One Nation, Under God

Starkey uses science, numbers to his advantage at races

Drivers from all over the state were present at the Phillips County Motorsports drag races last weekend for the second race in their four venue, "Montana State Points Race."

"There are guys from Billings, Missoula, Anaconda and other parts of the state," Rick Starkey told the PCN.

Local Malta racer Rick Starkey is all about numbers and it is for that reason, he has done well so far this year at the Hi-Line Dragstrip.

Though Starkey did not claim a win or runner up last weekend, he has been right in the thick of things and has placed as runner up twice in the second weekend of racing in the Box Super Pro class.

His 1970 Buick GS, is a tube chassis car that is amongst the more animated and noticeable cars at the dragstrip.

His car gets down to 5.95 seconds in the 1/8 mile race and does so in style.

Though he has done great in races past, Starkey realizes that in order to take home a first place finish it won't be easy and he will need a lot of luck.

"There's a lot of good drivers out here today from all over the state," he told the PCN. "There's a lot of big hitters."

He went on to say that whoever had the best reaction times at the event would win the race.

That day he was aiming for a time within the 5.90's.

Though his time is great, luck doesn't have much to do with Starkey's approach to racing, otherwise he may be sporting some "lucky dice." Instead Starkey over the years has had his three daughters, Amanda, Samantha and Kylie help him out.

The family works as a team to allow Starkey to scientifically and physically stand among the rest.

Starkey uses a meter that reads the static energy in the air.

"As it gets hotter, the air gets thinner," said Starkey. "So we watch the adjusted air."

He went on to explain that the track is 2500 feet of static, but with Saturday's lack of humidity and high temperature, the vehicle had to work harder, about 2600 feet of static harder after adjustments.

As the amount of air goes up Starkey knows that his vehicle's time will go down. To prove his theory he and his daughters keep track and write down every run that Rick does on a marker board inside his trailer.

"Theoretically at an adjusted air level a car should run this," Starkey pointed to his board. "It doesn't always fall true because some other things come into play."

Those other things could mean a slip at the start or a lag in a gear shift.

His car is a spectacle to see, decked out in a Vinyl stickers wrap, that features metal skulls and red lightning.

His car is also decked out in sponsor stickers affiliated with IHRA racing.

Though his car has a couple rather large National Guard stickers, the stickers are not indicative of the military branch being a sponsor, rather a tribute to his daughter Samantha and other soldiers who fought in our recent war.

"The guard unit went to Afghanistan and she was a part of that," he told the PCN. "Because she was gone and couldn't race with us, I got a hold of the guards and had them donate these stickers as a tribute to them."

As far as his preference of running a Buick, his answer was simple.

"I grew up with them," he said.

He has been racing with his Buick GS for the last five years and he has been racing for about ten through twelve years total.

He has been through every class at the Hi-Line Dragstrip, but racing in the Super Pro class has been his favorite.

Winner of the Box Super Pro class was Scobey's Jesse Dodson, who had an elapsed time of 6.8234, after dialing in 6.78. Runner up was Billings' Garry Stoppel, who had an elapsed time of 6.5230 after dialing in a 6.52.

Stoppel came back with a vengeance

 

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