hearing former #10 MB2 Motorsports crew chief will be heading out west, consulting for Performance Motorsports, and driver Steve Portenga at Fontana, CA next weekend, trying to win the race and help them capture the Winston West Championship [no idea what the WInston West will be called in 2004 since Winston is leaving – Nextel West?]. Ince won a race in the WInston West with Johnny Benson at Fontana. The “World Famous Gunfighters” Marines HMLA-369 Light Attack Helicopter Squadron based out of Camp Pendleton will be there for morale support as #77-Steve Portenga and the King Taco, Cardenas Markets Ford Taurus prepares to conquer the two mile California Speedway. The King Taco 200 Winston West Grand National race will be run on Saturday November 1, 2003 at California Speedway in what the Performance Motorsports Team hopes will be a repeat of the race they won in April. Portega enters the event in third place in the championship hunt fourteen points out of second and thirty three points out of the lead. Scott Lynch [who drives for Brendan Gaughan’s father’s team] is leading the Winston West points, and Mike Duncan is in second. Another close points race, looks like they use the same or similar points system as Cup/Busch/Trucks. Want more info on the Winston West Series? see the site www.racingwest.com .(10-24-2003) More on Winston West: No Nextel West – NASCAR’s Winston Cup will become the Nextel Cup next year, but the Winston West series will not be Nextel West. Next Saturday’s Winston West race at California Speedway, the King Taco 200, will be the last under the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. sponsorship in a relationship that began in 1971. “The series that is now Winston West will remain an important part of NASCAR’s Grand National Division next year, but with a different name,” said Jeremy Davidson, NASCAR manager of communications. “We are negotiating with several potential sponsors at the moment, but Nextel is not one of them.”( L.A. Times )(10-25-2003)
