THE 2004 GALLETTA’S BOX STOCK GAS KARTING LEAGUE SEASON

The green flag drops on the 2004 Galletta's Klassic 100!

The green flag drops on the 2004 Galletta’s Klassic 100!

Chris Chrusher leads several co-competitors

Chris Stevens leads several co-competitors in the Klassic, recovering from a faulty valve to still grab 3rd in the Klassic. Some kids wanted to punch him in the face because of it. Go figure.

During the 2004 season, we lost some good drivers who inexplicably quit mid-way, then gained some good drivers who joined up soon after. For most of the regular season, a batch of rookies–led by Dan Murdock and Ed Maynes–picked things up fast and looked forward to many more seasons of great racing ahead. We also had a couple of drivers try something we had never had before! Their own karts! A passionate rookie racer named Mark Miller brought his own kart with an OHV motor on it (all of our motors had been 5hp Briggs & Stratton Flatheads with no race mods done, only maintenance), while another rookie named Ed Maynes brought his own kart as well, but he stuck with the script of 5hp flathead. Concerns were raised when the OHV motor had more power than the Galletta’s flatheads out of the box, and almost all of the rest of the 5 hp drivers preferred we stuck with the same motor and not mess with a mixed motor class.

Then there was the Klassic, which was close and competitive, and our biggest to date, with every kart again filled! Matt Stevens went in as points leader, and Chris Stevens tried to catch him, but had to recover from motor valve problems and jump into his old kart (the Galletta’s #5), leaving Ed Maynes and Matt Stevens battling it out for Klassic supremacy. Ed was impressive, but overly ambitious, as he attempted  to not just lead every lap, but LAP everyone within the 1st 20 laps! However, on a dirt track that ruts up as the race goes on and a homemade kart, his plan failed when a caution came out, he lost his lead AND his momentum when his steering column broke, leaving Matt Stevens effortlessly coasting to another Klassic and Track Championship sweep in his Galletta’ s #3 kart. More…

YouTube Video Footage from the 2004 Klassic [Version 2]

The 2004 season was filled with a lot of drivers and action – 48 drivers raced in 38 features w/8 winners in 2004.
For the 1st time, visitors started bringing their own karts to our arrive-&-drive races! Here’s some Klassic footage.

There were two versions of this race recorded:
– A Mono VHS-C version which was paused differently and contains just the racing action), and…
– A Stereo VHS version which wasn’t paused as much and had some additional footage... of spectators talking trash… mostly about yours truly, Chris! 

9th Annual Galletta's Klassic 150 - 9/26/2004The 9th Annual Galletta’s Go-Karts Klassic 100  from 2004 DVD:

This disc contains the Galletta’s Go-Kart Klassic Championship 100 from September 26th, 2004! Includes bonus coverage from other races in 2004 and/or some footage from other years.

Price $7… or free (please turn your ad blocker off).

On a sad note, this race wound up being the very last for a very promising driver. Dan Murdock died in the karting off-season in a tragic snowmobile accident. He was a smart, talented, well-mannered, and exceptionally nice young man who loved our racing club, and all of us at Galletta’s miss him dearly. We have few doubts that he probably would have still been racing with us to this day, as he loved the racing here as much as we loved racing with him. He was named the 2004 Rookie-of-the-Year (a title he shared with Ed Maynes; see more here), and the Summer 2004 Visiting Points Champion. We named the 2005 Galletta’s Klassic the The Dan Murdock Memorial in his honor. On that day, we all felt like he was watching us from heaven. God bless.

2004 Summer Point Standings for the Galletta’s Karting Season
Box stock 5hp gas go-kart championship of Oswego, NY

After 27 races between 6/13/2004 through 9/26/2004 Klassic:

Rank

Driver name (Kart(s) Driven).Some signatures were illegible and cannot be digitally processed.

