Hotrod Ponce

Hotrod Ponce was born in Morelia, Michoacán México as José Manuel Ponce Navarrete who lived sometime in the USA where he studied international business. He grew up in Guanajuato, Guanajuato México and lived in southern Norway and now resides in Mahahual, Quintana Roo México & Piran, Slovenia. Ponce is a self-taught Mexican race car driver & innovative showman who has achieved considerable success on the racing circuit at some of the world's major races & personal explorations in the USA, Mexico, Venezuela, Germany & Norway. He remains the only Mexican American to ever race & finish in various motorsports like the King of the Hammers & WRC without any previous experience or special training. These accomplishments resulted in Discovery Channel International contacting him to cast for some new TV shows, as well as getting contacted by a CNN TV Producer about appearing on a new TV series about Minorities in Motorsports. He is part Purhépecha (Tarascan) Indian with incredible people skills, capable of adapting to any environments and situations. His multitasking skills and unique international character make him a very marketable tool in the entertainment world. His way of being brought up combined with all the adventures and different places that he has lived makes him a very flexible putty that is ready to be molded into any role for almost any project to deliver a clear depiction of the unfolding events. He has always been a ghost-like figure in the racing world and enjoys innovating out ways to prove that using your brain is a better investment than using your wallet. He has appeared in several TV Shows covering motorsports, as well as televised interviews in México from 2005-2010 to discuss why and how he introduced the extreme motorsports of professional rock crawling and rock racing into Mexico, as well as how to race and finish the WRC Mexico without any previous rally experience. These aired in Central México and on Direct TV in the USA and Canada. From 2010-2012 he kept busy modifying classic vehicles that he resold while living in Norway. During that time he also worked with Discovery Channel UK and continued racing at the Gorm 24 Race in Germany while also organizing and pre-running a cannonball-style underground race in Mexico requiring death insurance that he named the Ultimate Rally. In 2014, his elite private partners in México promoted him to the producers of 2017 Gatwick Gangsters film where he played a difficult role of a Mexican Cartel Boss residing in Scandinavia with no previous acting experience. Ponce recently finished his first indie film, the Ultimate Rally movie adapted from his real-life adventures, which he directed and wrote as well as perform all the stunts in this unique action adventure thriller using a group of his real friends and family. All the stunts were created by Ponce and filmed in uncontrolled environments in various parts of Mexico. One of these unpracticed stunts featured his modified Jeep racing through underground tunnels and complex off-road terrain in Guanajuato Mexico which was filmed in 2015, making him the first filmmaker to ever accomplish this on an extremely low budget. This avant-garde indie film took him 3 years to make without any film schooling, the film debut in 2018 and three months after entering various film festivals his creation was awarded Best First Time Director in Los Angeles. In May of 2018, the Ultimate Rally movie was nominated Best Documentary, Best First Time Director, and Best B movie in London. He is now working on two indie films entitled the Broker Breakers and Rock Star Isle that are closely related and deal with what Ponce does for a living in real life. He is also looking for partners for the sequel of the Ultimate Rally.