STOCKTON, California -- In what could be described as one of the craziest nights in stock car auto racing, the Dodge Country/Havoline/NAPA Auto Parts 200 run on Saturday night Aug. 14 at Stockton 99 Speedway took all the competitors and fans by surprise. It started out with all the usual bumping and sliding by the leaders and then took on an eerie feeling when a power transformer blew out down the road and put the speedway into total darkness. The sounds that were heard were the gasping of the crowd and the squealing of tires and crunching sheetmetal. It was an absolute miracle that more race cars weren't damage in the melee that followed the outage.
The Food4Less, Mission Foods, Superior Gear, Auto Marine Engineering # 77 Ford Taurus driven by Nick DeFazio qualified in the 12th position and skillfully moved into 5th by lap 42 when the lights went out. "I thought I was blacking out in the car when that happened" said Nick. " I was tagged from behind and that was the start of our problems. That incident damaged my rear end and cut down my right rear tire. After NASCAR let us make the repairs under the red, we got back out there and my car was running great. The 54 car got into me and we collected the 20 car and my teammates #17 car was also involved in the crash." he added. The # 77 car finished for the night on lap 88 in the 18th spot.
Jose Luis Ramirez suffered the same fate as Nick finishing the night in the 19 position after bowing out on lap 75. The Del Valle, Rayere, Auto Marine Engineering Ford ran as high as 7th before crash damage forced Jose out. "My car was fantastic and my engine was running great." said Jose. "It's a shame that we were not able to finish this race. We had such high hopes coming here after our last finish of 6th place in the May race."
Performance Motorsports would again like to thank all the companies that make it possible for our team to race:
- Mission Foods
- Rayere
- Rudolph Foods
- Auto Marine Engineering
- Jugos Del Valle
- Superior Gear
- Lucas Oil Products
- CPMCA
- Stoughton Printing
- Pipetrades
- Guerrero Food Products
- Intouch Signs
- Signco
- Joor Bros. Metal Service
- King Taco Restaurants
- Eibach Springs
Please patronize these great sponsors and let them know that you saw their name on our race cars.
The Dodge Country/Havoline/ NAPA Auto Parts 200 can be seen on SPEED Channel on Saturday September 11 at 9 am PST. The Performance Motorsports team travels to the Rocky Mountain Speedway in Salt lake City, Utah on Labor Day Sept. 6, 2004, for the next event.
