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(Bill W) April 15, 2010 At last, its Showtime for Kaley Gharst! The 21 year old driver out of Decatur, Illinois will run the 360 Sprint Challenge? with the Ideal Ready Mix Sprint Invaders this weekend at the 34 Raceway near West Burlington, Iowa. Kaley returns to the Plath Motorsports #14P in 2010 as the all-time leading feature winner with the Sprint Invaders. The team will include several 410 shows on their schedule this year, as the amount of racing nights increases.

The challenge at 34 Raceway will include an opportunity for the top three starters in the feature to choose to go to the rear. If they finish in the top three, their prize money is doubled, plus whatever the fans may donate. The 2007 series champion is ready and willing for the challenge. ?If the track is wide enough that we think we can do some passing, we?ll probably take a shot at it,? he says. ?The trick is getting yourself in those top three spots. If we?re there, odds are we?ll take the challenge.?

Kaley has won twice at the West Burlington 3/8 mile oval, and both of those wins came last season. ?We?ve had some decent runs there,? he says. ?We seem to usually have a good car there. We?ve been fortunate to win a couple, and finish up front for the most part.?

The crew will look familiar on race night. ?We?ve got the same group of guys helping out. Of course, Randy and Lori Plath are the owners, and Nick Breuer?s shop in Gladstone is where all the equipment is right now. John Plath and Lucas Glasgow will be around again to help out too. Of course, dad will be there.?

The schedule is yet to be determined, but ambitions about 410 racing weekly at Knoxville may be realized with a good early start there. ?We?re not 100% sure about our schedule,? says Kaley. ?We?re just going to play it by ear for a while. We?ll probably start out running Knoxville, and see how it goes. We?d like to get some fuel and tire sponsors to make the whole year work there though.?

He is eager to do more 410 racing than a year ago. His short career already includes 20 wins?six of them in a 410. ?We?ll race week by week, and run when and where we can really,? he says. ?Last year, we didn?t do as much 410 racing as we had done in the past, and we?d like to do a lot more this year. We only won one race with the 410 last year, so we want to definitely improve on that.?

A new partner has come aboard to join all the other great ones. ?I?d like to welcome Nelson Catering of Springfield, Illinois on as one of our new sponsors,? says Kaley. ?All of our partners are great, and of course, we?d welcome some more!?

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 car owner Randy Plath would like to thank Sebastian Powder Coating and Sandblasting, Holtkamp Truck and Trailer Repair, Nelson Catering, Pieper Inc., Lange Chiropractic, Rockstar Graphics, Scott Performance, Midland Performance and GPC Race Products.

Kaley in 2009 action at 34 Raceway (PushintheCushin.com Photo)

“Showtime” Kaley Gharst became the all-time feature winner with the Sprint Invaders last Friday night at the Farley Speedway aboard the Plath Motorsports #14P. The Decatur, Illinois driver is only 21 years old, but now stands atop the all-time winners’ list with13 victories. His wins have come in only two years of competition (2007 and 2009). Tomorrow (Saturday), he’ll look to add another win to his resume on Season Championship for the series at the 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa.

The Sprint Invaders made their first ever appearance at the Farley, Iowa ½ mile on Friday as part of the Yankee Dirt Track Classic. Joey Moughan and Dave Hall started on the front row of Kaley’s heat, while he posted inside row three. He could not catch the leaders for a dash spot, but did move up to third.

That put him inside row four for the feature. Jon Agan and Bobby Mincer swapped the lead in the first 13 laps before the latter retired with a flat tire. A restart saw Kaley line up second behind Agan with Dave Hall behind him. The restart would be the setting for the winning pass. "I was going to go to the bottom, but Jon headed that way, so I kept it straight,” he says. “When I cleared him, I saw Dave down on the bottom. This track is real wide and racy, there was plenty of room. It was a long ways around the top, but we made it work."

Winning the three-wide battle for the lead, Kaley would never look back, recording his name in the Sprint Invaders record books. "It's a real honor to know you've done that,” he says. “There have been so many great drivers that have competed with the Sprint Invaders. Who knows? Maybe Jerrod will come back and tie me again this week."

