The 2003 NASCAR Winston West Grand National season ended prematurely due to the worst fires seen in California in decades. "Our hearts go out to all the families that have suffered losses during these horrendous fires." said Steve Portenga. " It makes the things that we are going through seem minor when you look at the loss of life and property."
The Performance Motorsports # 77 King Taco Ford Team had a fantastic year. The team held the championship points lead from April through September and managed to end up with a podium finish for the year in the third position. The team led the league in money won, top ten finishes in every event, second best in total laps completed and one super speedway win at California Speedway during the Cup weekend.
"We're so proud of our team." said Joe Nava and Tom Brunner. " They worked long and hard battling through adversity this year. When we signed Steve, we knew that we had a championship caliber team and it showed all year. Although we are disappointed with the way that it ended, we congratulate Scott Lynch and his team for a job well done. We also congratulate Mike Duncan and his team on a great run this year."
Performance Motorsports would also like to thank it's sponsors for all the support that they extended this past year. Starting off with King Taco Restaurants, this family owned company set the standard for quality and jumped on board our team with enthusiasm and thorough knowledge of what it gives and receives in the motorsports advertising world. With twenty five locations in Southern California including California Speedway, it is a must experience for Mexican Food dining. Another sponsor was Mission Foods and their subsidiaries, Diane's Foods and Guerrero Food Products. Through their keen marketing prowess we were able to hook up with marketing partners such as Smart & Final, Albertson's, Cardenas Markets, Top Foods, Food Pavilion, Basha's, Food4Less, Thunderbird Markets Pace and Lawry's Seasonings. We have had Rudolph Foods as an associate sponsor now for a number of years. Rudolph Foods is the largest supplier of pork rinds in the country.They have been a big supporter of our team. Also on the list of sponsors and suppliers is Superior Gear. This company came on as a sponsor and differential supplier for the team and was an integral part of their victory at California Speedway. The great looks of the car was due to the great work by Signco Graphics. This company was able to put together artwork on a moments notice. Signco is located in Stockton, Calif. Our driver cards and the replica car cards were put together by Stoughton Printing located in Industry, Calif. This was a great company to work with as we tried to expose NASCAR and our team to the fans. Roto Rooter is a company that was the major sponsor for Steve last year in the Craftsman Truck series and they wanted to be a part of the championship drive this year. Eibach Springs joined our team this year and lent stability to our suspension program. For that we are very grateful. Jan's Towing and all their drivers moved a lot of race cars and show cars for us. It sure took a bunch of pressure off us when we had multiple appearances scheduled. Joor Bros. Metal Service provided many of the metal supplies that it takes to keep these cars racing. NAPA Filters provided all our racing filters this year, Great products! First Magnus Financial Corporation / Charter Funding jumped on with us at a time when we really needed help and we were able to pull off a victory for them this year. Conti Materials Handling helped us out all this year with transportation issues and all those guys are great race fans.
Engines and reliability were never a problem this year due to the fantastic motors coming out of Ed Ash's shop. We had great power and were always able to run up front. Our engine tuner Tom Label, owner of Auto Marine Engineering did a fine job this year.
Our crew , starting with our Crew Chief, Larry Nava did a awesome job this year witnessed by the fact that our cars finished in second in most laps completed. Our crew guys, Chuck Earl, Kenny Earl, Sam Arciero, Tim Morales, Tony Brunner, Bob Kidwell, Dennis Simonian, "Jersey" Mullin, Tim McMillin, Jan Helsel, Gary Lumpkins, Joe Strader, Tom Stanton and Dave Porter are hardworking race fanatics that rose up to championship standards.
With the focus on the Toyota Shootout this next weekend at Irwindale Speedway Performance Motorsports will flex it's muscles as it shows off that championship contending drive. "We have a new car for the shootout that we ran at Mesa Marin Raceway two weeks ago. We cut down a tire on lap eighteen and went down almost two laps. That car was so awesome that I got my laps back and finished sixth." said Steve. "It's gonna be for all the marbles this time around.
The action starts in Arcadia Wednesday night with the pit stop challenge on Second Street and moves to Irwindale Speedway Thursday, Friday and Saturday. All this action will be broadcast live on Speedvision. See you there!
