Puyallup, Wash.—May 9, 2012 — The sprint car education that Trey Starks received the last few weeks competing with the World of Outlaws at the famed Knoxville Raceway in Iowa and the legendary Eldora Speedway in Ohio was priceless. The 16-year-old returns to the West Coast this weekend, and looks to employ what he learned on the two hallowed half-miles, as he takes to the track at a traditional California bullring at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare.
Starks will contest the Chris and Brian Faria Memorial with the Cancen Oil King of the West Sprint Car Series presented by Goodyear on Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12 at the high-banked 1/3-mile located at the Tulare County Fairgrounds.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can apply from Eldora and Knoxville back on the tracks at home and on the West Coast,” said Starks. “We can gauge what we’ve learned and what we’ve done since the beginning of the year.”
Starks raced earlier this season with the World of Outlaws at Thunderbowl Raceway, finishing 13th and earned the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award that night, after lining up 22nd in the main event. The native of Puyallup, Wash. competed with the King of the West Series at Tulare last season, finishing seventh, which marked his best-career showing at the high-banked bullring. He has a pair of Top-10 finishes at Thunderbowl Raceway in his young career.
“I’ll definitely have to get my elbows up at Tulare,” shared Starks. “At Eldora and Knoxville, you kind of keep your elbows down, so to speak and try to be really smooth. At Tulare, you have to ‘Cowboy up,’ like you do at most of the smaller California tracks and drive a little harder and not worry about the smoothness as much.”
Starks has faced some tough competition in the early part of the 2012 campaign, as he has raced with the World of Outlaws eight times and has made the feature in all eight of those starts. He won his first heat race with the series on April 28 in his debut at Knoxville Raceway and followed that up with another heat race victory at Eldora Speedway on May 5. Both of those heat race triumphs earned him a spot in the World of Outlaws dash and a Top-10 starting position in the A-Feature. Starks has earned the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award twice this season with the World of Outlaws, for passing the most cars in the feature event.
“Running with the World of Outlaws, you are running with the top caliber of sprint car drivers in the world, so it definitely boosts your confidence when you run well with that,” explained Starks. “I think that will help us going back to the West Coast this week. Hopefully we can have a really good showing at Tulare.”
Starks was victorious in his most recent start in California, on April 7, as he took the checkered flag at Kings Speedway in Hanford. That victory came on the heels of a podium finish at the 3/8-mile a week earlier. The third-generation driver has made six starts in the Golden State this season at five different tracks, ranging from a pair of 1/3-miles at Tulare and Merced to the high-banked half-mile at Perris Auto Speedway.
“Tulare in a sense is similar to Eldora and you run either right up against the cushion or down on the bottom,” noted Starks. “It’s just like any other race track and you just have to drive it hard. I really think we can get a Top-Five or a Top-Three at Tulare. We have a lot of confidence going back, after running with some really, really good guys for the last few weeks.”
Trey Starks and Starks Racing would like to thank their valued partners: BR Motorsports, FX Signs, King Racing Products, Masco Petroleum, Northwest Powerdercoating & Sandblasting, Starks Timber Processing and T &C Concepts.
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For the latest news and information on Trey Starks and Starks Racing, visit http://www.Treystarks.com. Also keep up with Trey on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TreyStarksRacing, and follow Trey on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/TreyStarks55.
- Admin Account on May 09, 2012
- Article Date: 5/9/2012