By Bill W
July 24, 2012 – It was another stellar week for Kaley Gharst and the Scadden Construction #6 team. They racked up yet another win at the Redwood Speedway in Redwood Falls, Minnesota, and captured the Jackson Sprint Touring Series Speedweek championship! This week, they will focus on three shows with the All Stars Circuit of Champions at Jackson, Minnesota, Fargo, North Dakota and Brandon, South Dakota.
JSTS Speedweek started at the Sioux Speedway in Sioux Center, Iowa Wednesday night. “We had a pretty decent night,” says Kaley. “I started out with a good draw and we were able to get a heat race win. That lined us up fourth in the feature.”
Kaley would start the week with a second place finish. “We were running third there for a bit, and ended up getting around Billy (Alley) for second,” he says. “We had a yellow towards the end of the race. We lost our brakes about two laps in, but I had a good restart there at the end. I tried to get underneath (Lou) Kennedy for the lead and I ended up slipping on the bottom. He was able to get back by, but we were able to hold onto second.”
Kaley would start sixth in his heat race at Redwood Falls on Thursday. “We were able to get up to second,” he says. “That gave us the most passing points. The pole was a good place to start. The track took rubber really quickly…about eight or ten laps in or so. We were able to hold on. I know (Brian) Brownie and (Gregg) Bakker were catching us at the end, but there wasn’t much they could do with the way the track was.”
On Friday night at Fairmont Speedway in Fairmont, Minnesota, Kaley would finish a strong second to Brown. “Fairmont was kind of the same as Redwood,” he says of the track surface. “Our spots were just flipped around and I was chasing Brown. We were able to start third. We got into second pretty quick. I think I found the rubber before Brown did, but he did find it before I could catch him and do anything with him.”
Speedweek concluded on Saturday night at Jackson Speedway in Jackson, Minnesota. Motor issues in the heat set the Decatur, Illinois driver back. “We started sixth and were into third or fourth before we had some motor issues,” says Kaley. “I shut the motor down, and we ended up having a plug get sucked into the motor. We just put another one in, and it was good to go.”
Kaley would put a good charge on in the main event to seal his Speedweek title. “We went from 20th to 9th,” he says. “The track was pretty good on the bottom, and hard to pass on the top. It wasn’t too bad a run for starting at the rear. We had a pretty decent week, and that was our only sort of bad night. We got the Speedweek deal won. We were able to win that, and it paid $500 and a right rear, so that wasn’t bad.”
The 410 was in the frame rails for Sunday night’s weekly trip to the Huset’s Speedway near Brandon, South Dakota. “We qualified seventh, and moved up a spot in the heat (to second),” says Kaley. “We started on the front row outside of the feature with Austin (McCarl). He got the jump on us. We were within a few car lengths of him in traffic at one time, and I got caught up a bit.”
Kaley would checker third. “We had a restart there, and Terry (McCarl) was able to get by us,” he says. “Finishing third there after the last couple weeks we had there was pretty good.”
The team will run with the All Stars on Friday at Jackson, Saturday at the Red River Valley Speedway in Fargo on Saturday and at Huset’s on Sunday.
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 the Jeremy Scadden #6 team would like to thank: Scadden Construction, CNS Homes, Adrenaline Sports Bar & Grill, LEV Wings, Singer Engines, J&J Auto Racing , DMI Components, Keizer Wheels , Schure Built Suspension Systems, Hoosier Tire North , Butlerbuilt Seating and Bell Helmets.