By Bill W
July 22, 2014 – Kaley Gharst and the Sandvig #7 team completed a busy two-week period of races that saw a charge at Park Jefferson Speedway in South Dakota and a second place finish in Jackson, Minnesota. They also picked up four top ten finishes during last week’s JSTS Speedweek and currently lead the Minnesota Mafia point standings. This weekend sees the Decatur, Illinois driver competing at the Rapid Speedway in Rock Rapids, Iowa Friday and at the Jackson Speedway on Saturday.
The much anticipated Minnesota Mafia vs. ASCS-Midwest event at Park Jefferson on July 11 saw Kaley draw in row three of his heat. “We drew towards the back of the heat, and we had some rain come in right before it,” he says. “It was pretty heavy. I think we started fifth and ran fifth.”
The track has not seen racing in years, but there was plenty of room for Kaley to maneuver from his starting spot outside row seven. “The track was really nice, especially considering they hadn’t run on it in three and a half years or so,” he says. “Gregg Bakker did a good job with the track. There was a nice cushion up top, and a groove around the bottom.”
The charge saw him move up ten spots. “We ran the top most of the race,” says Kaley. “Towards the end, we were running through the middle of three and four there. We were picking them off one or two at a time. We were good on the restarts and got up to fourth at the end.”
At Jackson on July 12, Kaley won his heat after starting fourth. “We had a pretty good heat race there,” he says. “The track was slicked off early in the night, and we were able to get up through there. We got the lead on the second to last lap.”
It looked like Kaley had a win in his pocket after starting third and grabbing the feature lead early. “I think we were able to get the lead in three laps or so,” says Kaley. “I ran the bottom a little too long. Gregg (Bakker) ended up catching us running the top. He snuck around us on the last lap and we ended up running second.”
JSTS Speedweek started last Wednesday at Sioux Speedway in Sioux Center, Iowa. After going from fifth to third in his heat, Kaley started the feature eighth. “We worked our way up to fifth or sixth, but I caught the infield berm getting into turn one there,” he says. “That let a couple cars get by us. (Dusty) Zomer ended up running around the top pretty well and he got by us. I moved up there and got a couple back. We ended up where we started.”
Thursday at Rock Rapids, Kaley ran fourth in his heat after starting third. “We were a little too loose to stay on the bottom and we lost a spot,” he says. “That put us in the B, and we ended up making it through that.”
Kaley would surge from 18th to 10th in the main event. “We got going on the top pretty well and we were able to get by a handful of cars,” he says. “I think we were up to around tenth and we had a yellow. I decided to pull the wing back and run the middle. It was just a little too tight after that. Luckily, we were able to hold onto tenth and not lose any spots, but I shot myself in the foot a little bit doing that.”
Friday, the action came north to the Fairmont Raceway in Minnesota. “We didn’t do real well in the heat (third),” says Kaley. “We had a good start in the feature though (starting ninth). I think we were up to sixth by turn one. We fell in line and picked off a few cars. We got to fifth and the track started taking rubber. We were able to slip under (Cole) Wood there and move into fourth. After that, we kind of got back in line and finished fourth.”
The Speedweek finale at Jackson on Saturday saw Kaley run fourth in his heat and start inside row five in the main event. “We weren’t quite as good as we wanted to be, but we got up to sixth before the track started taking rubber,” he says. “We were a little too tight in the rubber. We were getting close to the cars in front of us, but we were a little too tight to get by them. We rode around to another sixth place finish.”
Keep an eye on Kaley’s progress this week and beyond at www.KaleyGharst.com!