(Photo by Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy)
Inside Line Promotions – INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (May 18, 2021) – Last weekend featured a breakthrough for Trey Burke while he made laps at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Joe Dooling Autosports driver earned a pair of season-best 18th-place results with the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship, which competed at the Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit.
“It was great,” he said. “It surpassed everything I expected. It’s Indianapolis. The sheer size of the facility was amazing. You can go in the towers and look out to see the dirt track, the golf course. It was surreal.
“The straightaways were more narrow than I thought they’d be. Coming onto the front stretch it was a lot different than I expected.”
Burke qualified 26th quickest on Friday to open the weekend.
“We had a left front camber bolt break so essentially the left front tire was sideways,” he said. “It was just drag. It was getting worse as the session was going on. I thought if I kept my foot in it maybe it’d go away, which it did a bit on the straightaways, but really hurt us in the corners.”
Burke lined up last in the first of three weekend features.
“On Lap 2 going into turn one I got stuck in fifth gear so I spent half a lap trying to get it to downshift,” he said. “I had to catch back up to the group from that. That cost us a lot of time.”
Burke overcame the early problem by maneuvering to an 18th-place finish, which was his career best with the series.
“We had the 14th quickest lap and we thought that that would line us up 14th for the second feature, but the rule changed so based on our original qualifying time we were buried in the next feature,” he said. “We got up to 15th or 16th when I had contact with someone who was blocking on the last lap. We went to the inside and it didn’t work. They ran over my left front. That created nose damage and we lost a few spots.”
Burke was credited with a 21st-place result.
He again made progress in the third-and-final race by rallying from 25th to tie his career-best result of 18th.
“I think this was a breakthrough that we needed,” he said. “We don’t care about the results. By the end of the races we were six tenths off the leader’s times and that’s without drafting. We had a top-15 lap time in each race. I’m super pleased with the progress.”
The next Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship event is May 27-28 at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Ind.
QUICK RESULTS –
May 14 – Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit in Indianapolis, Ind. (Round 5) – Qualifying: 26; Feature: 18 (26).
May 14 – Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit in Indianapolis, Ind. (Round 6) – Feature: 21 (25).
May 15 – Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit in Indianapolis, Ind. (Round 7) – Feature: 18 (25).
SEASON STATS –
7 races, 0 wins, 0 top fives, 0 top 10s, 0 top 15s, 4 top 20s
UP NEXT –
May 27-28 at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Ind., with the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://treyburke.myracepass.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/treyburkeracing
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/treyburkeracing/
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Dooling Machine Products
Dooling Machine Products is a machine shop located in Freeport, Texas, that specializes in rotating equipment. For more information, visit http://www.DoolingMachine.com.
“My grandfather has known Joe Dooling’s dad for a long time,” Burke said. “They raced together and so our families go way back. My dad and Joe are good friends and our families are close. Joe has helped my racing career and we’re grateful for the support from the Dooling Family.”
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.