Total Points (Place)

Average Points Per Event

Events

Feature Wins

* = Klassic Win

1

Matt Stevens Profile“Mighty” Matt Stevens(Galletta’s #3)

2506.50

92.8

27

11*

1*

2

Chris StevensChris “Chrusher” Stevens (Galletta’s #8, 5)

2435.00

90.2

27

7

0

3

Wes StevensWes “Ogre” Stevens (Galletta’s #4)

1340.50

60.9

22

0

0

4

Dan Murdock 2004 Co-Rookie of the Year @ Galletta'sDan Murdock (Galletta’s #1)

1106.50

73.8

15

2

0

5

Eddie Maynes bioEd Maynes (Maynes #18, Galletta’s #2)

888.50

98.7

9

1

0

6

Jason Mills bioJason Mills (Galletta’s #6)

805.00

89.4

9

1

0

7

Adam Barlow - 2004 Klassic (No bio)Adam Barlow (Galletta’s #1, 7)

609.50

76.2

8

0

0

8

No picture currently available (Check driver's all-time point standings)Matt Barlow (Galletta’s #5, 1)

527.50

48.0

11

0

0

9

Mark Miller 2005 (No Bio)Mark Miller (Miller 5.5hp OHV #007, Galletta’s #7)

518.00

64.8

8

2

0

10

Barrelin' Bortel's bioBrian Bortel (Galletta’s #0)

351.50

87.9

4

0

0

11

Tim Donovan (No bio; Formerly Mr. Crash-em-Smash-em)Tim Donovan (Galletta’s #7)

348.50

69.7

5

0

0

12

No picture currently available (Check driver's all-time point standings)Jeff Vachon (Galletta’s #?)

303.50

50.6

6

0

0

13

Our Cousin Brian Galletta - 2003 Klassic (No bio)Brian Galletta (Galletta’s #7, 1)[Retired due to unrelated (dialysis) arm surgery]

296.50

59.3

5

1

0

14

No picture currently available (Check driver's all-time point standings)Mike Simoneau (Galletta’s #??)

255.00

36.4

7

0

0

15

Matt Frey - 2003 Klassic (No bio)Matt Frey (Galletta’s #2)

227.50

75.8

3

1

0

16

Brian "Roads" Conzone - 2004 Klassic (No bio)Brian “Roads” Conzone (Galletta’s #5)

180.00

180.0

1

0

0

17

Eric Raponi (No profile; pic is NOT Galletta's Kart, but his OHV #83) Eric Raponi (Galletta’s #2)

163.00

32.6

5

0

0

18

Neil Gosch (Galletta’s #?)

161.00

40.3

4

0

0

19

John “Burnsy” Burns (Galletta’s #0)

114.50

57.3

2

0

0

20

Mike Sur. (Galletta’s #?) (Sorendo?)

97.50

48.5

2

0

0

21

Justin Gurney (Galletta’s #?)

94.50

47.3

2

0

0

22

Shane Miller (Galletta’s #?)

77.00

38.5

2

0

0

23

“Ozzy” “___?” (Galletta’s #0)

72.00

36.0

2

0

0

24

Mike Cleary (Galletta’s #?)

67.00

66.0

1

0

0

25

Ray “RaYzor” Castaldo (Galletta’s #0)

66.00

66.0

1

0

0

26

Kevin ?? (Galletta’s #?)

62.50

62.50

1

0

0

27

Ray Port. ?? (Galletta’s #?)

51.00

51.00

1

0

0

28

S. Healy (Galletta’s #?)

47.00

47.00

1

0

0

29

J.T. (Galletta’s #?)

39.00

39.0

1

0

0

30

Toby (Galletta’s #?)

39.00

39.0

1

0

0

31

Dustin “______?” II (Galletta’s #?)

34.00

34.0

1

0

0

32

Randy “____?” (Galletta’s #?)

33.00

33.0

1

0

0

33

Dustin “???” (Galletta’s #?)

33.00

33.0

1

0

0

34

Justin Cook (Galletta’s #?)

33.00

33.0

1

0

0

35

Kenny Krap (Galletta’s #?)

33.00

33.0

1

0

0

36

David Beprist (?) (Galletta’s #?)

33.00

33.0

1

0

0

37

Mark II???? (Galletta’s #?)

32.50

32.5

1

0

0

38

Christian Eby (Galletta’s #?)

30.00

30.0

1

0

0

39

Matt Ruggio (Galletta’s #?)

