(Photo by JRP Racing Photos)
Inside Line Promotions – COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. (Aug. 10, 2021) – Trey Starks captured one of his biggest wins in the Northwest last Saturday at Cottage Grove Speedway during the Marvin Smith Memorial Grove Classic finale.
The $4,100-to-win race marked his fourth career victory at the track and his first since June 2016. It was also his first triumph of the season.
“I’d say it’s the biggest win we’ve had around home,” he said. “The Marvin Smith Memorial is becoming one of the crown jewels in the Northwest. It’s a prestigious race that guys want to win.
“Cottage Grove is one of my favorite tracks to go to. We haven’t run there in the last couple of years so it’s nice to get there twice this summer.”
Starks started strong on Friday when he qualified second quickest, advanced from sixth to third in a heat race and won the dash to garner the pole position for the main event.
“Everything went well until the feature,” he said. “We didn’t get the jump on the start and fell to second. I tried to make a move on a restart in turns one and two. The track was a little bit choppy. I hit a hole and bounced over the edge. I had to come from the tail to get back to that fourth-and-final lock-in spot. That wasn’t what we wanted to do. I felt like we had the car to win, but I made a mistake and it cost us.”
Starks’ rebound to earn the fourth-place result locked him into the dash on Saturday.
“I drew the highest number, but we went eighth to fifth and had a good car,” he said. “We had a good idea of what the track was going to do. We finally put all the pieces together. I minimized the mistakes and we were really, really fast. We picked off most of the spots to get the lead on the bottom. Once we got the lead I could tell the bottom was going away and the top was coming in. We got into fourth on the initial start and then picked off spots one by one, eventually getting by Garen (Linder) in traffic around Lap 10. After that it was pretty smooth sailing from my standpoint. I took my time through traffic and made sure I made the right moves.”
The Marvin Smith Memorial Grove Classic triumph was Starks’ first during the finale of the event. He won the preliminary night in 2015.
Starks will return to action Sept. 3-5 at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., during the Sage Fruit Skagit Nationals and Sept. 6 at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash., with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.
QUICK RESULTS –
Aug. 6 – Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore. – Qualifying: 2; Heat race: 3 (6); Dash: 1 (2); Feature: 4 (1).
Aug. 7 – Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore. – Dash: 5 (8); Feature: 1 (5).
UP NEXT –
Sept. 3-5 at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., for the Sage Fruit Skagit Nationals and Sept. 6 at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash., with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series
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 Aug 10, 2021
- Article Date: 8/10/2021 by Inside Line Promotions