Galletta's Karting Club

7,260.0 Points | 5 Wins (7%) | 69 Feature Races [2017 Last Active Update]  |

Dick Dann posing with the 2nd iteration of the Destroyer #86!
(If anyone has seen this kart, we are interested in buying it back to the club!)

Name:
Dick Dann

Dick Dann’s #86 & #68 1-WD Gas Flathead Racing Karts circa 2008. Profile Collage by Chris ChrusherComix
[Photos by ChrusherComix‘s Galletta’s Kart Club Pics & Videos & KDot].

Nicknames:
Tricky Dick, Dickie-Dann, “The Destroyer”

Karts:
Head man of Team Dann (#86 & 02 #68) AKA Destroyer Chassis. Dick usually drives the #86, while his son Nick usually drives the #68. Driven Galletta’s rentals in past.

However, Dick sold the 1st #86 to Timmy Galletta (who sold it to Dave Spanfelner, then to Brian Galletta, then to Josh Arnold), the 2nd #86 to an unknown person in Oswego, and the #68 to AJ Nason (who sold it to Billy Ruggio, who sold it to Eric Woolworth, who sold it to some Scott guy who never raced it and then had it stolen from his yard. Nice.).

Dick Dann’s #86 Kart, circa 2007, before several rebuilds. Picture by Deb, Dick’s wife.

Motto:
“Hey Matt, what’re you doing to my wife?!”

Years Racing Go-karts at Galletta’s:
2006-2010.

Retirement to race Clones and Methanol Racing Karts:
Dick retired during the 2010 season to spend all of his free time and money on 2-WD Clone and Methanol Racing Karts. While we wish Dick luck and consider him a club member representing our club in these divisions, we can’t help but feel somewhat betrayed that he stopped racing with us completely to race on a track operated by a person who that barred our club, the very same person who asked Matt to f*** the rest of us, drop our rules and cheat against everyone to win.

Career Win highlights at Galletta’s:

• Dick was one of the highest-scoring drivers in Galletta’s Karting Club Points History.
• Dick was one of the highest-scoring drivers in Oswego Kartway Gas Flathead History.
• Dick has one of the higher win totals in Galletta’s Karting Club Win History.
• Dick has at least one Feature Event win every season of his karting career (until 2010), seen below:

2010

Dick Dann created the new Destroyer #86 – an offset kart where the driver sits more to the right instead of directly in front of the left-rear engine. The Nick Dann #68 was also rebuilt into the Eric Howell #89 (which was bought and sold to many different owners before weakly being stolen from some Scott Hill dude’s yard)!

Dick Dann created the new Destroyer #86 – an offset kart where the driver sits more to the right instead of directly in front of the left-rear engine — built from scratch. The Nick Dann #68 was also rebuilt into the Eric Howell #89!

However, Dick after the kart proved difficult to handle and spun out easily, Dick sold the kart and retired from Galletta’s Racing to race in Clone and Methanol divisions at the local pay tracks in the area.

2009

Due to his work schedule as a trucker, Dick Dann could only race around once per month during 2009 at Galletta’s, and to make matters worse, two of those potential race dates were rained out. Having motor problems on his #86 and #68 team karts, Dick navigated the Galletta’s #7 kart on the post-’09 Klassic bonus points race on October 11th, 2009, and led all 25-laps and take his 1st feature win of 2009, hence keeping his streak of at least one feature win per season since his rookie campaign in 2006. More info and the YouTube video of his dominant lead-every-lap win is found here.

2008

Dick Dann passed Larry Phillips late in the race to win the 2nd 30-Lapper on October 19th, 2008 (Melissa Gabel won the 1st 30-Lapper, although Dick was in 2nd for most of that race as well). It was the 1st time that the Dann #68 kart (usually driven by his son Nick) visited victory lane at Galletta’s, although Nick did score an Oswego Kartway win earlier that year on. More here

Dick Dann time-trialed the pole at the Oswego Kartway 2008 Classic Time Trails, even getting a faster time than 1st & 2nd place All-Time point earners Matt and Chris Stevens. Although he had not asked — Galletta’s Club Rules usually are adaptable with majority active driver vote, and Dick did NOT request permission — he was allowed the handicap of a Raptor carburetor for this event, the only one in the race with one, as Galletta Karting Club events have mandatory 1990’s-type gas stock carbs to regulate price and top speed.
(Click picture to see more!)

2007

DICK DANN FLIPS AT GALLETTA’S BACKYARD KARTING SPEEDWAY
(THEN COMES BACK TO WIN THE FEATURE…) :

Dick Dann won a highly competitive feature on 8/5/2007 topping a field of top-notch local karters bar none, proving that weight does not hold people back from winning at Galletta’s – unlike smaller, less banked local tracks. Dick won the same night that he violently flipped and nearly busted his helmet! (See the exciting below video, and give it a good rating. Lots of haters [sometimes needlessly arrogant WKA-type karters, sometimes gaymers “gamers” who think racing a video game is real racing, sometimes people who watch bigger forms of racing – like NASCAR for example – and think anything less expensive is less talented] online giving our videos bad ratings.).

