points behind new leader Wildfox. Next stop is where it all began in 2015 with the return trip back to Daytona for a 4th of July FURCAR tradition that's bound to produce some fireworks!

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Pole Award Winner

15 - Croco Chilton (1:14.464 - 96.213 mph)

Race Results

1. 88 - Dart Wuffy (9) - 185
2. 6 - Ty Vulpintaur (11) - 167
3. 41 - Mitch Brown (5) - 166
4. 34 - Wildfox (7) - 152
5. 02 - Jackie Caldoon (2) - 149
6. 35 - Kasey the Husky (8) - 146
7. 17 - William Megarda (13) - 131
8. 54 - Shockey Rai (12) - 129
9. 53 - Eddie T. Wolf (10) - 120
10. 15 - Croco Chilton (1) - 117 (DNF - Rear Axle)
11. 7 - E.J. Stripes (6) - 116 (DNF - Accident)
12. 24 - Draco Potens (3) - 110 (DNF - Accident)
13. 62 - Coco Bennington (4) - 99 (DNF - Accident)
14. 40 - Iceroad Lion (14) - 78 (DNF - Accident

Perfect Picks: Kurt Busch, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Bowyer, Hornish Jr., Stewart - 238 points

Season Standings (after 4 of 12 races)

1. Mitch Brown (687 points, 1 win)
2. Kasey the Husky (-18, 0)
3. Wildfox (-28, 0)
4. Ty Vulpintaur (-54, 0)
5. Shockey Rai (-55, 1)
6. Dart Wuffy (-79, 1)
7. Coco Bennington (-90, 0)
8. Eddie T. Wolf (-92, 0)
9. Iceroad Lion (-103, 0
10. Croco Chilton (-114, 1)
11. Draco Potens (-124, 0)
12. Jackie Caldoon (-125, 0)
13. E.J. Stripes (-151, 0)
14. William Megarda (-238, 0)

Overall Standings (after 16 of 36 races)

1. Wildfox (2759 points, 2 wins) T2. Eddie T. Wolf (-61, 2) T2. Iceroad Lion (-61, 1)
2. Ty Vulpintaur (-122, 2)
3. Coco Bennington (-175, 1)
4. Dart Wuffy (-185, 2)
5. Croco Chilton (-188, 2)
6. Jackie Caldoon (-240, 0)
7. Shockey Rai (-254, 2)
8. Draco Potens (-293, 0)
9. Mitch Brown (-294. 1)
10. Redstar Husky^ (-1031, 0)
11. Kasey the Husky - (-1926, 0)
12. E.J. Stripes (-2026, 1)
13. William Megarda (-2310, 0)