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Kaley Gharst – Another Top Ten! by: Bill Wright DECATUR, IL (August 6) – Qualifying has been a challenge for talented young sprint car driver, Kaley Gharst, for some time now. A time trial effort in the top ten has been unheard of, but despite a tough field of 410 sprint cars assembled at the Knoxville Raceway last Saturday night, that’s exactly what he did. He backed that up with another top ten feature showing, and is riding a wave of momentum heading into his qualifying night, tonight, at the 48th running of the Knoxville Nationals. The Decatur, Illinois native turned the ninth best lap in one-lap qualifying with 44 cars in the field. “We went out early, so that was a big help,” he says. “I think we can pick up a couple more tenths of a second, and hopefully that’ll be the case at the Nationals.” A steady run in the heat (4th) locked him in the 20-lap feature. Kaley was marking his second week teaming with veteran car owner Marty Johnson, who fields the potent #81 at Knoxville. It has been a great partnership. “Marty and his kids, Cody and Austin are great to work with,” says Kaley. “They’re a great group of guys who are easy to work around. They’re good to talk about the car with, and we’ll get things figured out for (tonight).” Posting outside of row number four, Kaley traded blows with the rest of the field. Though the bottom groove in turns one and two has been the sweet spot of late, it went away fast on Saturday. “I was tight in one and two, but I think everyone was,” says Kaley. “The car was good on the bottom, but the fast way was on the top come feature time. That’s where we had to be, and we weren’t set up to run up there. We’ll loosen the car up for (tonight).” Still, a ninth place finish is nothing to be ashamed of, and it marks a move in the right direction. Kaley has never powered a J&J chassis before and with two good runs under his belt, he looks forward to seeing how it goes at the Nationals. “It’s a little tighter than what I’m used to, but we’re hoping we can nail it for (tonight),” he says of the J&J. “We’re going to need to be good in every aspect to get the points accumulated for Saturday.” Kaley will try to qualify for his second career Knoxville Nationals championship race at the ripe age of 20! 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. |