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Tulare, CA — (March 16, 2014) — Trey Starks has a busy week ahead of him following a vicious crash last Saturday.
A wild wreck ended Starks’ weekend at Thunderbowl Raceway with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series and will force the team to work full steam in preparation for this Saturday’s World of Outlaws event at Stockton 99 Dirt Track in Stockton, Calif.
“We got everything apart and we think we’ll get everything together in time,” Starks said. “I think the steering box and the seat are the only thing left. It was a really tough hit. We’ve never completely destroyed a car until now. It’s going to be a lot of work this week to get everything done.”
Although the weekend ended ugly, it started on Friday with Starks qualifying third quickest – his best ever with the World of Outlaws. He then finished fourth in his heat race to lock into the dash for the first time this season.
“We started real good and then progressively got worse as the night went on,” he said. “The heat was fine. The car wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad either. I had a little bit of an oil leak problem. We thought it was the oil pressure gauge so we capped that thing off. Then we lost power steering in the dash.”
Starks finished sixth in the dash, which earned him the sixth starting position for the 35-lap main event. The team then changed the power steering pump and found the oil leak problem, but didn’t have time to rehook the oil pressure gauge before rolling onto the track for the feature.
“We still had the oil leak problem, but found that it was a loose valve cover,” he said. “In the main we were running good. From about the 20th lap the motor started sounding weird. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. I thought I felt the motor start to lay down and without an oil pressure gauge I decided to pull it in. When I got out I saw it was the muffler. The muffler ended up breaking off.”
While competing for his first top five of the season, Starks pulled into the infield with approximately 10 laps remaining and he was credited with a 24 th-place result.
The team returned to Thunderbowl Raceway on Saturday, when Starks’ qualifying results were dramatically different than the previous night.
“We missed on the car and I missed on my laps,” he said after timing in 27th quickest.
Starks rallied from ninth to sixth place in his heat race, which locked him into the feature. He then started 22nd in the main event.
“The track was really rough and really heavy and really fast,” he said. “It was tough to pass on. I think we were just inside the top 20 and started to get a run going midway through the race. I got outside a driver and was going down the frontstretch. All of a sudden I got this huge blow to the left side and the next thing I know I was turned around and upside down. It was one of those racing deals. It ruined a car and set us back.”
The collision entering turn one ended with a violent flip by Starks, who finished 24th. The team returned to Washington to prepare a new car this week in an effort to return to California this weekend with the World of Outlaws.
QUICK RESULTS –
March 14 – Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif. – Qualifying: 3; Heat race: 4 (4); Dash: 6 (4); Feature: 24 (6).
March 15 – Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif. – Qualifying: 27; Heat race: 6 (9); Feature: 24 (22).
SEASON STATS –
8 races, 0 wins, 0 top fives, 0 top 10s, 1 top 15, 1 top 20
UP NEXT –
Saturday at Stockton 99 Dirt Track in Stockton, Calif., with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.TreyStarksRacing.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/