Galletta's Karting Club

A 55-Lap Feature was in store for 12 karts – including four 1st-time drivers – and it saw another new entry into Galletta’s Victory Lane. Tim Galletta – cousin of club founders Chris and Matt – took an impressive win in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #7 kart after making a pass on the initial race start and leading all 55 laps, including several holding off Matt on a few challenges. In only his 2nd season of racing, it was a dominant 1st trip to Victory Lane. Tim is posing with his brothers-in-law, who lost their mother on Friday to cancer, and our prayers thoughts and well-wishes are with the family.

Twelve karts raced in the June 14th, 2010 rain-date at Galletta’s. For two weeks in a row, our Sunday show was postponed to Monday due to a saturated track from rains on the prior Saturday night. The rains brought up a lot of small pebbles and some larger rocks which led to a bumpy night of racing, but these aren’t prissy flat-karts on a lil’ kiddie track… this is adult men and women topping out at 45-50-MPH  in ironman karting events. First up, we had a rookie B-Main race. Four 1st-time rookies battled out, including three brothers and one driver who found us online and plans to make the weekly 1 & 1/2 hour trek from Cortland, NY to race all year! It went as follows:

6/14/2010 Rookie 20-Lap Heat:
1st. Jared Halstead (Galletta’s #0)
2nd. Chris Carroll (Galletta’s #9)
3rd. AJ Nason (Galletta’s #6)
4th. Todd Halstead (Galletta’s #1)

2nd up, we skipped veteran heats in order to run a 5-lap make-up race for those who missed last weekend’s race. We have had many occasions where a driver will miss one or two events and be shafted all year, never being able to make up for those missed shows. Some tracks will have  a system where everybody will cut their worst one or two showings and then equalize this way. I don’t like that system because you are losing records, and losing points. Our solution is to have a 5-lap make-up race before the regular feature where drivers who have missed at least one show will race and be tagged on addendum to the end of the show that they missed. On 6/14/2010, we had our first of such make-up races, a 5-lapper that went as follows, and are credited on next week’s points chart.

6/14/2010 5-Lap B-Main for 6/7/2010 [for Make-up Bonus Points]:
12th. Russ Hockey (Hockey #00) [+68]
13th. Chris Carroll (Galletta’s #9) [+63]
14th. AJ Nason (Galletta’s #6) [+58]
15th. Jared Halstead (Galletta’s #0) [+53]
16th. Todd Halstead (Galletta’s #1) [+48]
17th. Collin Miller (Miller #24) [+44]
18th. Jeff Tetro (Galletta’s #9) [via 7/11/2010]

This way it does not penalize anybody, and they get a chance to stay in the points race. They will not be able to score more than the people who did race, but still not just be mathematically eliminated from a shot at the title. We’ll allow it for one or two shows, but likely no more than that unless we have many Monday rain-date shows which conflict with work schedules. This means, we will likely allow for at least one missed Saturday/Sunday make-up race allowed per driver, and any Friday or Monday rain-date can have a make-up because those are the days when we usually lose the most drivers to work schedules. We will determine this based on our regular drivers. Since neither Chris nor Matt ever miss a regular season race, which is why they are always 1-2, this rule is to benefit visiting drivers who just cannot make one or two and need a make-up race and keep them in the competition. We hope this satisfies all... Well, except Larry, we know he’ll hate it! 😛

In skipping the veteran heats, we added 10 laps to the regular Feature.

2009 Defending Track Champion Chris Stevens again was taken out, and again by a family member! This time it was his brother – and the person he dethroned from an 8-year reign –  Matt! While running 2nd, Matt got a run on Chris down the back stretch and slid up into Chris in turn 3, nudging him just enough to knock him off the track. The evidence is piling up:

Some controversy occurred with 2 laps to go that forced us to make a new rule. In our 20 years of racing karts, we have never had a scenario like this one. On the white flag lap, flagger Gary Miller Sr. signaled 1 lap to go with his yellow flag rolled up. Melissa Stevens believed it was a yellow, put her hand up and let up, causing a light crash between 3rd-place Melissa and 4th-place Jared Halstead. Neither kart was damaged and continued without a problem. A few people challenged when Melissa and Jared resumed in their spots. What to do if a crash that causes no damage happened when an unintentional caution was believed to be thrown? To resolve the problem, and thus created a new rule, we re-raced the final two laps as if the caution never occurred, and no more signaling 1-lap-to-go with a rolled-up yellow flag. Editor’s note: Although we at first believed this childish temper tantrum to get her own way to be a one-time anomaly, as the year(s) went on, Melissa–and her family–have time and time again to always get their own way no matter what logic or facts get in their way and if ANYONE crosses them (even if just imagined in their head), be careful that your friends, family, employers and even the authorities (!!!) don’t get mysterious phone calls and social media messages with LOTS of juicy (and pretty much completely untrue) gossip of you doing all sorts of rude, annoying, unethical, and immoral, and even ILLEGAL things… all of which never happened. Be careful not to cross the Wolcott Mafia….]

So fast he is a blur, Tim Galletta led all 55 laps en route to his first feature win. Other than a few pass attempts by George Russell early, he was relatively unchallenged. That was until the near-unstoppable terror of all Oswego Dirt Karting – Matt Stevens made it to 2nd place and applied some roasty-toasty pressure. Tim earned the win, holding off several moves from Matt for his 1st feature triumph.

The Galletta’s #7 again proves to be an excellent kart, handicapped to be lighter and stronger gearing for heavier drivers. And since Tim is nearly 75 lbs. heavier than his cousin Matt, don’t let people BS you into thinking weight is an insurmountable obstacle in kart racing. Our power-to-weight ratio (heavier drivers allowed extras such as headers, gears, and cam while the lightest drivers are weighed down) is working perfectly, and everybody has a chance to win at Galletta’s. All they need is track time and talent. Job well done for all, as it was, again, another great race!

6/14/2010 55-Lap Feature Order-of-Finish:
1st. Tim Galletta (Galletta’s #7)
2nd. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s #3)
3rd. Melissa Stevens (Stevens #19)
4th. Jared Halstead (Galletta’s #0)
5th. Russell Hockey (Hockey #00)
6th. George Russell (Galletta’s #2)
7th. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s #8)
8th. Todd Halstead (Galletta’s #1) [DNF]
9th. Shadoe Russell (Doe #26) [DNF]
10th. Chris Carroll (Galletta’s #9) [DNF]
11th. A.J. Nason (Galletta’s #6) [DNF]
12th. Gary Miller Jr. (Galletta’s #5) [DNF]
[DNF] = Did Not Finish all 55-laps

Bonus Make-Up Point Retcon Credits:
13th. Randy Platt (Galletta’s #2) [Credit from 8/1/2010]
14th. MC Howell (Galletta’s #0) [Credit from 8/1/2010]
15th. Larry Phillips (L&K Sm.Engine #04) [Credit from 8/29/2010]

YOUTUBE HIGHLIGHT REEL (Low-Res)