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Starks Comes Up an Eighth of a Second Short of Victory at Skagit Speedway

(Photo by Collin Markle Photography)

Inside Line Promotions – ALGER, Wash. (May 18, 2015) – Trey Starks has endured a bout with heartache the past couple of days following a tough second-place finish at Skagit Speedway last Saturday.

“I hate finishing second,” he said. “I’d rather finish 10th than second. Last Saturday was a heartbreaker. It was a shot right to the heart.”

Starks kicked off the event by qualifying third quickest before he advanced from fourth to third place in a heat race. A four-car feature inversion started him on the outside of the front row for the 25-lap feature.

“I didn’t get a very good start,” he said. “(Polesitter) Colton Heath led the first lap, but on the second lap going into turn three I threw a pretty big slider on him. I knew if I let him get out too far I might not have another shot at him. I tried to navigate my way through traffic as best as I could. It gets a little dusty and narrow at Skagit and we had pretty heavy traffic.”

Starks led from the second lap until the last lap.

“I took the white (flag) and coming out of turn four I thought we were taking the checkered,” he said. “Right as I crossed the finish line the red came out. They threw it back to a green-white-checkered finish. My crew and I talked about what our game plan would be under the red flag. Nobody really knew what the best thing to do would be.

“Colton is a smart racer and he races really hard. I knew that he was going to go exactly where I didn’t go. We had been running the top all night. I chose the top again and I believe it slowed down too much. I just hadn’t noticed it while we were in traffic.”

Once the race restarted Starks led the initial lap and took the white flag in the lead. However, Heath pulled even with him down the backstretch before sliding up the track and into the top spot in turns three and four. Starks pitched the car sideways and drove off the bottom in a last-ditch effort to beat Heath back to the checkered flag, but he came up 0.127 seconds short.

“It was a great race for the fans,” Starks said. “He got me by about a nose.”

Starks also drove for Doug Rutz in the sportsman class on Saturday at Skagit Speedway. He qualified third quickest and moved from third to second place in a heat race to start the main event on the inside of the third row.

“We were rolling the top and everybody else was in the bottom to the middle,” he said. “It’s kinda tough to pass on, especially in the sportsman cars because you don’t have as much speed. Unfortunately I had a lapped car spin in front of us.”

Starks was in third place just after the midpoint of the race when he was caught up in the incident, which forced him to restart at the back of the field.

“We drove it pretty hard and tried to get a few positions after that,” he said. “I feel like we had a car capable of winning. It would have been interesting. Getting there and passing are two different things, but we got caught up in something we couldn’t avoid.”

Starks rallied to record a 10th-place finish.

He is scheduled to compete this Saturday at Southern Oregon Speedway in White City, Ore., and Sunday at Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore., with the Western Sprint Tour.

QUICK RESULTS –

May 16 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. (360 sprint) – Qualifying: 3; Heat race: 3 (4); Feature: 2 (2).

May 16 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. (Sportsman sprint) – Qualifying: 6; Heat race: 2 (3); Feature: 10 (5).

SEASON STATS –

19 races, 2 wins, 7 top fives, 8 top 10s, 9 top 15s, 13 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Saturday at Southern Oregon Speedway in White City, Ore., and Sunday at Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore., with the Western Sprint Tour

MEDIA LINKS –

Website: http://www.TreyStarksRacing.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Starks55Trey

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TreyStarksRacing?fref=ts

APPAREL –

Starks has t-shirts and hoodies for sale 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, I know SpeedMart will always have anything we need.”

Starks would also like to thank Southstar Equipment, Starks Timber Processing, Blue Dot Fabrications, King Racing Products, Masco Petroleum, RCC Powder Coating and Emory Transmission for their continued support.

INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –

Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.

To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.

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