Galletta's Karting Club

6/21/2014 – Kevin Galletta & Matt Stevens win in the first Twin-Features Night of 2014!

SATURDAY, JUNE 21st, 2014, OSWEGO, NY – The 1st twin-feature night of the young season went down on Saturday June 21st, and it was pole-sitter Kevin Galletta who led all 35 laps of the 1st feature in his most impressive performance of his career thus far. In the 2nd feature, Matt Stevens dispatched a few karts on the drop of the green and beat his brother Chris to the lead to win the time-shortened 25-lap feature of the night. Eric Woolworth – points leader and winner of the 1st two features of the season – had a few wild rides and finally had his win streak snapped. More details below!

HEAT RACE (8-Laps)

Starting lineup:
1. Kevin Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #28)
2. David Turner (Platt-num/Turner #43)
3. Adam Lytle (Lytle #33c)
4. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse/Chrusher.com/R&C Sushi Bar #4)
5. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #3)
6. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n Fur #19)
7. Eric Woolworth (The Raven Tavern #88)

From Matt’s helmet-cam, we see points leader Eric Woolworth looks under Chris Stevens and Adam Lytle in the heat. Although the heat had plenty of pass attempts, only one person changed position! Points leader and winner of the 1st two features of the year passed class founders Matt and Chris Stevens to pad his lead. The young man is on a tear thus far! He looks prepared to back up his week long (and off-season long) trash-talking on Facebook.

Snapshot from the 8-lap heat finish. Yep… THAT close.

Finale:
1. Kevin Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #28)
2. David Turner (Platt-num/Turner #43)
3. Adam Lytle (Lytle #33c)
4. Eric Woolworth (The Raven Tavern #88)
5. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse/Chrusher.com/R&C Sushi Bar #4)
6. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #3)
7. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n Fur #19)

FEATURE #1 (35 -Laps)

Starting lineup:
1. Kevin Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #28)
2. David Turner (Platt-num/Turner #43)
3. Adam Lytle (Lytle #33c)
4. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse/Chrusher.com/R&C Sushi Bar #4)
5. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #3)
6. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n Fur #19)
7. Eric Woolworth (The Raven Tavern #88)

Kevin Galletta leads the field during the 1st feature.

Eric Woolworth’s claim for a sweep came to an end in the 1st feature. Here he actually lost  trying to get under both the #4 of Chris Stevens and #43 of David Turner in turn 2. He hit the inside bank at a weird angle and had a slow flip, although his it didn’t feel like a slow one to his back.

David Turner may be a rookie in only his 4th race event since last summer, but he looks strong in the former Platt-num/Brian Galletta #13 (now Platt-num/Turner #43).[Inset] That was until his right front wheel bolt just let go and he lost the wheel (all the pieces were later found between the features).

Kevin Galletta was one of the earliest members of the Galletta’s Karting Club (racing back in the 1990s with his brother Brian and cousins Chris and Matt), but due to military service and family duties, he was only recently able to race thanks to his brother loaning him a team kart.

The view from Matt’s helmetcam shows Kevin (28) leading Chris Stevens (4) and Matt in the latter stages of the 1st feature.

Chris slipped up late in the race and dropped 2nd to Matt.

The race came down to the line again, with Kevin Galletta holding off Matt Stevens by maybe a tire. Chris Stevens was on Kevin’s bumper as well, and Matt usually saves that 4th turn slingshot move for the final lap for just that reason – if it fails, he won’t get passed. Kevin put on his strongest performance of his career thus far, as he took the #28 into victory lane by holding off  both his cousins Matt and Chris. His 2nd career victory, and first in his own kart (his previous win was in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #9 last season).

1st Feature Finish:
1. Kevin Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #28)
2. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #3)
3. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse/Chrusher.com/R&C Sushi Bar #4)
4. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n Fur #19)
5. Eric Woolworth (The Raven Tavern #88)
6. David Turner (Platt-num/Turner #43)
7. Adam Lytle (Lytle #33c)
RETCON SCORING:
8. Kelly Miller (Galletta’s Greenhouse #7) = Earned in 7/19/2014 Makeup race
9.  Brian Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #42) = Earned in 7/19/2014 Makeup race
10. Keith Raymond (Raymond #88) = Earned in 7/19/2014 Makeup race

Kevin was pleased with his win and enjoyed a delicious Mountain Dew, the caffeine and sugar rush possibly fueled his concentration for the win. (We expect advertisement payment from Pepsico soon. Well… we hope. C’mon PepsiCo… Kev has like 6 kids and Chris has one on the way, give us a hand!)

