3/18/2012
Sprint Source
Charging Hard: Trey Starks Earns World of Outlaws Hard Charger Award at Thunderbowl Raceway
Puyallup, Wash.—March 18, 2012 — In sprint car racing, it can be quite challenging to show patience, especially for a young driver, when races can run green-to-checker in just six or seven minutes if there are no cautions, while other times it can take quite a bit longer, depending on circumstances. Trey Starks showed the patience of a seasoned veteran over the weekend with the World of Outlaws at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif., and was rewarded for his efforts with a solid 13th-place finish on Friday, March 16, earning the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award in the process.
The 16-year old methodically worked his way forward from the 22nd starting position and found himself in the 13th spot when the checkered flag was dropped, in a feature that saw the caution flag fly four times and the red flag unfurled on three occasions. For Starks, it was the second-best finish of his young career with the World of Outlaws, following an 11th-place showing in the opener of the Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, Calif. last year.
“I had to use a lot of patience on Friday, that’s for sure,” explained Starks. “I was conserving my tear-offs as well and when some of the other drivers ran out, I still had some and was able to pick up a few positions. It was a good finish and gives us something to build on heading to Chico.”
With 10 laps remaining in the 35-lap feature on Friday night, rain began to fall, which sent the drivers back to the pit area for a short time. On the ensuing restart Starks lined up 17th and worked his way up to 13th in just a handful of laps. He would run 13th for the final five circuits of the main event.
“It wasn’t raining that hard, so I knew the rain would go away and we would get back out there,” said Starks. “We were able to put more tear-offs on, so when I went back out, I had good vision and everyone else did as well. I knew I had to bring my ‘A-Game’ when we went back out and drive hard for those last 10 laps and it paid off.”
The high school freshmen was 22nd in time trials on Friday night. He started eighth in the first eight-lap heat race, which featured eventual winner Tim Kaeding, 20-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser, four-time Tulare winner Joey Saldana and six-time Knoxville Raceway champion Terry McCarl. Starks would finish seventh in the heat race, which put him in the B-Main. He started fourth in the B-Main and gained a spot to finish third, getting his qualifying time back for lineup purposes for the main event, which put him on the outside of the 11th row for the start of the A-Feature.
“On a night like that, you have to always be kind of looking ahead on the track and remain patient, so that you stay out of trouble,” noted Starks. “I was just trying to pick cars off one at a time and not try any banzai moves, especially when you have the conditions we had.”
The finale of the two-day event on Saturday, March 17 was rained out. World of Outlaws officials and Thunderbowl Raceway officials are working on finding a suitable date to make the race up.
“If you are going to get rained out, the best thing is for it to rain out early like it did,” said Starks. “Nobody likes to go to the track and sit in the rain all day and then get cancelled, so they certainly did it the right way.”
Starks will compete again with the World of Outlaws this coming weekend in the Mini Gold Cup at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, Calif. on Friday, March 23 and Saturday, March 24. The native of Puyallup, Wash. has competed in each of the first three races of the West Coast swing for the World of Outlaws, qualifying for the feature event in all three of those contests, and plans to contest the four remaining races for the series in the Golden State during the month of March.
Trey Starks and Starks Racing would like to thank their valued partners: BR Motorsports, FX Signs, King Racing Products, Masco Petroleum, Northwest Powerdercoating & Sandblasting, Starks Timber Processing and T &C Concepts.
Up next
March 23: World of Outlaws- Silver Dollar Speedway, Chico, Calif.
March 24: World of Outlaws- Silver Dollar Speedway, Chico, Calif.
Keep Up-to-Date
For the latest news and information on Trey Starks and Starks Racing, visit http://www.Treystarks.com. Also keep up with Trey on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TreyStarksRacing, and follow Trey on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/TreyStarks55.
Article Credit: Starks Racing PR
Submitted By: Admin Account
