5/14/2009
Kaley Gharst
Kaley Gharst – Victory at Lawrenceburg!
5/14/2009 - (Bill W) – May 14, 2009 – Misfortune and a little bit of embarrassment at the 34 Raceway in Iowa on Friday night, turned into victory on Saturday at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway. The win came with the Midwest All Star Series (MASS), and was Kaley Gharst’s second of the season. Tomorrow he’ll head to Jacksonville, Illinois to try to increase his point lead in the Ideal Ready Mix Sprint Invaders series driving the Randy Plath #14P.
This is the second season of racing in Lawrenceburg with a new 3/8 mile high-banked configuration. Kaley and his father drove all night to get to southeastern Indiana. “It was the first place we’ve been there since they’ve redone it,” says the Decatur, Illinois 20 year old. “Other than driving all night, and not having much sleep, it went pretty well. We had a little work to do when we got to the track. It went pretty smoothly with just my dad and I over there.”
After registering the sixth quick time of the night, Kaley lined up inside row three for the heat. He advanced to third and stayed there, locked into the main event. “We had a really good start and we were running down the top two when the motor started smoking pretty bad,” he explains. “I was watching the gauge to make sure nothing was going wrong. It ended up being a small leak.”
His qualifying effort put him on the pole for the feature. “Sixth quick usually works out pretty well with the All Star format,” says Kaley. “That puts you right up front in the feature. That’s the second time we’ve done that with them.”
When the green fell, it was all Kaley Gharst, who was driving the Webb #51. “We pretty much took off from the get-go,” he says modestly. “We had some close calls in lapped traffic. We had a couple cars get sideways in front of us, but we avoided them. Unfortunately, Danny Smith got taken out that way.”
In the end, Kaley lapped up to the fifth place car. “I had a couple of close calls racing between lapped cars, but overall the car was awesome,” he says. “With a fast track like that and that many cars, you expect to have some run-ins.”
On Friday night, the Interstate Racing Association was at the 34 Raceway in West Burlington. Kaley was 7th quick in the 42 car field, and ran second in his heat. He spun in front of everyone when the 30-lap finale went green, ending his night early. “We had a different steering gear in with a different ratio and different torsion bar than what I’m used to,” he says. “It reacts a lot quicker than what I’m used to. I was o.k. running on my own qualifying and in the heat, but I spun it out right there on the first lap right in front of everybody in the feature.”
The mishap took out a couple of other competitors. “I feel really bad that it took a couple cars out,” he says. “It was definitely nothing intentional. I was kind of racing on instinct, and the steering wasn’t cooperating. Randy Plath loaned us another steering gear for Lawrenceburg, so that helped, obviously.”
The 2007 Sprint Invaders champion leads the series into Jacksonville and the Morgan County Speedway tomorrow night.
Keep an eye on Kaley's progress this week and beyond at www.KaleyGharst.com!
If you would like to receive Kaley's weekly releases, send an e-mail with the subject line "Kaley" to sprntcar@iowatelecom.net.
Kaley and car owner Randy Plath would like to thank Sebastian Powder Coating and Sandblasting, Scott Performance, Holtkamp’s truck and trailer repair, Rockstar Graphics and all of their sponsors.
Kaley in Victory Lane at Lawrenceburg (Dave Merritt Pitpass Photo)
Bill Wright
Bill W Media
Monroe, IAUSA
sprntcar@iowatelecom.net
