Trey Starks captured the season-opening race at Skagit Speedway last Saturday for the second time in the last three years.
It also marked the second time in his career that he won the season opener at the two premier dirt tracks in his home state of Washington – Skagit Speedway and at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, where he was victorious on April 20.
“It’s definitely a good feeling and it sets the tone for the year,” he said. “We had a decent year last year, but looking back we opened our season with a torn up race car and we were playing catch-up the first few weeks. Not only is it good to win them both, but to have a smooth couple of weeks gives us a lot of confidence going into the next few months.”
Starks qualified second quickest to open the program last Saturday.
“Qualifying was solid,” he said. “We were second quick by one thousandth of a second and I think I left a lot on the table. The track was pretty fast and the times were pretty low. We started fourth in the second heat race and had to work for third. We had a shot at second, but I knew if I maintained I’d make the dash.”
A third-place result in a heat race was followed by Starks advancing from fifth to fourth place in the dash.
“We got to fourth and I was happy to pick up a spot,” he said. “I felt a little more comfortable starting from the outside than the inside going into the feature. I knew if we were smart and stayed out of trouble I’d at least have a chance at the front. On the first lap the outside front row car went through a hole and started bouncing. After we got by him he collected another car so we had another complete start. I got a good start and was able to take the lead going into turn one. Then I just had the pace and traffic in mind because we had some really fast guys behind us. We had a full field so I knew traffic was going to be tricky. I focused on being decisive in traffic and keeping my pace up. I think we had five restarts so I got to try some things. I think we had good restarts all night. I felt I had pretty good control over the race and the car felt good the whole time.”
Starks led all 30 laps for the triumph.
“I think it was a pretty smooth night,” he said. “We were happy with putting the 410 car together. After crashing it last year we wanted to make sure we were in the same spot we were before we crashed it. We were pretty happy as we had similar responses as we did last year.”
Starks is returning to Skagit Speedway this Saturday. He’ll compete in both the 410 and 360 sprint car divisions.
“This is the one weekend all year besides the season championship they’re running both classes,” he said. “The last time we did it, which was the season championship last year, we won both so I’m looking forward to this weekend.”
QUICK RESULTS –
May 4 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. – Qualifying: 2; Heat race: 3 (4); Dash: 4 (5); Feature: 1 (4).
SEASON STATS –
2 races, 2 wins, 2 top fives, 2 top 10s, 2 top 15s, 2 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Saturday at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash.
ILP PR
