10/1/2014
Sprint Source
Kaley Gharst – JSTS Champion!
On the strength of a win and a charge from 16th to fourth last weekend, Kaley Gharst was crowned the Jackson Sprint Touring Series champion for 2014. The runs came at the Jackson Speedway in Minnesota last Friday and Saturday. The Sandvig #7 team hopes to make another start or two before calling the season a wrap.
On Friday night, Kaley took off from the pole and led every lap of his heat race. After redrawing a starting spot for the feature outside of row two, he had a stroke of luck. “The guy who was supposed to start on the front row broke a torsion bar or something,” he says. “We were able to get the jump on (Dusty) Ballenger there on the start, and we were able to lead most of it.”
That luck faded, however, and Kaley had to work for this one. “We had a ton of cautions,” he says. “We had one with about three or four laps to go. They called me for jumping on the restart. That’s the first time I think I’ve been called for jumping a restart when I’ve been the leader.”
The Decatur, Illinois driver rebounded and reclaimed another win at Jackson. “We were able to get second on the restart,” says Kaley. “There was another yellow on the restart, and we were able to slide in front of (Thomas) Kennedy for the lead again. He ended up running out of fuel, and we didn’t have much left either. We had one more yellow and we were able to hold them off.”
Kaley wasn’t even able to run his heat race in Saturday’s finale. “We had a fuel pump come loose there, so we missed the heat,” he says. “It wasn’t too hard to fix…about five minutes…but that put us in the back of the feature.”
He would start the main event sixteenth. “We were able to get moving pretty quickly,” says Kaley. “I think we were fifth in about eight laps or so. We had a yellow there, and we were able to get to fourth on that. Unfortunately, a lap or two later, we started to have an issue with the motor. It was popping and cracking.”
Kaley tried to continue his charge, but the motor wasn’t cooperating. “We had a couple shots at third, but I missed a slider for second, and left myself hanging,” he says. “We were able to hold onto fourth. We haven’t figured out what’s wrong with the motor yet, but hopefully, it’s not too bad.”
The team is contemplating their next move. “We’re looking at doing another show or two depending on the motor,” says Kaley. “We’ll take a look at it the next couple of days. We’d like to run the Nebraska 360 Sprint show at I-80 Speedway here in a couple of weeks.”
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@hotmail.com.
Article Credit: Bill Wright