Puyallup, Wash.—March 14, 2012 — Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif. has long been a favorite track of most sprint car fans. For drivers too, the high-banked, always racy bullring ranks near the top of their lists. Trey Starks considers the paperclip-shaped one-third-mile to be among his three favorite tracks.
Starks will have the chance to compete twice this weekend with the World of Outlaws at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, as the series continues an early season West Coast swing. Full nights of racing are on tap Friday, March 16 and Saturday, March 17 at the high-banked oval located at the Tulare Fairgrounds.
“Tulare is a very unique track,” explained Starks. “It’s the only track that I have been to where the cushion is literally on the wall and the bottom is in the infield. It’s a tight track and is always fast. You have to sometimes have guts to run it.”
Starks raced seven times at Thunderbowl Raceway in 2011, qualifying for the A-Feature in each and every one of those starts. He picked up three Top-10 finishes with three different series. He finished seventh at Tulare in a King of the West event in October. The 16-year old ran eighth at Thunderbowl Raceway last year with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series, while finishing 10th with the ASCS SoCal Region. He competed in the famed Trophy Cup toward the end of last season at Tulare, which featured a 50-lap main event to cap the weekend.
“I raced at Tulare a lot last year, which is good,” noted the native of Puyallup, Wash.. “With it being a different type of track than some others, it certainly helps to have laps there. I’m hoping that all pays off and we have a good couple of races this weekend.”
With the World of Outlaws at Thunderbowl Raceway last season, Starks was 14th fastest in time trials, just missing the heat race inversion by two spots. He finished seventh in the second heat race, just one spot shy of transferring to the main event. He ran fifth in the B-main to earn a spot in the 35-lap feature. He lined up 23rd in the main event and worked his way to a 17th-place finish.
“Coming from Perris (Auto Speedway in California) last weekend to Tulare this weekend will be good,” said Starks. “Perris is basically the same shape and track as Tulare, just a lot bigger. We should get up to speed pretty quick and we have some good notes to use at Tulare as well.”
Starks competed with the World of Outlaws last week at The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Perris Auto Speedway. He finished 17th at Las Vegas and was 19th at Perris. The pair of races at the half-miles were the first two events of an eight-race West Coast swing for the series, and Starks will compete in all eight races.
“The first goal each night is to make it into the feature from the heat race and we hope to do that this weekend and not have to run the B-main” said the high school freshmen. “I’d like to finish in the Top-20 both nights and step that up to the Top-15 even. It’s always tough competition when you are racing with the World of Outlaws and you learn and get better every time you race with them.”
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.
- Admin Account on Mar 14, 2012
- Article Date: 3/14/2012 by Starks Racing PR