Fourth-generation racer Trey Burke is making a name for himself and having fun along the way.
The 19-year-old native of Alvin, Texas, is the grandson of former USAC Sliver Crown and midget competitor Ronnie Burke. The younger Burke knows what he wants to achieve in racing and has a plan he hopes will help him achieve those goals.
Burke began driving sprint cars at age 14 after a successful stint in micro sprints. He was awarded the NOW 600s most-respected driver honor in 2017. He found his way behind the wheel of a 305 sprint car by 2019 and showed promise out of the gate. He was the 2019 IMCA national rookie of the year, collecting three feature victories.
“Joe Dooling with Dooling Machine was my sprint car owner in 2018 and 2019,” Burke said. “At the end of 2019 he came to me and said, ‘Hey, I want to go run some formula cars. How do you feel about it?’ As always, I just want to drive anything I can.
“We sold the sprint car stuff and did the Lucas Oil School of Racing and Road to Indy for the next two years, if you put all the races together.”
The teenager was impressive in the new style of racing. In 2020, he notched two victories with the Lucas Oil Formula Race Car Series and a lone F1600 Championship Series win. But he realized this form of auto racing may not help him achieve his ultimate goal of racing in NASCAR.
“My end goal is NASCAR,” Burke said. “If you look at all these NASCAR guys, they are good at one thing. Some might be good at ovals and OK at road-coarse racing, and that’s it. You don’t really get anybody who can do all three really well. Kyle Larson is the exception. If I can come to all these NASCAR teams with all this experience it just puts me in a better position.”
Burke was focused on road racing but continued to dabble with sprint cars. He made a couple 360 starts while continuing to road race in 2020. He picked up F1600 and F2000 victories that season.
The next two years, he participated in the U.S. F2000 National Championship Series and Indy Pro 2000 Championship Series with Joe Dooling Autosports. He found victory in the Indy Pro2000 Championship Series in 2022.
“I had run a NASCAR truck race at Mid-Ohio in 2022,” Burke said. “We got in contact with NASCAR officials, and they told us if we wanted to do more truck stuff, we were going to need to run a credible open-wheel series. I thought it was crazy they didn’t see Road to Indy as a credible open-wheel series. It was a bit confusing. They said if you can run USAC Sliver Crown, finish races, and not be wrecking, they would approve me for some more NASCAR tracks.”
Prior to the 2023 season, Burke decided he wanted to tackle the full USAC Silver Crown schedule to get more experience on larger tracks and satisfy NASCAR’s requirements. He moved to Indianapolis to focus on racing.
“My family has a pretty rich history with USAC. My grandfather, Ronnie Burke, ran a lot of USAC Silver Crown and midget stuff, so we were familiar with the series,” Burke said.
The rookie was impressive in his first USAC Silver Crown season. He finished ninth in his first USAC Silver Crown race in Belleville, Kan., during May.
He obtained experience on both dirt and pavement and finished 10th in the standings, narrowly missing out on rookie-of-the-year honors.
“That ninth-place finish kind of started the season off strong for us,” Burke said. “We had a lot of mechanical gremlins. That’s part of the sport. It’s such a long season on the cars. Another high was Gateway. I finished sixth. I probably should have finished on the podium. I’ll always beat myself up for that one. But overall, it was a good season for us.”
As the youngster continues to build his résumé and explore new options, pavement sprint car racing is a new focus.
“We ran non-winged pavement sprint car races at Anderson and Indianapolis Raceway Park for Tom Brewer with the 500 Sprint Car Tour to close the year out,” Burke explained. “We plan on running the whole tour for Tom next year. That will be about 11 races. I’m getting my foot out there a little more. People are telling us we should do another year of Silver Crown, and we might.
“But I’m not here to be a lifetime USAC guy. I’m here to move on from that,” Burke noted. “From a sponsorship point of view, we need to spend our money in areas that will help us. I think in a perfect world we’d run the 500 SCT with Tom Brewer and run the USAC Silver Crown pavement races. Then, take the rest of our money and do 20 to 40 winged 410 races. We’re trying to be strategic with our money.”
Fast Facts
Birthday: Nov. 4, 2004
Hometown: Alvin, Texas
Series: USAC Silver Crown Series, 500 Sprint Car Tour
Sponsors: RFL Facility Solutions, Wings & Wheels Foundation, Texas Micro Optics
This story appeared in the Dec 6, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
