From Starks Racing PR
Puyallup, WA — (August 14, 2012) — Trey Starks has visited quite a few tracks and states for the first time this year. He’ll add four more venues and another pair of states to that list over the next six days, as he takes to the track in Nebraska and North Dakota for a total of four races with both the World of Outlaws and the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions.
He’ll begin the four-race stretch tonight at Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, Neb., in the fourth and final round of the NAPA Auto Parts Kasey Kahne Challenge, followed by a start with the All Stars on Wednesday, Aug. 15, at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, N.D. The native of Puyallup, Wash., then heads north to River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., on Friday, Aug. 17, for Round 2 of The Duel at the Dakotas, and will conclude the weekend on Sunday, Aug. 19, at Nodak Speedway in Minot, N.D., in the Magic City Showdown.
The race at Junction Motor Speedway will be the World of Outlaws first at the high-banked three-eighths-mile since their debut at the facility in 2010. It will mark the 16th track and eighth state that Starks will have raced in this season.
“I’m looking at the track here in McCool Junction right now, and it looks just awesome,” said Starks. “It looks like it will be pretty racy and a fun track. I hope the rest of the tracks this week are like it as well.”
At Red River Valley Speedway, the event will mark the first appearance for the 16-year-old in the state of North Dakota. The high-banked three-eighths-mile is operated by the family of four-time World of Outlaws champion and recent Knoxville Nationals winner Donny Schatz. This season, Starks has a win and four Top-10 finishes in a limited number of starts on three-eighths-mile tracks.
“I’ve learned going to new tracks that you can’t over think it or you’ll psyche yourself out,” explained the young driver. “You have to just go out and drive it like any other track. They are all round and brown.”
River Cities Speedway in one of the smallest and highest banked tracks on the World of Outlaws schedule. The track is officially listed as a three-tenths-mile, but most drives refer to it as a quarter-mile. The track record currently stands at 9.269-seconds, which is the quickest on the circuit. Starks has raced at the three-tenths-mile high-banked Skagit Speedway in his home state of Washington, a track similar to River Cities, seven times this year, picking up five Top-10 finishes, with four of those being finishes of fourth or better.
“I’ve heard Grand Forks is an elbows up track,” he shared. “That’s how the tracks back home and in California are. I have a lot of experience on the little quarter-miles on the West Coast, so hopefully I’ll be able to use that on Friday.”
The race at Nodak Speedway will be the World of Outlaws first visit to the three-eighths-mile located at the North Dakota State Fairgrounds since 2010. The event last season was cancelled due to flooding in the area.
“A lot of the tracks out here in the Midwest are bigger tracks that drive like a shorter track,” noted Starks. “At places like that, I can use the short track experience I have, along with some of the bigger track experience that I have been gaining this year at Knoxville and Eldora. It kind of works out in a couple of ways like that.”
Last week Starks competed in the Goodyear Knoxville Nationals for the first time in his young career. He took to the track for the first time on Thursday, Aug. 9, which was the second qualifying day. Starks was 28th in time trials of the 50 cars that took to the track. He finished sixth in the third heat race, which put him in the B-main, where he worked his way from the 13th starting spot to finish ninth.
Starks returned to the half-mile the following night for the third preliminary night, which featured a complete program for drivers looking to qualifying for the main event on Saturday. He opened that night by turning the 19th quickest lap in time trials of the 67 entries. He started on the outside of the front row in the fifth heat, and finished third, with just the Top-two transferring to the preliminary feature. He would finish sixth in the second B-main, which would put him in the C-main on Saturday night. Starks would wrap up his first Knoxville Nationals in 16th in the C-main.
“Your first Knoxville Nationals is always going to be tough,” he said. “There are such good drivers there, and it’s so competitive. Knoxville is a completely different animal and it takes laps over there. I’m glad we were able to get laps in and learn some things for next year.”
Starks enters this week with one win on the season, to go along with 11 Top-10 finishes. He has qualified for eight main events with the World of Outlaws this year, winning a pair of heat races in the process to qualify for the dash. He also has earned the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award twice with the series. That honor is given to the driver that passes the most cars in the A-Feature each night.
“We’re just looking for good solid A-Main finishes, and that will make it worthwhile for the trip,” he said, of expectations for this week. “Hopefully we can get some laps in and learn some of these tracks here in the Midwest.”
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.