Inside Line Promotions - MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (Oct. 6, 2013) - Trey Starks traveled from the West Coast to the East Coast and tackled Williams Grove Speedway last weekend for the 51st annual National Open with one goal in mind: advance to the feature both nights at the prestigious track.
Mission accomplished.
The Washington native drove his way into the main event on Friday and Saturday, earning a pair of top 25s against more than 60 of the best sprint car drivers in the country.
"Our goal was making the main once and we did it twice," he said. "To make the show both nights I think that's a huge accomplishment. We're more than happy with the results."
Starks opened the weekend on Friday by qualifying 23rd quickest, which was less than four one-hundredths of a second out of the heat race inversion.
"We just missed the heat race inversion," he said. "We were looking good until about the last 10 cars. (Fred) Rahmer went down and busted out a lap on the bottom and it seemed that a bunch of cars ran down there and put down good times at the end."
Starks started fifth in his heat race, which locked in the top-four finishers to the feature. He battled for fourth place for the entire heat race before losing fifth place on the final lap. That sent him to the Last Chance Showdown, which he started seventh.
"Friday night the car was awesome in the B Main," he said. "We really had to work for it. Coming up through that B Main the car was awesome. I could put it anywhere. I made the middle work."
Starks found a middle groove and worked up to fifth place - one spot out of a transfer - by the midpoint.
"I would say that would probably be one of my best drives ever," he said. "We were riding seventh and I slipped up almost to the middle by accident. All of a sudden I'm going by both cars on both sides. I ended up in fifth coming out of (turn) two. I found that middle by accident just racing with guys and it worked really well."
Starks was running fifth when a late caution set up a green-white-checkered finish.
"On that restart I knew it would be green-white-checkered so I went for that middle in (turns) one and two and snuck right underneath him and pulled in front of him out of (turn) two," he said. "Coming for the white flag I did the exact same thing to the third-place car."
Starks finished third in the consolation race to earn a transfer to the main event, which he started 21st.
"We thought to get some laps and move forward as much as you can," he said of his goal for the feature. "On the long straightaways it's hard to tell what's going to happen in the corners so you're waiting on guys. I didn't really know what would happen in front of me so I was cautious. We stayed out of trouble and kept our nose clean and logged some laps."
Starks placed 25th to cap the opening night of the doubleheader.
After Saturday's $50,000-to-win finale was delayed a couple of hours because of rain, Starks continued his impressive performance. He qualified 12 th quickest and finished fourth in his heat race to lock into the 40-lap main event.
Starks started the feature 18th and ended with a 23rd-place result.
"We started out pretty good," he said. "The top was a big, big cushion. It seemed like everybody wanted to go to the bottom so I tried to make the top work. I probably stayed up there longer than we should have.
"We had some really good racing with some guys. We raced with (Cody) Darrah and Brian Brown for a while. You've got to be really cautious of where guys are running in front of you. They're running really fast and slow up so quickly. We'll use what we learned maybe on Friday and if we go back next year; just getting more laps on different tracks will help."
Starks will return to Williams Grove Speedway on Friday and head to Eldora Speedway near Rossburg, Ohio, on Saturday for the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions event.
QUICK RESULTS -
Oct. 4 - Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa. - Qualifying: 23; Heat race: 6 (5); B Main: 3 (7); Feature: 25 (21).
Oct. 5 - Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa. - Qualifying: 12; Heat race: 4 (2); Feature: 23 (18).
SEASON STATS -
42 races, 3 wins, 18 top fives, 26 top 10s, 29 top 15s, 36 top 20s
UP NEXT -
Friday at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa., and Saturday at Eldora Speedway near Rossburg, Ohio, with the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions
MEDIA LINKS -
Website: http://www.TreyStarksRacing.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/treystarks55
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TreyStarksRacing?fref=ts
VIDEO -
Here's a link to Trey's win at Skagit Speedway on May 25 with highlights beginning approximately 4:45 into the video: http://youtu.be/JlaX5Lvj4VI
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 http://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 http://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 http://www.insidelinepromotions.com.
- Admin Account on Oct 07, 2013
- Article Date: 10/7/2013 by Shawn Miller