Mercer Raceway Park - Driver Feature Story on J.R. Greer

J. R. has always been an avid competitor. Whether it was in a friendly game of checkers as a boy, playing linebacker for his Grove City High School football team, or working toward his Master’s Degree at Duquesne University. Losing was something that he would not accept.

For the past five years he sponsored a car driven by his friend Steve Young. But this year J.R. thought it was time to get off the bench and get himself into the game.

He bought his car from Frank Guidace, who raced it during the 1999 racing season. There was much to do, and little time, to get the car ready to race in 2000. First of all, and most importantly, it didn’t have a motor. He ordered a new Chevrolet high-performance engine in December and, with a lot of help from Steve Young, was able to install it in March, just before the racing season was to begin.

Now that the car was finally race-ready, it was time to tow it to Mercer Raceway Park to see how he could do. With many family and friends coming to the track that night he was, as you might expect, a bundle of nerves.

As reported in the Allied News, "Alone in the lineup for his initial race during opening night at Mercer Raceway Park, J. R. Greer could only think of excuses. What would he tell his pit crew when he prematurely left his first-ever feature before the checkered flag? What could go wrong? Why was the car pushing out to the wall like it was in the heats?"

"That moment passed quickly, however, as adrenaline took over and Greer passed from race fan to car owner/driver as soon as the green flag dropped and his Sportsman Modified hit Mercer’s 3/8-mile dirt oval."

"To J.R.’s relief there would be no need for excuses on this night". After five months of building his car, his ninth-place finish in his first race was a dream come true.

Following the races that night he had another dream come true. The next day, his wife Heather gave birth to his first child, a bounding baby boy. J.R. quickly announced that he was changing the number on his car from 11 to 11t in honor of his new son, Tyler. This was definitely a weekend in his life that he would never forget.

^{He has quickly learned that racing is a very competitive as
well as humbling sport and that losing, although not acceptable, can be tolerable.}