Inside Line Promotions – ALGER, Wash. (June 27, 2022) – Trey Starks captured his first career Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup preliminary night victory last Friday during the midpoint of the 50th annual event hosted by Skagit Speedway.
Starks then advanced for a seventh-place result during Saturday’s $50,000-to-win main event for his career-best finish during the finale when the event has been running 410ci winged sprint cars.
“I knew we were going to have our work cut out for us since we didn’t have much 410 experience this year,” he said. “I knew it’d be an uphill battle. I’m definitely happy even though I wish we could have been a little better on Saturday.”
Starks qualified fifth quickest on Thursday before he advanced from seventh to sixth place in a heat race. He capped the night by placing 14th in the main event after being caught up in a crash.
“We were better than the results show,” he said. “I think we would have had a top-10 finish, but we got tangled with another car later in the race. We would have had better points if that didn’t happen so we gave up some points there.”
Starks qualified 26th quickest before he won both a heat race and the main event after starting on the outside of the front row on Friday.
“We didn’t qualify well, but made the best of the position we were in by starting on the front row of the heat race and winning and then doing the same thing in the feature,” he said. “We got a good start and out to the lead. We got into some heavy traffic a couple of times. Being 40 laps it was a long race. I raced really hard with Dominic (Scelzi). We swapped the lead three or four times. It was a dogfight there for a while. It was really nice to race with him. We race really hard, but we race clean. He got us a couple of times, but we were good enough to get him right back. We were really happy with our car speed and how we were able to maneuver.”
Once preliminary points were calculated Starks ranked ninth to narrowly miss a spot into the King of the Hill. That lined him up on the inside of the fifth row in the main event on Saturday.
“The track had some interesting characteristics,” he said. “Out of nowhere a couple of holes developed in turns three and four. Our car wasn’t the happiest trying to navigate it. We were competitive and right in the mix, but it was hard to keep a rhythm. The car got upset a couple of times. We had some opportunities and we raced hard with the guys in front. It was 50 laps for $50,000. Everybody was on point and we were just slightly off to be able to move really far forward.
“We learned a ton about the 410 and we’ll feel a ton better going into the other local 410 shows at Skagit and the Outlaws races later in the summer. There were tons of fans and it was a really good showing of how good Dirt Cup can be with 410s back.”
Starks plans on taking the next couple of weeks off before resuming competition July 22-23 at Skagit Speedway during the Bob’s Burgers & Brew Summer Nationals.
QUICK RESULTS –
June 23 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. – Qualifying: 5; Heat race: 6 (7); Feature: 14 (12).
June 24 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. – Qualifying: 26; Heat race: 1 (2); Feature: 1 (2).
June 25 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. – Feature: 7 (9).
SEASON STATS –
11 races, 7 wins, 8 top fives, 10 top 10s, 11 top 15s, 11 top 20s
UP NEXT –
July 22-23 at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., for the Bob’s Burgers & Brew Summer Nationals
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 27, 2022
- Article Date: 6/27/2022 by Inside Line Promotions