FEATURE #2 (25 -Laps)

Starting lineup:
1. Adam Lytle (Lytle #33c)
2. David Turner (Galletta’s Greenhouse #9 )
3. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n Fur #19)
4. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse/Chrusher.com/R&C Sushi Bar #8)
5. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #33)
6. Eric Woolworth (The Raven Tavern #88)
7. Kevin Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #28)

As usual, with twin races at Galletta’s we usually invert the final order of the 1st feature for the start of the 2nd, with the exception of prior winners in the back to give someone else a better shot at a win (originally “the Gary Miller sandbagging rule”, as he would purposefully finish poorly to start up front next race, and further amended by the “Matt Stevens won already” rule, where a few times he would start on the pole (or close to it), and unless it’s a 200 lapper where he takes it easy and you have a shot at passing him, that isn’t any fair for anyone else and too easy for the all-time-winningest-karter-in-Oswego Matt). It was shortened to 25 laps due to a long intermission attempting to fix David Turner’s #43’s brake and axle. After fixing that, the right front was flat,  and Dave hopped into the #9 instead.

This one was one of those “Whoever between Matt or Chris gets to the lead first will probably win” races, and they were battling back and forth, but Matt trapped Chris on leader Adam Lytle (who had handling problems) and coasted to a near flawless win. Chris tried tracking him down, but was around the same speed and one mistake is all Matt needed to pull away. The 2nd feature was a bit boring to all except Matt, who won his 1st feature since late summer 2013. (Lytle later on scored a DNF when his steering column broke, which Matt and Wes fixed during the week.)

Finish:
1. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #33)
2. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse/Chrusher.com/R&C Sushi Bar #8)
3. David Turner (Galletta’s Greenhouse #9 )
4. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n Fur #19)
5. Kevin Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #28)
6. Adam Lytle (Lytle #33c) = DNF: Broken steering rod
7. Eric Woolworth (The Raven Tavern #88) = DNS: Sore from flip in feature #1, retired.
RETCON SCORING:
8. Kelly Miller (Galletta’s Greenhouse #7) = Earned in 7/19/2014 Makeup race
9.  Brian Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #42) = Earned in 7/19/2014 Makeup race
10. Keith Raymond (Raymond #88) = Earned in 7/19/2014 Makeup race

Complete Race YouTube Playlist:

2014 Gas Flathead National Championship / 2014 Galletta’s Greenhouse Karting Speedway Point Standings

After the completion of 3 events from 6/7/2014 through 6/21/2014:

Position (Last Week )	Name (Go-Karts Piloted)  [Hyperlinked Borders have Profile] ®=Retcon Race T =Timeout Used	Total Points (Place)	Average Points Per Event	Features	Feature Wins	Win %	Heats Won/ Entered	Years Pro at Galletta’s	All-time Features	All-Time Feature Wins	All-tme Win %
1st	Eric Woolworth (The Raven #88)	459.50	114.88	4	2	50%	0/2	3rd	56	4	7%
2nd (3rd)	Matt Stevens  (Galletta’s #3, 74, 33)	455.50	113.88	4	1	25%	0/2	19th	321	121	38%
3rd (4th)	Chris Stevens  (Galletta’s / Chrusher.com / R&C Sushi #4, 8)	429.50	107.38	4	0	0%	0/2	19th	316	70	22%
4th (2nd)	Melissa Stevens  (Scissors ‘n Fur #19, 80)	398.50	99.63	4	0	0%	1/2	8th	143	7	5%
5th (8th)	Kevin Galletta   (Galletta / Platt-Num #28) ®	370.00	92.50	4	1	25%	1/1	2	27	2	7%
6th (5th)	Adam Lytle  (Lytle #33c)	355.50	88.88	4	0	0%	0/2	3rd	53	1	2%
7th	David Turner  (Plattnum-Turner #43) ®	332.50	83.13	4	0	0%	0/1	®	9	0	0%
8th (6th)	Kelly Miller  (Galletta’s #7, 9)	201.00	100.50	2	0	0%	0/1	7th	23	2	9%
9th	Alex Bennett (Galletta’s #9, 2) ®	159.00	79.50	2	0	0%	0/0	®	2	0	0%
10th	Cliff Crowe  (Galletta’s #1) ®	143.00	71.50	2	0	0%	0/0	®	2	0	0%
11th	Brian Galletta  (Galletta / Platt-Num #42)	96.50	96.50	1	0	0%	0/1	8th	97	6	6%
12th	Matthew Daniels  (Galletta’s #1)	91.00	91.00	1	0	0%	0/1	®	1	0	0%

Next event’s Handicap Starting Lineup:
(Again, we create starting lineups by inverting feature wins, then inverting points-per-event as tie-breaker. Newbies in the back until prove themselves as steady & fast enough to start up front and hold a solid line without spins or wrecks.)