Track Schedules

KNOXVILLE, IA (June 5) – “One spot short” was the story of Kaley Gharst’s night in the 410 class at the Knoxville Raceway last Saturday. After a disappointing time trial lap, runs from the back of his heat and B resulted in finishes just one spot out of a transfer to the main event. This weekend, the #7K team will take on the World of Outlaws both Friday and Saturday at Knoxville behind the strength of a new Maxim chassis.

Qualifying struggles continued for Kaley on Saturday, as he registered the 25th quick time of the night. “That really hurt us right off the bat,” he says. “The car was loose handling to start with, and we never could get it tightened up.”

With only three heats scheduled, and the heat invert 18, Kaley had to start inside row five of his heat. With the top six finishers transferring, he’d have to get by three cars to qualify for the feature. He quickly moved into seventh, but couldn’t quite track down the sixth place car of quick qualifier, Davey Heskin. “We’re the ones who put ourselves in that position by qualifying bad,” admits Kaley. “That’s how it goes sometimes. We need to qualify better to get into the middle of the pack, or at least make the invert.”

With the B taking the top six finishers as well, things looked good for Kaley early and he cruised into a transfer spot in the 12-lap event riding around the high side of Bob Weuve. A restart with four to go put veteran Brooke Tatnell on Kaley’s nerf bar for the restart. Tatnell was able to get by in turn three to take the last transfer spot. “We were decent, but the car was still loose and the power steering was fading a bit,” says the Decatur, Illinois driver. “I was running up top and I saw Brooke get underneath me there. Going into turn three, I got on the brakes and headed to the bottom. I got on them a little too hard, and that unloaded the car and pushed me across the track. It was a little bit of driver error, but that’s part of racing.”

Kaley, crew chief Bob Brooks and the rest of the #7K team will have two nights to sort things out at Knoxville, as the WoO visits Friday and Saturday. They’re looking for some personal improvements. “We just could never get caught up with the start we had on Saturday,” says Kaley. “We’re hoping to turn that around this weekend. We’ll bring out the new Maxim and see if we can’t get our luck changed around and figure something out. We’ve got two nights to get something going for ourselves.”

Kaley will try to make his first WoO feature cut at Knoxville since June 23, 2006, and his first WoO main event overall since he did so in Charlotte last November.

Keep an eye on Kaley’s progress this week and beyond at www.KaleyGharst.com !

Kaley would like to thank the following sponsors: Maxim Racing, Phillips’ Floors, Bell Racing, info2go, Parker Signs and Graphics, LWBJ Accounting, Community State Bank, Pro Shocks, QA1, VRP Shocks, Charlie Fisher Racing Engines, Karl Chevrolet, WillCo Services and HostIowa.net - Your Complete Internet Solution.

If you would like to receive Kaley’s weekly releases, send an e-mail with the subject line “Kaley” to sprntcar@iowatelecom.net .