Batesville driver and defending MSRA series champion Billy Moyer, Jr. hot laps at Beebe Speedway prior to the season opener.By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The car was new but the number, paint scheme and driver were quite familiar to local late model fans.
It was Stacy Taylor’s first trip to Beebe Speedway in well over a decade in his white 27 car with florescent graphics and numbers.
Taylor, of Cabot, fielded one of 23 entries for the Mid South Racing Association season opener Friday. And, it was his first trip anywhere in his brand new Moyer Victory Circle chassis, from the same brand that sat in victory lane with driver Billy Moyer, Jr.
Taylor shook down the new machine by qualifying 12th and finishing in the same spot for the feature, the first car a lap down.
“It was okay,” Taylor said. “Actually, the car was probably better than the driver; the driver might have been a little rusty. I don’t think we ran but about ninetimes last year, about August, and this is our first race since then.”
Taylor’s night on the track was fairly uneventful. He briefly battled for a top-ten spot with Kyle Beard, Dewaine Hottinger and Bill Frye early before settling into the 12th spot in his own space before leader and eventual race winner Billy Moyer, Jr. caught him with two laps to go.
Taylor made a name for himself in late models by winning a number of weekly features at Batesville Speedway in the late 90’s before becoming one of the early stars of the Mid America Racing Series. Taylor won four races on the MARS tour from 2000-05, including one in each of the first three seasons.
His first MARS victory came on July 3, 2000 at Batesville followed by his triumph at Malden, Mo., on July 6, 2001. Taylor won another MARS race at Batesville in late August of 2002, but went almost three years before capturing his most recent victory at Bolivar, Mo., on July 8, 2005.
But with two young children and a successful family business, Taylor, 39, has become more of a part-time racer.
The 21-year, late-model veteran helps operate Taylor Electric service company based out of Jacksonville and he runs in a handful of events every year.
“We just kind of try to get a feel for things, then a little bit later on in the summer, stuff opens up a little more,” Taylor said. “We’ll travel out a little more. We just came and did this deal because we needed to get a little experience and learn from it, then we’ll go somewhere else and try it.”
Taylor stated that he intended on running in the Topless 100 at Batesville in August.