On Saturday, it was on to the World of Outlaws event at the Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minnesota. Despite never seeing the facility, Kaley took an immediate liking to it driving Bruce Williams #7K. A 14th quick effort amongst the 28-car field signaled good things to come. Unfortunately, the transfer in the heat was not made. Kaley came back to win the B, passing Chad Kemenah on the high side at the halfway mark and pulling away. “We qualified decent, but we were tight all night,” he says. “We were tight again in the heat and went backwards. We finally got it pretty close for the B main.”

Kaley lined up outside of row seven and began to battle with the best. “We left the car alone, and it worked out,” he says. “Things were going alright and we were moving forward there. I was happy with where we were, and I definitely think we had a top ten car at least.”

After moving up to twelfth by lap eight, disaster struck for Kaley. “I’m not sure what happened there, but I guess we got in (turn two) a touch too hard,” he says. “We hooked the cushion and started bouncing. We got into the wall and got the front end of the car pretty good, and that was the end of our night.”

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 car owner Randy Plath would like to thank Sebastian Powder Coating and Sandblasting, Scott Performance, Holtkamp's truck and trailer repair, Rockstar Graphics and all of their sponsors. The 7K team would like to thank Phillips Floors, Info2go, Wagner Excavating, Parker Signs, Redtail Painting, Rod End Supply, LWBJ, Community State Bank and Carlson Systems.

Kaley at Farley Speedway in Victory Lane again (Sandy Brockway Photo)

"Showtime" Kaley Gharst went into the three races billed as the Sprint Invaders "Triple Threat" weekend in Illinois with ideas of picking off some wins. He was able to secure another win at the Quincy Raceways, his second of the year there, and seventh overall in 2009. The Decatur, Illinois driver has won five times with the Sprint Invaders this year, and tied Jerrod Hull atop the all-time winners' list with twelve. This weekend, Kaley will mix in the World of Outlaws in Bruce Williams' #7K with a Sprint Invaders show in Farley, Iowa in the Plath Motorsports #14P.

The luck of the draw followed the #14P team all night long at Quincy on Sunday. He pulled away on the bullring from the pole to win the heat. He then drew the pole for the dash, but it was Bobby Mincer winning that. When Bobby rolled a six in Victory Lane, it put Kaley on the pole for the main event. "The car felt decent from the beginning," he says. "We were getting a little loose there with seven or eight to go, and I had the wing as far back as it would go. I felt like I was slipping a little bit, and really didn't know if someone was gaining on the top or bottom."

Donnie Steward was coming fast on the high side, and looked like he might overtake the lead, until a lapped car held him up. That cleared the way for Kaley's season sweep with the Sprint Invaders at Quincy and $1,500. "They tell me Donnie was running the top pretty well," he says. "We held on, I guess. I found a bit of a line in three and four. I didn't feel like it was our greatest night, but we'll take the win, that's for sure."

It was the sixth win of the season for the Plath Motorsports team. "Randy gives me a good car every week, and Nick Breuer has worked really hard on this motor, just so we can run it," says Kaley. "We've seemed to click real well together, and hopefully we can get a few more before the season is over."

The weekend started Friday at the Morgan County Speedway in Jacksonville for the Herb Barlow Memorial with a sub par seventh place performance for Kaley. "We ran pretty bad on Friday," he says. "We thought we had the car pretty close, but we weren't where we thought we were."

The Tom Knowles Memorial hosted 31 sprinters on Saturday. "The night didn't start too well with a 70 pill, starting at the tail of the heat race," says Kaley. "We were just able to get the last transfer spot there on the last lap."

Some problems starting the feature helped Kaley, as it looked like it may be follow the leader. "We were supposed to start 13th, but those guys in front of us had problems, so that moved us up three rows," he says. "Even with the rubber laid down there, the car was a touch loose, but the car was good. There wasn't much we could do except wait for someone to mess up."

