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Starks Snags Two Podiums, Four Top 10s During Western Sprint Tour Speedweek

(Photo by Malcolm White Photography)

Inside Line Promotions – COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. (July 6, 2015) – Trey Starks had a strong finish to the inaugural Western Sprint Tour Speedweek.

After placing 12th a week ago Sunday at Siskiyou Motor Speedway in Yreka, Calif., and 13th the following night at Southern Oregon Speedway in White City, Ore., Starks found rejuvenation last Tuesday at Coos Bay Speedway in Coos Bay, Ore., during Round 3.

“Dirt Cup was kind of rough,” he said. “We had good cars, but Skagit is a tough place to race at. We got kind of beat up out there. I think that carried over into Speedweek a little bit. The first couple of nights we just didn’t put it together. We didn’t have the luck and just didn’t have good nights. At Coos Bay I think we picked everything up and progressed from there.”

Starks qualified sixth quickest, placed fourth in a heat race and fifth in the dash to start the main event on the inside of the third row.

“It’s one of my favorite tracks,” he said. “The bottom was a little better than the top. I just ran a safe race around the bottom and stayed really patient and picked them off when I could. We were all there for the win. It was who was going to make a mistake on the bottom and nobody did. I think it was the momentum shift of the week for us.”

Starks used a third-place result to jumpstart the remainder of Speedweek, which continued on Thursday at Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Ore. He qualified seventh quickest and finished fourth in a heat race to earn the ninth starting position for the feature.

“We were rolling good in the main, but we really struggled with lapped cars,” he said. “We were up to fifth by Lap 10 and then we had a couple of restarts and I just could not get by lapped cars. We fell back to eighth and eventually finished seventh. It was really frustrating because we had such a good car, but the track was great and it was fun.”

Starks posted a seventh-place result to carry the momentum into a doubleheader at Cottage Grove Speedway on Friday and Saturday.

“We’ve run there a few times this year and were really strong,” he said. “It’s a track I really like and we seem to have figured out. We set quick time both nights and it went from there. We didn’t do much passing in our heat races since we were in the first one, but it was enough to get us in the dash.”

Starks won the dash on Friday to earn the pole position for the main event.

“We were really good in the main,” he said. “The track was a little different than Cottage Grove is usually like. It was bottom dominant. The leaders and the lapped cars were running the bottom. That created a bit of a problem. You had to move the lapped car out of the way or find another lane to pass them. I snuck underneath a few of them, but was having trouble with a couple of them. I decided to go to the top and when I did that it let Justyn Cox take the preferred line. It was a great race, but we lost by five thousands of a second at the line. I really wanted to win that one. Sometimes you make mistakes when you’re leading and it’s better to be running second.”

Starks led the first 25 laps before finishing second by a nose.

Speedweek wrapped up on Saturday with another solid night by Starks, who used the good qualifying time and efficient heat race to place third in the dash. That started him on the inside of the second row for the 30-lap feature.

“We took off on the bottom and we picked Roger Crockett off on the first lap,” he said. “On the next lap we chased down Kyle Hirst and had a really good race. It was really tight and really hard racing for about 10 to 12 laps. The bottom was a little dominant early in the race again so we got into a deal going into turn one where everybody was fighting for the same spot. We all three touched and unfortunately I ended up going around and off the track. That’s just racing. We came from the back with 18 laps to go to finish sixth.”

Starks, who led Lap 2, rebounded after the incident to garner a sixth-place result. He finished sixth in the overall Speedweek standings as well.

Starks will return to competition this Saturday at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash.

QUICK RESULTS –

June 28 – Siskiyou Motor Speedway in Yreka, Calif. – Qualifying: 15; Heat race: 1 (2); Feature: 12 (11).

June 29 – Southern Oregon Speedway in White City, Ore. – Qualifying: 9; Heat race: 3 (4); Feature: 13 (8).

June 30 – Coos Bay Speedway in Coos Bay, Ore. – Qualifying: 6; Heat race: 4 (5); Dash: 5 (4); Feature: 3 (5).

July 2 – Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Ore. – Qualifying: 7; Heat race: 4 (5); Feature: 7 (9).

July 3 – Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore. – Qualifying: 1; Heat race: 4 (6); Dash: 1 (2); Feature: 2 (1).

July 4 – Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore. – Qualifying: 1; Heat race: 5 (6); Dash: 3 (4); Feature: 6 (3).

SEASON STATS –

34 races, 3 wins, 14 top fives, 18 top 10s, 24 top 15s, 28 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Saturday at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash.

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 – Blue Dot Fabrications

Blue Dot Fabrications is owned by Trey’s uncle, Dean Starks, who fabricates various types of vehicles, including vintage cars and road race cars. Blue Dot Fabrications even built quarter midgets when Trey began racing. For more information, visit http://www.BlueDotFab.com.

“Blue Dot Fabrications is another business that has been around my family my entire life,” Starks said. “My uncle, Dean, has always been around ready to fix anything that gets dinged up at the track.”

Starks would also like to thank Southstar Equipment, Starks Timber Processing, SpeedMart, 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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