Cottage Grove, Or — (April 24, 2015) — Despite cold temperatures and occasional showers in the afternoon Trey Starks would make history when it comes to Sprint Car racing in the Pacific Northwest on Friday April 24th at the Cottage Grove Speedway. The Puyallup, Washington teenager will go down as the first ever main event winner of the newly formed Western Sprint Tour. It would also mark the first time that Starks would win a main event at the famed 1/4-mile clay oval. Nineteen entries would fill the pit area representing the states of Oregon, Washington, and Arizona.
At the drop of the green flag Chris Schmelzle of Colville, Washington, but originally out of Victoria, British Columbia, seized the early race over the competition. Schmelzle would set a rapid pace and build a decent size lead before entering lapped traffic. While Schmelzle navigated the lapped cars Treu Starks began to reel him in.
Starks would make some quick moves in traffic and got around Schmelzle to seize the lead on lap seven. From there Starks would stretch the distance between quite a bit betweent himself and second place creating a luxury of a massive margin and several lapped cars behind him.
The main event went incident free in the first half of the race but a handful of cautions would occur in the last fifteen laps. Starks would master every single restart and distanced himself from the rest of the field allowing him to go on to cruise to the main event win. It was the first win of the 2015 season for the Southland Equipment Limited/Starks Timber Processing/Rutz Racing/Fisher Racing Engines #55 J&J team.
Seth Nunes of Medford was a respectable second in his Napa Auto Parts/Lucas Oil Products/Rodgers Racing Engines/Awesome Race Wear #5N KPC followed by the Hamilton Construction/Speedmart Inc./Shark Racing Engines/Trainwreck Bar & Grill #96 XXX. The balance of the top five would consist of Lake Havasu City, Arizona’s Logan Forler, in the Steve Forler Trucking/Rush Concrete Pumping/Lucas Oil Products/Parker Racing Engines #2L Maxim, in fourth while fifth was Cam Smith of Mill Creek, Washington in his Dave Smith Motorsports/Powdercoating Inc./DCSigns.ca/Shark Racing Engines #17 Maxim.
Earlier in the evening Greg Hamilton was fast time of the night and heat races were won by the Linder Powdercoating/Visual EFX Signs & Graphics/Rodgers Racing Engines #22 KPC of Garen Linder from Central Point, Trey Starks, and Chris Schmelzle. Seth Nunes would win the trophy dash to earn his pole starting position.
The Western Sprint Tour return to Cottage Grove Speedway on Saturday April 25th for the second night of the Spring Showdown.