Inside Line Promotions - ALGER, Wash. (May 27, 2013) - Trey Starks is getting used to racing on the fly.
Once again, his team had to change direction last Saturday when the ASCS Northwest Region opener was rained out at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. They hauled nearly three hours to Skagit Speedway, where Starks claimed his second victory of the season and fifth career.
"It's pretty good for missing hot laps and everything being scrambled together," he said. "I would say that's probably the best-case scenario. It's nice to have two wins early in the season like this."
En route to the track, Starks called a friend to draw for him. While the team missed hot laps and his turn during qualifying, they arrived just in time for Starks to get one qualifying lap at the end. With no heat in the engine, Starks timed in third quickest of the 26 cars.
"We pulled in while the cars were lined up," he said. "We literally showed up there, rolled the car out in just the amount of time for me to get my stuff on and push out for qualifying."
Since the feature inversion rolled after qualifying was a four, Starks knew he had to finish in the top five of his heat race to earn the outside of the front row for the main event.
"It was kinda tough in the heat because the top was slicker," he said. "(The polesitter) got the jump on me going into turn one and it was nose to tail after that. They rolled a four for the invert and so I knew I was going to be on the outside of the front row (for the feature). I just had to transfer through the heat race."
Needing a top five, Starks finished second to advance to the feature, which he started second. With approaching weather, the feature was cut to 20 laps.
"Jason Solwold got the jump on me going into (turn) one," Starks said. "We were both running the top and he started to change his line around and so did I. In (turns) three and four he was cutting it off of four and I was staying up high. Every lap I was inching up on him and setting him up to go by him. I'd say by the fifth lap we ended up getting around him on the top side coming off of four."
Starks maneuvered through tricky traffic, but said he felt Solwold close behind in the closing laps until there was a red flag with two laps remaining.
"It was an intense race," Starks said. "We were in heavy traffic until two to go when there was a red. That was kinda stressful. Going through the traffic I could tell he was coming. I was moving through it well."
The intensity only picked up as it took three times for the green-white-checkered finish and each time Starks was forced to change up his restart process.
"It seemed like they really tried to give me a lot of chances to screw it up," he said. "When we were up and running we had the fastest car. It was kinda stressful within those last few laps. In that situation it's a lot easier to be in second than to be the leader. I had to change up my restarts, change up where I went. At Skagit you're vulnerable on the first lap because there's so many options of where to go."
Starks hit his marks and closed the race perfectly to extend his streak of five consecutive top-four finishes.
He is scheduled to compete with the ASCS Northwest Region on Friday at Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Ore., and Saturday at Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore.
QUICK RESULTS -
May 25 - Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. - Qualifying: 3; Heat race: 2 (2); Feature: 1 (2).
SEASON STATS -
6 races, 2 wins, 5 top fives, 6 top 10s, 6 top 15s, 6 top 20s
UP NEXT -
Friday at Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Ore., and Saturday at Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore., with the ASCS Northwest Region
MEDIA LINKS -
Website: http://www.TreyStarksRacing.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/treystarks55
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TreyStarksRacing?fref=ts
VIDEO -
Check out some in-car footage of Trey provided by Downforce Designs: http://youtu.be/dv2_v22rcO4
Here is a link to check out highlights from Trey's victory at Skagit Speedway on May 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axHzc9tXVaQ&feature=youtu.be
APPAREL -
Starks has men's and women's long-sleeve shirts, t-shirts and hoodies available at any race he attends and at www.TreyStarksRacing.com.
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT - SpeedMart
Established in 2004, SpeedMart has developed into a leading supplier of sprint car and racing products in the Northwest. For more information, visit www.speedmartinc.com.
"SpeedMart really benefits us because they are right next to our home," Starks said. "Even though we are traveling a lot on the West Coast, I know SpeedMart will always have anything we need."
Starks would like to thank his sponsors, including Starks Timber Processing, Blue Dot Fabrications, BR Motorsports, King Racing Products and Masco Petroleum for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS -
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations, media management and merchandising services for sprint car teams. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and your sponsors' return on investment.
To meet the media relations needs of your team, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or sprintcarreporter@yahoo.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit www.insidelinepromotions.com.
- Admin Account on May 27, 2013
- Article Date: 5/27/2013 by Shawn Miller