Greg Taylor is more known for his sprint car exploits at the beachside dirt track in his hometown of Ventura.

The way he ran in Saturday night's Bandit Sprint feature at Santa Maria Speedway, however, may convince him to make the trip north more often.

Taylor, the 2007 VRA and Bandit Grand Slam champion, did a standout job of picking his way through lapped traffic in the 30-lap feature on the 1/3-mile clay oval, cruising to victory with a stacked field of talent behind him.

“I have to give a lot of credit to my (crew) guys, they found the right (set-up) combination for this track, and the car ran great,” Taylor said in a Victory Lane interview.

In the night's other action, Santa Maria's Danny Lauer jumped back into the IMCA Modified title hunt by winning a demolition derby masquerading as a main event; Nipomo's Justin Marsh re-claimed the Mini Stock point lead with a move of pure thievery at the end of an exciting main event, and Goleta's Matt Marchiando came out on top of a brilliant five-car duel in the Factory Stock ranks.

The two main draws of the Bandit Sprint series to SMS this season have been hometown driver Danny Sheridan - picking up dates here and there in the middle of his USAC/CRA obligations - and series point leader Peter Murphy of Clovis. However, bad luck befell both drivers early on Saturday night: Sheridan was forced to the pits before the race for a minor repair that cost him a top-10 spot on the starting grid, and then both drivers suffered flat tires early in the race.

That left the battle for the win up to the likes of Taylor, a regular in the Ventura-based VRA, along with former Bandit champ Greg Porte of Atascadero, Ojai's Derek Buckley and Tipton's Danny Faria Jr. Buckley led in the early going, only to surrender the lead on lap eight to Taylor, just before a caution for Sheridan's flat.

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After the restart, Taylor rocketed off into the distance, with Porte the first car to give chase for the lead. Even as the frontrunners caught lapped traffic, Taylor was able to navigate the rough waters and break free.

“Once Taylor got the lead, he got through traffic really well,” Porte said of the winner's effort. “His car was working really well.”

The only real challenge for the rest of the night came in the hunt for second, which Faria laid claim to by getting past Porte four laps from the finish.

“I wish we could have been a little bit closer to (Taylor) on that last re-start, then I could have used the high-side on him,” said Faria of a lap-27 restart, which Taylor correctly jumped to extend his shrunken lead. “We had a lapped car in front of us, and that didn't help.”

Visalia's Greg Bragg took fourth behind Taylor, Faria and Porte, while former Bandit champ Davey Pombo of Kerman took fifth. Murphy recovered from his flat tire to finish sixth, while Sheridan's two gaffes dropped him to a 10th-place finish.

The IMCA Modified main was fraught with problems from the start, quite literally. The race suffered six caution flags in the first two laps, including two full re-starts due to spinning cars. In all, the yellow flag fell eight times in the feature.

Once the race finally got into a groove, Santa Maria's Jacob Jones pulled out to an early lead, but Lauer began to reel the leader in as the laps wore on, eventually passing Jones for the top spot on lap 13.

After that, Lauer spent the rest of the race - which was shortened by officials from 25 laps to 20 - fending off both Jones and Nipomo's Kenny Kirkpatrick, with Kirkpatrick making definite charges in the final laps. Lauer was able to fend them off and claim the victory, which gave him three wins on the season and ended a bit of a personal funk.

“This is great, getting out of the hole we've been stuck in,” said Lauer.

Watsonville's Clay Daly snatched second from Kirkpatrick in the final lap, while Jones and San Jose's Tommy Laliberte rounded out the top five.

The 20-lap Mini Stock feature was quickly shaping up to be the coming-out party for rookie Daylan Coffey, the son of two-time former Late Model champ Rick Coffey. The youngster had driven a brilliant and clean race, holding off defending series champ Justin Crockett of Arroyo Grande since taking the lead from him six laps into the race.

However, everything changed when the leaders hit heavy traffic in the final two laps. Crockett looked to have taken the lead on lap 19 when Coffey got stuck behind a backmarker, but Marsh - who had been running fourth for much of the night, caught up to the front duo and tried a kamikaze low-side move going into turn two.

“I just stuck it all the way down there and hoped it would stick,” Marsh said.

It was a winning move, vaulting Marsh past both Crockett and Coffey for the lead on the final lap. Crockett got past Coffey for second, while Atascadero's Darrin Davis and Lompoc's Mike Weigel rounded out the top five. Afterwards, Marsh was complimentary of Coffey's effort, especially in holding off the field.

“He's getting to be a very good driver,” Marsh said. “He and I will be running (IMCA) Modifieds next year, so I hope we'll run some good shows up there as well.”

The outcome of the 20-lap Factory Stock main was in doubt until the final six feet of the race, as Marchiando picked his way through traffic and his competition to fend off former series champ David Addamo by half a length.

The five entrants in the duel - Marchiando, Addamo, Arroyo Grande's Kevin Linson, Santa Maria's Glen Sparks and Atascadero's Charlie Scovell - were all within three lengths of each other going into the final lap, with Addamo holding a razor-thin lead. However, when the bunch reached a lapped car, Addamo chose the high side, and immediately was pushed into scraping along the backstraight wall, slowing him down and allowing Marchiando to re-take the lead.

Addamo recovered in the north turns and made one final charge on the outside, but Marchiando held him off for his first win of the season.

“I didn't even know who was leading at the end,” Marchiando said. “I just drove the car where I thought it needed to be.”

Scovell ended up third, followed by Linson and Sparks; Linson made things interesting on the cooldown lap by spinning out Addamo.

July 6, 2008