He was able to move forward steadily into fourth, and took third after a good battle with Ben Wagoner. "We got underneath Ben there, and we were racing real tough and real close," he says. "I was able to get a better run coming out of two than he did there. That got us up to third, and unfortunately, Joey (Moughan) blew a right rear there. Second is not bad on a rubber-down track where you are supposed to be starting 13th."

Wednesday, Kaley made the tow to Spencer, Iowa where the World of Outlaws were running at the Clay County Fair Speedway. He qualified 27th in the #7K, but found some issues that were preventing a good time on the following day. "We took some stagger out after practice," he says. "We ended up taking too much out for qualifying. On top of that, we took the stacks off the motor on Thursday, and found out the idle we set it on only allowed it to be open for ¾ throttle."

After floundering in the back of his heat race, Kaley started seventh in the B. Needing a top four spot, he gained it from Seth Brahmer with two laps to go. He would end up third. He was credited with a 21st place finish in the A. "The car was really decent there (B)," he says. "We started at the tail of the feature, and got down a lap early there. We were passing guys, but after the caution, some of the passes didn't count. I was going really decent until I jumped the cushion in two. It was hard to get up to speed after that. The key was getting laps, and hopefully, we can improve at Deer Creek on Saturday."

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 car owner Randy Plath would like to thank Sebastian Powder Coating and Sandblasting, Scott Performance, Holtkamp's truck and trailer repair, Rockstar Graphics and all of their sponsors. The 7K team would like to thank Phillips Floors, Info2go, Wagner Excavating, Parker Signs, Redtail Painting, Rod End Supply, LWBJ, Community State Bank and Carlson Systems.

(Bill W) - "Showtime" Kaley Gharst spent another
weekend starting at the back of a pair of features, but did his usual charges through the field to complete a pair of top ten finishes. The Decatur, Illinois native drove the Bruce Williams #7K last weekend at Knoxville Raceway and the Lake Ozark Speedway. This weekend, he'll tackle three races in his home state with the Sprint Invaders.

With qualifying having been a struggle at Knoxville, Saturday saw Kaley grab the last heat invert qualifying spot (18th). Once the green flag flew, he left the rest behind from the pole in the 8-lapper. "We were lucky to make that invert," he says. "There was only two-tenths of a second difference between quick time and 14th quick. The track was fast. We've been struggling with the handling of the car a bit lately, but it was good there in the heat."

Lining up inside row eight for the Season Championship Night 25-lapper, Kaley started moving forward and was scored tenth at the checkers. "The track had a nice top and bottom to it," he says. "The car was really rolling well through the middle of one and two too. We were able to move up into the top ten, and to roll it back in the trailer in one piece...it was a pretty good night for us."

Sunday dawned with a long drive to the Lake Ozark Speedway near Eldon, Missouri. The LOS 360 Nationals were in the offing, and 55 360 sprint cars waited. Of course, with the top three transferring out of six heats, Kaley couldn't have drawn well. "It was tough," he says. "They had a bunch of rain down there, and the heats were pretty much one-lane. We started seventh in the heat and were able to move up a couple of
spots. The harder tire we had on was burning a little more than I would have liked."

The fifth place finish lined him up in the third row of the B. With the top two transferring, and drivers such as Brian Brown starting towards the front it would be tough. Brown's unfortunate spin would collect Mitchell Moore, and Kaley found himself in the second and final transfer spot at the heckers. "That definitely helped us out," he says. "I
don't know that we could have made up much ground there. The track was still tough to pass on. The spot was basically given to us."

Kaley took advantage of his opportunity, and started 22nd in the
30-lapper. "The track was building a tall cushion, and I about lost it all hitting it a time or two," he says. "We were able to get by someguys, and the car was running well."

His progress was steady, first advancing to the top 15, and then into the top ten. With ten laps to go, it seemed his run may come to an end. The race was plagued with a number of caution laps. "With about ten to go, the car started sputtering," says Kaley. "I was sure we were running out of fuel with all the laps we had run."

Despite the problem, Kaley had advanced to sixth with two to go, when the red flag was brought out. The open red at approximately 2:45 a.m. required taking on fuel. Kaley and the team thought the sputtering problem would be solved. They were wrong, though he held onto his sixth place standing. "I figured taking on the fuel would help us to take off," he says. "We found out later that the fuel line was pinched."

