Galletta's Karting Club

SUNDAY, JUNE 9TH, 2013 – Eric Woolworth had flirted with victory lane a handful of times in his rookie season last year, but always had a freak luck break or lose control of his kart at the worst time. Not today. Eric led all 45-laps  from his pole starting position, and — although Brian Galletta pulled alongside of him, and Matt and Chris Stevens kept him within sight — none of the nine other competitors could get him. But the race is possibly most remembered for 1st-time rookie driver Billy Truax catching a wheel with Brian Galletta during a pass attempt, smashing into a tree hard, and losing a tire! And we got it all on video! Read on!

Retcon Race

At Galletta’s, if you miss a race, opportunities to make up for a lost show are available. Before the regular event, rookies and vets who have missed prior races can be in small “retcon” heat races. Usually the length of a heat (5-10 laps depending on the amount of time we have), any driver who needs a makeup race can run it and be counted retroactively as in the rear of the race they missed.

Start

1. Mark “Gooner Gilligan” Groesbeck  (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #1)
2. Billy Truax  (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #7)

We had somewhat of a special guest driver this week. A contestant from the TBS Reality TV show “The Real Gilligan’s Island”, Mark “Gooner” Groesbeck, where he tried out for the role of Gilligan. Yes, with Rachel Hunter. He’s looking for a kart to buy, so anybody that has one we can use, send us a note!

5-Lap Retcon Race Finish:

1. Billy Truax  (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #7) – credited for 9th place in the 6/5/2013 45-lap race.
2. Mark “Gooner Gilligan” Groesbeck  (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #1) – credited for 10th place in the 6/5/2013 45-lap race.

We skipped heats and disallowed the use of “Repair Timeouts” this week because we needed to get the show done before 8pm. Each regular driver is allowed 3 timeouts per season (and a rookie is usually allotted 1 provided that they do not cause too many cautions or substantially damage the karts), and most drivers save their for a big show, such as the Klassic, and either will sit after a breakdown or hop into a backup kart if available ( for a -5 pt. deduction per regular season race, -20pt. penalty during the 200-Lap Klassic).

45-LAP FEATURE:

At Galletta’s, we created a unique handicap system that we believe is the greatest in motorsports. It’s everything we ever wanted to see when watching other forms of racing, and what we feel gives everyone a great shot in ours. The lineup is inverted by first feature wins and then points. Low points/low wins in the front and progress to high-win/high pointearnerss start in the back. At the start of the year, we go by all-time statistics until everyone is worked into the system.

Starting Lineup:

1. Eric Woolworth (in The Raven Tavern #88)
2. Adam Lytle (in the Adam Lytle Racing #33c)
3. Dave Spanfelner (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse Racing #9)
4. Brian Galletta (in the Brian Galletta Racing #13)
5. Joe Sereno (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse Racing #5)
6. Matt Stevens (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse Racing #3)
7. Chris Stevens (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse Racing #2) [One 2013 win]
8. Billy Truax (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse Racing #7)
9. Mark “Gooner Gilligan” Groesbeck (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #1)
10. Melissa Stevens
    [w/Lilybeth Rose Stevens] (in the Scissors n’ Fur #19)

In the early going, Eric pulled away in the Raven Tavern #88. But after a restart, Bria Galletta tried passing the #88 and got trapped in the inside groove by Matt Stevens, Matt stayed with Eric until his motor started periodically and randomly billowing smoke from the header, which Matt believes is from a sticking valve and parked the #3 for the night. He hopped into his #33 (-5 pts. penalty) for the remainder of the race.

Eric Woolworth leads them on the lap 40 restart, as Brian Galletta again gets trapped in the low groove when his pass attempt on Eric failed. Chris Stevens got by him in the Galletta’s #2, and Billy Truax also tried to follow Chris by.

But Brian hit a wet patch low in 1 and shot to the outside, slamming the door on Truax and putting him into the tire wall barrier in turn 2, breaking off the right front tire on the Galletta’s Greenhouse #7 kart. The caution, in hindsight, the video should have been reviewed and should have had Brian lose his 2nd place (and stay in 3rd, as Chris passed him), but he kept it invoking the last completed lap rule (which is supposed to be overruled when contact that causes a caution is made… but our rushed finish cost us the proper decision).

As you know, we’ve had complete race DVDs to every single event since mid-2005, and every single Klassic 200 since 1998. This season, we’ve upgraded to HD and can produce DVDs from HD masters and/or Blu-rays. These two clips from the above noted wreck are SUPER-COMPRESSED from the original HD video files:

Angle 1 in SD (Camera by Rungnapha “Aou” Stevens)

Angle 2 in SD (Camera by Melissa Stevens)

Angle 3 in SD (Camera by Clue Gilman)

[Edit: Sorry, Photobucket apparently deleted the video file, if found, will upload to YouTube…] All three angles, including this one, are available in HD here.

Final Order of Finish:

1. Eric Woolworth (in The Raven Tavern #88) [One 2013 Win]
2. Brian Galletta (in the Brian Galletta Racing #13)
3. Chris Stevens (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse Racing #2) [One 2013 win]
4. Dave Spanfelner (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse Racing #9, Finished in the Brian Galletta #28 -5pts)
5. Matt Stevens (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse Racing #3, Finished in Galletta’s Greenhouse #33 -5pts.)
6. Adam Lytle (in the Adam Lytle Racing #33c)
7. Billy Truax (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse Racing #7) -DNF
8. Joe Sereno (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse Racing #5) -DNF
9. Mark “Gooner Gilligan” Groesbeck (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #1) -DNF
10. Melissa Stevens [w/Lilibeth Stevens] (in the Scissors n’ Fur #19) -DNF
    

    RETCON MAKEUP RACE POINT CREDITS:

11. Kevin Galletta (in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #7) – earned points on 6/30/2013
12. Branden “Toomer” Matott (Galletta’s Greenhouse #7) – earned points on 7/7/2013

COULD NOT MAKE IT: Justina Galletta, Randii Platt and Jessii Vivlemore could not make the show due to having their their periods. Strong flow, very crampy, seeming to hit every weekend at race time, despite promises of racing full schedules and us wrapping up race time before dark every time thus far. That’s 0/2 for all three competitors. That’s using the term loosely. Very. 😉

SIDE NOTES: The open challenge gauntlet from January 2009 has still not been answered – no non-Galletta’s Club driver (a handful of guys that race there also raced with us – we’re not talking about them) from the “local pay track” is in our league can come to our track and win. The entire revolving roster of countless divisions with nameless faces and random body weights ages and cookie-cutter karts… are all still held winless in the ORIGINAL, MOST COMPETITIVE, LONGEST-RUNNING, and BIGGEST KARTING DIVISION IN OSWEGO. PERIOD.

SD VERSION

Although Eric won, Brian’s presence in the top-3 scoring spots for most of the laps for the 1st two weeks thus far pads his lead in the points!

2013 1-WD Gas Flathead Karting World Championship Point Standings after 6/9/2013’s Event

For the Galletta’s Karting Club’s World Championship of 1WD Gas Flatheads held on Galletta’s Greenhouse Backyard Karting Speedway for the 2013 season to date, scored in this manner. Our complete All-Time Points Standings from 2000-to-‘the-last-completed-season’ are found on this webpage, our division’s complete 2006-08 standings on Oswego Speedway’s cutesy lil’ Kiddie Kartway on this page, and our 2000-to-‘the-last-completed-season’ wins are on this page. At season’s end, the current totals will be added into the below: