Sunrise to High Point: Trevor Huddleston ready to carry on Bob Bruncati’s West Series heritage

When Bob Bruncati decided to retire as a car owner in the ARCA Menards Series West at the conclusion of the 2022 season, there was no question as to who would be taking his place.

Long before making the decision to step out of the car ownership role, Bruncati had worked out a deal with his friend and business partner Tim Huddleston. When Bruncati was ready to retire, Huddleston would acquire Sunrise Ford Racing’s assets.

What was Sunrise Ford Racing is now High Point Racing. The team will contest the full ARCA Menards Series West schedule beginning with Friday’s General Tire 150 at Phoenix Raceway. Trevor Huddleston, Tim’s son and a veteran of 53 series starts, will wheel the No. 50 Ford.

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“This is something we’ve been working toward for the last few years now,” Trevor Huddleston said. “We had a great relationship with Bob for the last 10, 15 years, or at least my dad has. Within the last few years as Bob has started to want to not really retire, but spend a little more time at home and not travel as much, we started setting some stuff in motion to take over.

“Not really buy everything brand new, more like an easy transition over from his blue to our blue. The time finally came where Bob was like, ‘OK, I’m ready to step back and try something new.’”

Bruncati and Tim Huddleston have been friends and business partners for years. The two co-own Irwindale Speedway, one of California’s most popular short tracks and a staple on the ARCA Menards Series West calendar, making the ownership transition quick and painless.

All the equipment that Bruncati previously owned is now located in the Huddleston family’s shop. Beyond that, not much else has changed. Nearly all of the crew that worked on Bruncati’s program, which swept the top two spots in the West Series standings last year with Jake Drew and Tanner Reif, have remained with the team.

“Basically all we did was painted the cars our blue and took them to a new shop,” Trevor Huddleston said. “The cars are still going to be setup by Bill Sedgewick, who set up the cars for Sunrise previously.

“Like 95 percent of the old Sunrise team is going to be still part of our team.”

The 2023 season will mark Trevor Huddleston’s fifth full ARCA Menards Series West season and his first driving for his father’s team. His four previous full-time efforts came while driving for Bruncati from 2018-21.

During that time, he earned two wins (both in 2019) and finished a career-best fourth in the series standings twice.

Last year, to prepare for the full schedule in 2023, High Point Racing competed in four West Series events. Trevor Huddleston earned top-10 finishes in each of those races, including a season-best third at Irwindale.

The team plans to field just one car for the 2023 season, but they have the infrastructure in place to field a second car should the appropriate circumstances present themselves.

“We’re going to have a building year,” Trevor Huddleston said. “We’re going to start with just myself in a full-time car. We already have a crew and the cars prepared for a second driver if we get one.”

In more than 20 years competing in the ARCA Menards Series West, Bruncati won four championships with Jason Bowles, Derek Thorn and Drew.

Trevor Huddleston wants to follow in those footsteps, and he believes a championship this year isn’t out of the question. It would be an appropriate way to honor a man that helped kickstart the careers of so many young racers on the West Coast.

“There are definitely some big shoes to fill,” Trevor Huddleston said. “Especially this last year as they had a pretty dominant season finishing one-two in the points. You can’t deny that. I’m pumped. I think this will put some juice in our shoes here. We’re motivated to keep the team rolling and kind of just build it and carry the torch.

“Our goal is to get that championship and win as many races as possible. I don’t think we’re going to settle for anything less.”