Saturday August 12th, 2000
Perris Auto Speedway

Since VRA sprint cars are off for a couple of weeks, the Taylor Motorsports team decided to try their luck at Perris Auto Speedway, where the Bandit sprints were racing Saturday night. VRA and Bandits are basically the same cars, except Bandits require a 16-inch wide right rear, and short nozzles in the injection. This racetrack is a clay ½ mile, slightly banked oval. This was Greg's first race at Perris, which made it even more exciting.

The night started out with qualifying, and each car had two timed laps to determine where they started in the heat races. This was Greg's first time ever qualifying. His first lap was a fast 18.50 seconds, which earned the black #7 second fastest for the night. His second lap was a few tics slower at 18.94 seconds.

With only 13 cars in the pits, there were two heat races, and every car running made the main. Greg was in Heat race #2 and started 3rd row inside. The green flag came out and eight laps of racing were under way. It seemed to be a one-lane track, with the best groove in the middle. Greg had managed to get around two cars by the 6th lap, and going into turn one the #24 car and Greg tangled which ended up breaking the front axle of the #7 car. This caused a yellow, forcing the #7 and the #24 back to the pits. In the pit area the crew worked hard to repair the car, and finished just in time for the main event.

For the 20 lap main event, Greg started 4th row inside. The track was now dry slick, making passing difficult. But with Greg's talent and Jordan Bros. horsepower, the #7 car gained positions quickly. By the 5th lap Greg had passed three cars, each time on the inside with confidence. He was then in 4th, and moving up to the front. A car in front of Greg spun out on lap 10, which caused a yellow, and put Greg in 3rd. For the next four laps, Greg was inching closer to the front. He tried a couple of times to pass the 2nd place car, the #8 of Ronnie Case, but by then the track was extremely dry, which made it harder to pass.

It was now lap 16, and in turn four Case hit a dry spot causing him to spin. Greg was now in 2nd place! As the green flag waved the first place car, #32 Ken Colston was now battling with Greg for the win. As soon as the white flag came out, Greg set Colston up for a series of slide jobs. As they came down the backstretch and entered turns three and four, Greg knew he had to watch Colston for any mistakes that could lead him to the middle of the track to take the win. Greg gave it a great effort and finished a very close second, behind the #32 Ken Colston.

It was a great finish for the Taylor Motorsports team. Great job Greg, the crew, and everyone else who made this happen. Keep it up!