(Photo courtesy of Grays Harbor Raceway)
Inside Line Promotions – ELMA, Wash. (July 25, 2023) – Trey Starks earned a trio of third-place results last weekend to give him a dozen podium finishes in 18 starts this season.
“It was a good weekend,” he said. “We got more laps in the 360 and some valuable laps in the 410 as well. To know we were good all three nights and consistent was good. It’s slightly disappointing, but I’m happy I can be in a position where I would be disappointed with something like that.”
The three-race weekend started on Friday with a 360ci winged sprint car show at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. Starks set quick time during qualifying and advanced from fourth to third place in a heat race. A seventh-place result in the dash started him on the inside of the fourth row in the A Main.
“We got into third with about 10 laps to go and started chasing the two down in front of us,” he said. “I was watching because we were all fighting through traffic. I was trying to wait for them to start racing each other and look for an opportunity, but they didn’t start racing each other hard until the last two laps or so. We were close right at the end, but I’d have had to make a pretty aggressive move to get by Jason (Solwold) and (Justin) Sanders. We stayed with the conservative move and rolled it into the trailer knowing we had two more races that weekend. If we had a few more laps it would have got interesting.”
The team swapped engines on Saturday for a 410ci winged sprint car race at Skagit Speedway. Starks qualified second quickest before placing fifth in a heat race. A run from sixth to third in the dash gave him the third starting position in the main event.
“We were better than our result showed, but our right rear tire was going down the last 10 laps,” he said. “It was almost completely flat at the end. That hurt us when we were potentially going to make a run, but we’re also lucky we didn’t get a late caution because we would have probably been in the work area.”
The weekend concluded on Sunday at Grays Harbor Raceway, where Starks maneuvered from third to second place in his first heat race and from fifth to win his second heat race. That earned a spot into the redraw, in which Starks pulled the highest number – eight – to start the A Main eighth.
“They ended up scrapping the dash due to tire wear mainly,” he said. “We got to third and by the time that happened the track was starting to take rubber so it got harder and harder to pass. We were close, but it would have been tough to make any moves for position. If we’d have started up further I think we could have gotten to the front faster and been in position to get the lead before the rubber came, but it didn’t play out in our favor.”
Up next is the Bob’s Burgers & Brew Summer Nationals this Friday and Saturday at Skagit Speedway. Starks won the marquee 360 sprint car event last year for the first time in his career.
“I’m looking forward to trying to defend last year’s run,” he said. “The format is unique and demands hard driving on the prelim night. They invert the heats and the main event so you have to be passing cars constantly and hope you gather enough points to be in the top four to lock in for Saturday. Our main goal is to lock in on the prelim night to give us a good opportunity to start up front on Saturday.”
QUICK RESULTS –
July 21 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. – Qualifying: 1; Heat race: 3 (4); Dash: 7 (5); Feature: 3 (7).
July 22 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. – Qualifying: 2; Heat race: 5 (4); Dash: 3 (6); Feature: 3 (3).
July 23 – Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. – Heat race #1: 2 (3); Heat race #2: 1 (5); Feature: 3 (8).
SEASON STATS –
18 races, 4 wins, 13 top fives, 14 top 10s, 17 top 15s, 17 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Friday and Saturday at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., for the Bob’s Burgers & Brew Summer Nationals
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.StarksRacing.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Starks55Trey
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TreyStarksRacing?fref=ts
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
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- Shawn Miller on Jul 25, 2023
- Article Date: 7/25/2023 by Inside Line Promotions