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(Photo courtesy of High Limit Racing)

Inside Line Promotions – ELMA, Wash. (Sept. 3, 2024) – Trey Starks produced the most fruitful national week in the Northwest of his career.

The Washington native won his first two Kubota High Limit Racing starts last Wednesday at Grays Harbor Raceway and Thursday at Skagit Speedway before he capped the Sage Fruit Skagit Nationals with results of 25th and seventh, respectively. He then wrapped up the weekend with a runner-up result in a 360ci winged sprint car show at Grays Harbor Raceway on Sunday.

“Everything about it other than the DNF on Friday because of a part failure was great,” he said. “We knew that we could do it and have good runs if we were in the right position and that’s exactly what happened on Wednesday and Thursday. We had enough speed to capitalize on it.

“We had good speed and made good decisions. You’re not going to just be way better and expect to win. You’re also not going to have pure luck. You have to have speed on top of it. We had that both nights and it showed all the work we put in throughout the season and the last couple of years paid off.

“The way it worked out I don’t know if you could have scripted it. I hadn’t been in the car for a couple of weeks going into a race against the best guys in the world. To be able to pull it off and beat them. To have my son there was cool. We didn’t even plan on him being there, but at the last minute they came. His first race his dad won a national touring event, it’s something that we’ll have forever. Then to go the next night and back it up makes it even sweeter. And to win at both of my home tracks, I don’t even know if there’s words to describe.”

The busy week began last Wednesday with Starks qualifying sixth quickest at Grays Harbor Raceway. He then won a heat race, the dash and the main event from the pole position during his first race since his son, Rowan, was born.

“We were strong and qualified well on a track that was going away,” he said. “Winning the heat and the dash helped. At Grays Harbor, having the knowledge of running there and knowing how the track responds to the work they do when the sun goes down, helped. I knew that the track was going to go a certain way and that helped us out in the feature.”

Starks was just as strong the ensuing night at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., where he kicked off the Sage Fruit Skagit Nationals with the 14th quickest qualifying time. A run from third to win a heat race put him on the outside of the front row in the main event and Starks capitalized.

“We qualified not as good as we wanted to, but we made some points up in the heat race,” he said. “That put us in a good position for the invert and we took advantage of our front row starting spot. We had to wrestle the lead on the opening lap and had to navigate lapped traffic and hold off some hard charges from guys like (Shane) Golobic and (Justin) Sanders.”

Starks timed in second quickest and he hustled from sixth to second place in a heat race on Friday to climb into the high-point position. Unfortunately, a part failure in the rear end while he was running inside the top 10 during the main event relegated him to a DNF.

Starks won a heat race and was seventh in the dash to open Saturday’s event finale. He maintained a top-10 position throughout the main event before ending seventh.

“In the feature the track did something nobody expected it to do,” he said. “It looked wide to start, but narrowed up. It threw everybody for a loop. We just weren’t able to get going. I think it’s a different story if we could have started toward the front. We were fighting for the same spot on the track everybody else was. I would say we took what the race track gave us.”

The weekend concluded on Sunday with a local show at Grays Harbor Raceway, where he was second quickest in qualifying. Starks advanced from fourth to win a heat race and he moved from fourth to second place in the A Main.

“That place had a lot of grip to it and was pretty narrow,” he said. “We got to second and placed chase the whole time. We had six or seven cautions so we didn’t get into traffic a lot. Coming to the checkered off turn four we got into traffic and we were basically side by side coming to the line. The way the race played out it didn’t give a ton of opportunity, but we were fast. I felt pretty good even though we ran second.”

Starks returns to action this Saturday at Skagit Speedway, where he leads the 360ci winged sprint car championship standings by 14 points.

QUICK RESULTS –

Aug. 28 – Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. – Qualifying: 6; Heat race: 1 (1); Dash: 1 (1); Feature: 1 (1).

Aug. 29 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. – Qualifying: 14; Heat race: 1 (3); Feature: 1 (2).

Aug. 30 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. – Qualifying: 2; Heat race: 2 (6); Feature: 25 (8).

Aug. 31 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. – Heat race: 1 (1); Dash: 7 (8); Feature: 7 (7).

Sept. 1 – Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. – Qualifying: 2; Heat race: 1 (4); Feature: 2 (4).

SEASON STATS –

25 races, 11 wins, 18 top fives, 20 top 10s, 22 top 15s, 23 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Saturday at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash.

MEDIA LINKS –

Website: http://www.StarksRacing.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Starks55Trey

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

INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –

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