Inside Line Promotions – ALGER, Wash. (June 22, 2022) – Trey Starks is rolling into the famed Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup with momentum on his side.
Starks earned a pair of victories at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash., last weekend before posting a sixth-place result on Monday during the Dirt Cup Tune-Up at Skagit Speedway.
“I’m really excited,” he said. “I think this is shaping up to be one of the best Dirt Cups ever. We’re in a good spot as a team right now and have enjoyed a lot of success in our limited races in 2022.”
Weather changed the racing plan last weekend as Starks invaded Grays Harbor Raceway on Saturday evening for the opening round of a 360ci winged sprint car doubleheader. He won his first heat race from the pole position and his second heat race after starting seventh, which made him the high-points earner. Starks lined up fifth in the dash.
“On the start we got into third,” he said. “We fell to fourth on the second lap, but by the fourth lap we got up to second. We were running down the leader, but ran out of laps. That started us on the outside of the front row in the main event.
“Seth (Bergman) put a slider on me going into turn one. I was able to cross him over and get under him going into turn three. I didn’t really see anything after that. I just tried to keep it straight and my tires under me. We did a few things different than we normally do because I wasn’t sure which way the track was going to go. We ended up being okay, but we were a little free and I didn’t get through traffic as good as I wanted to. We had a restart with about 10 laps to go and I went into conservation-mode. Tires are a main concern these days. I didn’t want to do too much damage to the tires. I was maybe a little more conservative the last 10 laps, but we had a good enough car to maintain the lead and win.”
The victory also locked Starks into the main event on Sunday at Grays Harbor Raceway.
“With the tire situation and track conditions they didn’t end up running the dash,” he said. “We basically got one hot lap session in the middle of the day for the lock-in cars. I ended up drawing the No. 2 so that put us starting on the outside front row. It was a similar situation to the night before where we got the lead on the first lap and after that didn’t really see anything. I tried to keep a good pace and again make sure I took care of my tires. We made a few changes to the setup from the night before and I felt a little better in traffic. The track was great. It was really wide and gave us a lot of room to race.”
Starks led the distance for his sixth victory of the season.
The team ventured to Skagit Speedway on Monday for the Dirt Cup Tune-Up. Starks qualified ninth quickest, placed second in a heat race and advanced from 10th to sixth in the main event.
“We have very limited laps in a 410 this year,” he said. “We’ve had one 410 race, which was at Grays Harbor. We don’t have many 410 laps at Skagit the last few years either. The track was considerably different than we’d seen all season. They had a decent amount of water in it and it built a curb. We were pretty far off where we wanted to be in qualifying. Then we were playing catch up all night and not in our usual rhythm.
“We were just guessing for lack of a better word at the setup in the feature. We were close, but there was definitely some big things we would have done differently to help the car out. It shed some light on where we need to be on Thursday. In the grand scheme of things that’s exactly what Monday night’s race was for.”
The Dirt Cup runs this Thursday through Saturday at Skagit Speedway.
QUICK RESULTS –
June 18 – Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. – Heat race #1: 1 (1); Heat race #2: 1 (7); Dash: 2 (5); Feature: 1 (2).
June 19 – Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. – Feature: 1 (2).
June 20 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. – Qualifying: 9; Heat race: 2 (2); Feature: 6 (10).
SEASON STATS –
8 races, 6 wins, 7 top fives, 8 top 10s, 8 top 15s, 8 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Thursday through Saturday at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., for the Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup with the King of the West-NARC Fujitsu Series
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.TreyStarksRacing.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Starks55Trey
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TreyStarksRacing?fref=ts
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
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- Shawn Miller on Jun 22, 2022
- Article Date: 6/22/2022 by Inside Line Promotions