Track Schedules

DECATUR, IL (August14)  – With 110 of the best sprint car drivers in town for the Knoxville Nationals, it’s tough for every team.  When the team is barely two weeks old, it’s even tougher.  That’s the case with Decatur, Illinois driver Kaley Gharst and car owner Marty Johnson.  Still they managed to finish 15^th in the C main on Saturday night, despite some setup and on-track problems throughout the week.

Drawing a good pill for time trials can make or break Nationals week, and the draw wasn’t good for the 20 year old talent.  Add a loose condition, and you had the 40^th quick time of the night on Wednesday.  “We had the car too loose in qualifying, plus we went out pretty late,” says Kaley.  “That didn’t help us any.”

Kaley made the most of his opportunity starting inside row two of the fifth heat in the #81.  On the second lap, he took the point from JJ Hickle, and went on to the 10-lap win and 100 points.  “The car felt pretty good in that race,” says Kaley.  “I’d like to thank Marty for giving us this opportunity; he gives us some good equipment.  Hoosier tires are also a big help.”

Kaley was making progress in the 20-lap main event in a quest to lock himself in the top 50 qualifiers for Saturday night despite his qualifying woes.  That came to an end on lap 14.  He was officially scored 22^nd.  “We had been having problems with the car being too tight on the top of the track, so we set it up for the bottom,” he says of the feature.  “We were making up some ground, but the car kept jumping out of gear.  Then we got together with (Travis) Rilat and broke the birdcage; that ended our qualifying night.”

Just one point out of locking himself at least into the C Scramble, Kaley had to settle for racing with the Friday qualifiers program.  He started on the pole of his heat race.  “For some reason, the motor didn’t take off that night as well as it should,” he says.  “(Blake) Feese got the jump on me there in the heat, and we ran second.”

Lining up inside row four for the feature, Kaley ran a strong race, and finished seventh, locking himself into Saturday’s C main.  “The car was good for the feature,” he says.  “It took me a little too long to find out where the car wanted to run at.  We ended up running in the same spot we started, so it wasn’t too bad, but we were hoping for better.”

The 15-lap Saturday C main transferred only the top two to the B main, and starting in back, Kaley just tried to climb as far up the ladder as possible from his 17^th starting spot.  He would finish 15^th at the checkers.  “We thought the track was going to be drier than what it was, and that made us entirely too tight,” says Kaley.  “I knew that threw a lot of the drivers off on Saturday.  That’s a tough deal where the top two usually have a chance to check out on everybody.”

Kaley will have the week off before he runs the last two weeks of the Knoxville season with the #81 team. 

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.