Story By: SHAWN MILLER / MUCCI MOTORSPORTS – CLAY, NY – Joe Trenca will make his final two 410ci winged sprint car starts of the season this weekend with the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series.
The Mucci Motorsports driver is slated to compete on Sunday at Weedsport Speedway in Weedsport, N.Y., for the Empire State Challenge and on Monday at Ransomville Speedway in Ransomville, N.Y., for The Big “R” Outlaw Shootout.
“I love Weedsport, but we struggle there,” he said. “We had a lot of success there in the micro. Since they reconfigured the track we’ve struggled. I’m hoping we can get that turned around and have a decent run. We have to be good in time trials. That’s the bottom line.”
Trenca has improved his World of Outlaws result at Weedsport Speedway each of the last two years. He missed the show in 2015 before finishing 23rd last year. Meanwhile, this weekend will mark his first career Outlaws race at Ransomville.
“Ransomville is where we got caught up in that bad wreck earlier this year,” he said. “I like the track. They’ve made a lot of improvements to the facility and the track. Once again, the Outlaws format is so tough if you don’t time well you’re in trouble.”
Trenca competed with the World of Outlaws last Saturday at Fulton Speedway.
“We made a bad choice on gears for qualifying,” he said. “We lost speed from hot laps. That’s just the way it goes. It’s tough to race with those guys. We were decent in hot laps, but we felt like we weren’t turning enough RPMs and we changed gears. It was too much and hurt us on the top end. That’s the first race on that motor on a shorter track since we’ve owned it. It was a learning deal.”
Trenca qualified 23rd quickest. He then finished eighth in a heat race, which relegated him to the sixth starting position in the Last Chance Showdown.
“We got rolling there,” he said. “We got up to third and then the power steering box went. I feel like if that didn’t go we would have made it to the A Main. We were really good on the top and made up a lot of ground.”
Trenca was credited with a ninth-place result in the consolation race.