Dick Dann (Dann flathead #86) and Joe Hayden (OHV Outlaw #5) battle it out at Oswego Speedway’s Dirt Track, newly renamed Oswego Kartway. Dick was often plagued by terrible handling at the track and was never able to pick up a single feature victory when he drive in our club at Oswego. However he was able to find success after he bought Joe’s #5 kart (to which he then sold to Chris Stevens and it is now the Chrusher.com/Galletta’s/R&C Sushi #74) and raced clones and methanol classes at Oswego and other assorted tracks after 2010.

2006

Dick posing with his #86 at the 2006 Galletta’s Karting Klassic 150 on 2006/09/23
Photo by Gene Galletta, Remastered by Chris Stevens.

The kart has come a long way from then after several rebuilds – as seen from top picture (a hybrid WKA-styled kart with 1-WD) to this one (slightly race-adapted yard kart). This was his rookie season. Oddly enough, although Dick has been a semi-regular competitor since his rookie year, he has missed the 2007, 2008, and 2009 Galletta’s Klassics, and the 2007 Oswego Classic, while not finishing the neither of the ones that he did start (’06 Galletta’s and ’08 Oswego). In his first four years of karting he has only raced a total of around 30 of around 850 “Classic” or “Klassic” laps, which are the highest-point-scoring races in our Karting Club. Even so, Dick has still managed enough Regular-Season-Summer races and Fall-Bonus-Point races to still be one if the highest scoring visiting drivers in the history of the Galletta’s and Oswego Dirt Karting Point Scoring, as witnessed in our All-Time Oswego and All-Time Galletta’s Point Standings. He vows to make the 2010 event and pass points rival Gary Miller.

EVERY RACE IN GALLETTA’S KARTING CLUB HISTORY ENTERED BY BIG DICK DANN
(Last Updated after the 2017 Season)

Did you know? Fun Facts from 2006-10:

• That Dick brought a lot of visitors to the Galletta’s Go-Karts website during the 2006-07 off-season, just from people doing Google image searches for “Dick.” Oddly, as soon as I posted this, it stopped. Hmm… Google is a fickle creature, no? Haha! (Update: In hindsight, we now know Google is more than just a little fickle, but outright politically biased! Sad.)

• Dick is known as The fastest man weighing over 200 lbs. to win in Galletta’s 5hp history (Proving the stubborn and belligerent Oswego Kartway Track Operator and his friends, the “Intek-OHV-6.5hp-oops-I-forgot-to-tell-you-guys-that-we-are-now-Gas-Stock-Animal-Outlaws” gang wrong; with the right setup, talent, and on-track experience, you can win without buying a bigger motor than the next man). Always finishes well, races well, and has wins every season – with a gas flathead?! Gasp!

• Dick is the pioneer of the idea of utilizing a race cam to equalize a weight handicap in our gas stock flathead karting club, although he did so without permission, we adopted and adapted his idea and adapted it into our rules in 2009 and beyond. We are open to rule changes as long as a majority of drivers agree to them, but we frown upon keeping them secret, not voting, and doing it anyway. But despite this, Dick’s idea innovated our rules in the following ways:

  In 2007, he tried out the Dyno 94-SS (AKA the “cheater stock cam”) when all other drivers had a box stock 5hp cam. Being a heavier driver, he was allowed this otherwise breach of the rules, and unlike what most tracks would do (most tracks would disqualify him), we added the exception into our allowed rules in order to help heavier drivers, a rule that has expanded our competition and increased our wins list. He has also experimented with methanol and methanol Raptor carbs on trial basis.

  As usual at Galletta’s, we are open to experimentation and we adjust our rules by majority vote with the single condition of affordability in mind. Regular drivers weigh around 200 lbs (weight is added for anybody lighter). Bigger cams for heavy drivers (over 220 lbs) are allowed, as are racing headers. However, we still do not allow methanol or Raptor carbs, unless the driver would be a super-heavyweight (at Galletta’s, we would likely consider this for someone possibly in excess of 280 lbs). At Galletta’s, we do NOT believe in making 15 weight and motor classes. Yes, this means some people unfortunately do turn away (only because they would want to invest $600-$3,000 in a motor or they admittedly “love to eat, but I still love to race” and weigh over 280 lbs), but it does mean we have the most fun racing, make the speeds as close as we can (letting experience and talent be the biggest determining factors) and we actually decide an overall champion.

• Despite the fact that Dick is one of the higher-point earners in Galletta’s 2000-up Points History, he only competed in ONE Galletta’s Karting Club’s Annual Klassic 200-Lap Championship, the 2006 one! After that, he won a late-season exhibition Feature event in the Galletta’s Fall Challenge Series of 2006.
• Between first his work and secondly his love of Clone and Heavy Methanol karts that apparently schedule their money races on the same day as our Klassic that predated them by over a decade, he now races less than he ever did in our club, which saddens mostly everybody, as he is largely respected as a good, clean driver.