Kaley will pilot the Randy Plath Motorsports #14P this weekend in
Illinois with the Sprint Invaders. His four wins are tops with the series this season, and came despite missing three shows thus far. Tonight (Friday) he will hit the Morgan County Speedway in Jacksonville for the Herb Barlow Memorial, Saturday sees the series at the Spoon River Speedway south of Canton for the Tom Knowles Memorial, and the weekend concludes on Sunday at the Quincy Raceways. "It'll be nice to sleep in my own bed every night for a change," says Kaley.

Keep an eye on Kaley's progress this week and beyond at
www.KaleyGharst.com 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
mailto: sprntcar@iowatelecom.net .

Kaley and car owner Randy Plath would like to thank Sebastian Powder Coating and Sandblasting, Scott Performance, Holtkamp's truck and trailer repair, Rockstar Graphics and all of their sponsors. The 7K team would like to thank Phillips Floors, Info2go, Wagner Excavating, Parker Signs, Redtail Painting, Rod End Supply, LWBJ, Community State Bank and Carlson Systems.

Kaley at Knoxville Raceway (Danny Howk Photo)

(Bill W) – August 25, 2009 – “Showtime” Kaley Gharst picked up his sixth win of the year on Saturday night in Twin Features action with the Ideal Ready Mix Sprint Invaders at the 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa as part of the 2nd Annual Brian Hetrick Tribute. A run from 15th to 5th in the second feature was great too, but none of it would have happened without the aid of Bruce Williams. This weekend, the Decatur, Illinois driver will compete in ASCS-Midwest/WOW action at the US36 Raceway near Osborn, Missouri on Friday before running Saturday at Knoxville Raceway in the 410 class.

On Friday night, at the Morgan County Speedway in Jacksonville, Illinois, Kaley drove the Plath Motorsports #14P to a strong second in the dash before the motor let go, ending his night. “Tearing up the motor was definitely unfortunate,” he says. “I felt like we had a pretty good shot at Jacksonville, but that’s something you can’t control.”

Something had to be lined up for Saturday night at the 34 Raceway. “Randy went up to Colfax (Iowa) to Bruce Williams’ (#7K owner) shop and picked up our 360 car with the motor in it,” says Kaley. “There was still some work to do on it. Originally, we had planned to go to Sedalia on Sunday with that, but we decided against it after running at Burlington. We’ll go to Cameron (US36 Raceway) on Friday instead.”

The #14P was strapped on top, and Kaley drove from third to win his heat. The feature was marred by several cautions, but Gharst was unaffected and undeterred in winning his fourth feature with the series in 2009, and his second this season at 34 Raceway. "The car felt decent," he says of leading the distance. "About halfway through, it started rolling up really hard. I thought I broke something, because I got into the corner hard, and the right rear bounced. The car didn't really feel that good the last half of the race. I had no idea how big our lead was. I knew there were some lapped cars in there though, so I thought we had a pretty good shot at holding them off."

All cars on the lead lap were inverted for the second main event of the night. Kaley picked his way forward, but his rhythm was disturbed several times. “We found a couple of things on the car, and freed it up for the second feature,” he says. “I never could get any momentum going around the top. I tried the bottom a couple of times, but it wouldn’t stick. We were decent up top, but every time we’d get a run, someone would slide up.”

Still, he managed to gain ten spots and finish with a solid top five. “I never could get the cars timed in front of me, but I guess 15th to 5th isn’t awful bad,” he says. “I just wish we could have been better. The Maxim chassis and Fisher motor worked really well. I have to thank Bruce (Williams) for letting us use the motor.”

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 car owner Randy Plath would like to thank Sebastian Powder Coating and Sandblasting, Scott Performance, Holtkamp's truck and trailer repair, Rockstar Graphics and all of their sponsors. The 7K team would like to thank Phillips Floors, Info2go, Wagner Excavating, Parker Signs, Redtail Painting, Rod End Supply, LWBJ, Community State Bank and Carlson Systems.