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Kaley Gharst – Victory at 34 Raceway! (Bill W) – April 23 – It was a great start to the U.S. sprint car season for Kaley Gharst, as he captured the 34 Raceway Sprint Invaders Spring Nationals opener last Friday night. Unfortunately, Saturday’s finale was rained out. The 2007 Sprint Invaders champion’s win has him atop the early point standings for the series. The track slicked off in hot laps and Kaley registered the seventh quick time of the night. Was he sandbagging? “I didn’t have time for any of that. Lately, we’ve had a hard time qualifying anyway. I held it to the floor and turned the best lap I could. It wasn’t the best I could have done, but it worked out.” The 20 year old lined up sixth in his heat race, and surged to a second place finish. “We were caught behind some cars in the beginning there,” says Kaley. “As soon as we cleared them, we ran down Ben Wagoner, but we ran out of laps. It didn’t really matter; we were locked into the feature either way.” When dust kicked up as early as hot laps, Kaley worried about the future of the 3/8 mile banked oval. “It was dusty in practice, so I was afraid it may lay rubber in the feature,” he says. “They ended up reworking the track a couple of times, and it ended up perfect for us with a good top and bottom. I think we put on some good racing for the fans.” Starting inside of Brian Brown in row three, it took awhile for Kaley to advance. “We kind of got off to a bad start there,” he says. “I got ahead of Brown, but he worked back by me. When he moved back to the top, I was able to get back underneath him, and started picking off positions one by one.” The run to the front was a steady one, and by the time the yellow flag flew with seven laps in the books, he was in the runner-up spot behind Jamison. “We were able to get up to second by the time the caution came out,” he remembers. “When it went back green, we were able to get by (Ryan) Jamison on the top. I saw him down there on the bottom for a few laps, so I held my line up top. We were able to hold him off in the end, and get the win.” The caution gave Kaley the opportunity to make an adjustment as well. "The caution gave me an opportunity to move my wing back," he says. "I couldn't do it under green. We're glad to start the year with a win. We got there and checked out the track. We threw a setup on it, and it worked." This weekend’s plans to run Lake Ozark Speedway were curtailed with the passing of racing icon, Bud Taeger. The funeral will be on Saturday. 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.
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