Inside Line Promotions – HANFORD, Calif. (April 13, 2021) – Trey Starks was impressive behind the wheel of a Roth Motorsports sprint car last Saturday at Keller Auto Speedway, which featured the Dave Helm 410 Winged Sprintcar Classic.
Starks earned a top-five finish during his first-ever race with Roth Motorsports at a track where he hadn’t raced since October 2012.
“I didn’t really have any expectations,” he said. “I just wanted to have fun and see how we could do. I think we did pretty well. We ran second most of the race. We gave up second with five laps to go and then on the last lap I got over the cushion so we lost third. All in all I think we ran pretty good since I hadn’t raced with them before or been in a car for a few months.”
Starks took advantage of a good pill draw by winning his first heat race before a charge from ninth to fifth place in his second heat race locked him into the dash. Starks advanced a position to finish second in the dash, giving him the outside front row starting position for the main event.
“We got to draw the front row of the first heat,” he said. “We got in the lead right away and led the whole way. In the second heat we got a couple of spots on the start. I got another spot on a late-race restart, which ultimately put us into the dash draw. Then I felt really, really good in the dash. I was optimistic heading into the feature.”
Starks hit the bottom groove perfectly in turns one and two on the start of the feature and slid into the lead. He rode the top groove through turns three and four while maintaining the top spot, but a caution came out. It was a complete restart and this time the polesitter took the line Starks used.
“It’s hard to say what would happen if that initial start went through,” he said. “D.J. (Netto) was really good and he got through traffic good, but we would have had clean air and I would have been more comfortable.”
Starks ran third during the middle portion of the race before advancing into second place when a driver spun out. Starks held onto the runner-up position until the closing laps when two drivers got by on the bottom in traffic.
“The last couple of laps I tried to drive it too hard and got over the cushion a couple of times,” he said. “I think that cost us too much time. Looking back I should have tried to move around more. I committed to the top too much.”
The fourth-place finish was a success given that Starks was making his debut with a new car and it was also his first race since Nov. 7 of last year.
“A car of that caliber is every driver’s dream to drive,” he said. “I think our results were decent and we had good speed throughout the night. There are things that if I got to drive it more that we might change to fit how I drive, but all in all it was an enjoyable weekend for me. I’d love to do it again. I want to say thank you to Dennis and Teresa Roth, Todd and Brent Ventura, and the entire Roth Motorsports team for the opportunity.”
QUICK RESULTS –
April 10 – Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, Calif. – Heat race #1: 1 (1); Heat race #2: 5 (9); Dash: 2 (3); Feature: 4 (2).
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 Apr 13, 2021
- Article Date: 4/13/2021 by Inside Line Promotions