30.00

30.0

1

0

0

40

Coop (Galletta’s #?)

29.50

29.5

1

0

0

41

Tom II??? (Galletta’s #?)

28.00

28.0

1

0

0

42

Rocky Crucitti (Galletta’s #?)

25.00

25.0

1

0

0

43

Ryan Tucker (Galletta’s #?)

24.50

24.5

1

0

0

44

Brandon B. (?) (Galletta’s #?)

23.00

23.0

1

0

0

45

Matt “________?” II (Galletta’s #?)

23.00

23.0

1

0

0

46

Tim “______”? I (Galletta’s #?)

23.00

23.0

1

0

0

47

Greg “Schnook-umms” Costello (Galletta’s #?)

17.00

17.0

1

0

0

Check where these guys are on the… ALL-TIME POINTS STANDINGS AT GALLETTA’S!

Notes: As stated on the previous page, we had our biggest racing season to date, including the first time that other people started bringing their own karts to the show to make for even bigger and more exciting races than ever before. One rookie driver, however, did bring a bigger motor (a 5.5hp OHV kart), which had to be banned for the remainder of the 2004 season because the not one of the box stock 5hp flatheads could not defeat its extra horsepower, no matter the weight or experience differences. The driver was invited back to race with a flathead 5hp, but he declined. He came back in 2005 with a 6.5hp OHV, and started the only truly controversial and argumentative portion of Galletta’s Karting History. This, however, started the most disputed in history between 2004-2008, as documented here and here. Again, points are scored via length of race, so some people who raced only 2-5 regular races may have scored less points than those who ran one big race [and every year, the Galletta’s Klassic is the biggest, ranging from 80-100 laps (in the 1990’s) to 100-200 laps (in 2000’s), so if you want to score big, then come to that race!].

Chris Stevens enjoyed the #8’s FALL REVENGE!

Fall ’04 Bonus Point Series Races:
Several exhibition races were ran in the Fall and early Winter 2004. Due to school, some of the Summer regulars cold not attend, so we counted these races as a second season, or an addendum separate from the Summer series, which traditionally begins with the first Galletta’s race of the year and ends with the Galletta’s Klassic Championship Race. Matt, Chris and Ed divided the wins of these 2nd season races. The Fall ’04 races saw the debut of the Wild Woolly Mammoth Werewolf, Flying-Flippin-Fred Collins, who’s wild-man racing style, loud noises, gestures and comical wrecks led to a new era of Galletta’s Karting. [Also, because of a lack of available scorekeepers, and the fact that only the top three finishing positions were known, some drivers were scored with an average of 96 points per race. The top two or three in each race were recorded successfully every time. If there are any errors here, please let me know. Also, this section may be revised in the future if the tapes are located and re-scored properly; but, IMO, it really isn’t necessary. All of the points series on this page, plus the totals of every year of Galletta’s Super Yard Karting Speedway, are combined into an All-Time Points list found on this page.]

2004 Fall Challenge Point Standings for the Galletta’s Karting Season
Box stock 5hp gas go-kart championship of Oswego, N.Y.

After 6 post-Klassic races between 10/2004 through 11/2004:

Rank

Driver name (Kart(s) Driven).Some signatures were illegible and cannot be digitally processed, nor counted as points-earners.

Total Points (Place)

Average Points Per Event

Events

Feature Wins

1

“Mighty” Matt Stevens (Galletta’s #3, 0)

672.00

112.0

6

3

2

Chris “Chrusher” Stevens (Galletta’s #8, 5)

630.00

105.0

6

1

3

Wes “Ogre” Stevens (Galletta’s #4)

628.00

104.7

6

0

4

“Fast” Eddie Maynes (Maynes #18)

614.00

102.3

6

2

5

Jason Mills (Galletta’s #6)

612.00

102.0

6

0

6

Fred “The Werewolf” Collins (Galletta’s #7, 2)

576.00

96.0

6

0

7

Adam Barlow (Galletta’s #1, 7)

576.00

96.0

6

0

8

Brian Bortel (Galletta’s #0)

576.00

96.0

6

0

ALL-TIME POINTS STANDINGS AT GALLETTA’S