Gharst Takes Opening Night of 360 Knoxville Nationals
Thursday, August 2, 2007
by Bob Wilson - Kaley Gharst captured the Thursday night opener of the 360 Knoxville Nationals. The former Rookie of the Year of the 410 Knoxville Nationals received $2,000 for the win.
The initial race leader and apparent race winner (as the race drew to a conclusion) was Randy Martin. The 2001 Knoxville track champion took the lead from the outset from his pole position in the 20-lap race. Chasing him at the start was Johnny Anderson who likewise started on the front row. Martin placed his sprinter on the high cushion and slowly began to pull away from the field.
Behind him as the field began to sort out was Matt Moro, Kaley Gharst, Russ Hall and Brian Brown.
After the yellow was displayed for a stopped car on lap five, Martin resumed the point and again took control of the race. Anderson continued to follow behind him but the race everyone was watching was the battle between Moro and Gharst. Through five laps and another yellow flag those two drivers traded slide jobs in turns two and four until Gharst finally took control on the ninth go around. In the meantime Martin was pulling away from the field once again and by the six-mile mark had a fairly comfortable 15 car-length lead.
At this point Brown had moved to third placing Moro fourth, Anderson fifth and B-Main winner Gary Wright was sixth from the tail. With fifteen laps in the books Martin still could claim a sizable lead as he began to chase down lap traffic.
It was lap 18 that all hell broke loose. Just after the top three entered that lap, Brown put a slider on Gharst in turn two to claim second. Martin's lead had melted due to the traffic ahead of him which had impeded his all-out assault on the cushion. In turn two all three of the top cars were nose to tail with Martin getting a good run off the top side.
As Martin entered turn three, Brown must have seen him come upon the slower backmarkers. That is when Brown attempted one more slider and this time it did not work as planned. Just past the scoreboard as they entered turn four Brown rammed solidly into Martin, wrecking both cars and nearly sending Martin over the tall fence and into a billboard. Martin came down hard and tumbled several times before coming to a stop. Both he and Brown were able to walk away from the carnage as a series of "boos" resounded from the grandstand.
When the race resumed, leader Gharst had a great start over second running Wright. Gharst was able to maintain the five-car advantage to the checkers over Wright, who had started 21st in the field. Moro claimed third, Hall took fourth and Anderson finished fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Dale Blaney (started 22nd), Scott Winters, Travis Rilat, Bryan Howland and Jared Smith.
|