JUNE 5TH, 2011: The Galletta’s Karting Club kicked off it’s 16th Points Season (and 21st season of kart racing overall) with a bang. Literally a few! Nine karts battled it out, with five of the drivers battled to five different lead changes during the 55-Lap feature, with Randy Platt going for a wild ride off the track in his new “Platt-num” #28, and Chris Stevens blowing the motor on the Galletta’s #8 while leading with only 4 laps to go. This left Matt Stevens to capture the first feature of the season when he inherited the lead late, coming back from a couple early cautions! Plus three rookies drove an impressive race on top of all that! June 22nd, 2022 Update: Full results, and point standings and TWO YOUTUBE HIGHLIGHT VIDEOS go here.

JUNE 19TH, 2011: Week 3 of the Galletta’s Greenhouse Karting Club’s 2011 Season saw Rookie Justin Galletta hold off challenges from several veterans,. including his father Tim Galletta, and cousins-once-removed Matt and Chris Stevens to duplicate his brother’s feat the prior weekend and win his first feature. The race was exciting and action packed, but all around the great action ON the track it seemed that everything else was… well… some say cursed, as cameras, tapes, lights and caution lamps were all failing. As a result, we only have one camera angle of each race. Read more on our race page. 7/22/2011 Update: YouTube Highlight Video is up!

7/3/2011: Independence Day 70-Lap Night

Posted on July 4th, 2011 by ChrusherComix Studios

JULY 10TH, 2011: Seven competitors battled it out on 7/10/2011, and although we have had the smallest summer fields in our recent history, the racing is as close and exciting as ever, and perhaps cleaner. Where else can you see open-wheel go-karts race side-by-side, sometimes three-wide, and race clean and run 50 laps (plus 8 lap heats) with barely a caution all evening? Sure, Matt Stevens won, but it wasn’t easy. Polesitter Jeff Tetro looked like the winner early (but had a blown drive tire), Tim Galletta looked poised to win (but pitted to adjust tire pressure), and late leader Joe Sereno had a half-track lead, but a caution and then traffic did rookie in, as Matt – who himself had to fight off his brother the whole race – snuck by him in a pack of 7 karts bottled up wheel-to-wheel to barely pick up the win. Jeff Tetro and Tim Galletta won the heats. Several race-ready, feature-winning karts again sat idle without drivers, and it is easier for Matt to pick off a seven or eight drivers and win than it is for him to do so with ten to fifteen drivers. So we need more — come on out! So if you are sick of seeing Matt win so much, then do something about it and race him like the rest of us active GKC drivers are doing. If you did, you’d see why he’s the most winningest driver in the area. Weighed down, same motor as everyone else, older chassis than anybody else, starts in last almost every week… and he still triumphs. Racing more expensive karts on kiddie tracks doesn’t mean you’re a better driver. Just means you’re afraid. Yes, that does mean local racers who read this page, can race with us, but never show up on race day. Read more: [RACE PAGE UPDATED] 8/1/2011 UPDATE: YOUTUBE RACE VIDEO IS UP!

7/17/2011: 60-Lap Night (Twin-30s Again!)

Posted on July 17th, 2011 by ChrusherComix Studios

AUGUST 5th, 2011: A Special Friday Night event took place at Galletta’s Greenhouse Backyard Karting Speedway saw another 60-lap race night. Yep, that’s right, sixty 15-17 second green flag laps for one division. Jeff Tetro took the 1st feature, again holding off Matt by a nose at the stripe like he did a few weeks ago, but Matt roared back to take the 2nd 30-lapper after the track developed bumps in turn 2 and Matt survived to take his 5th of the season. [8/8/2011 UPDATE: RACE PAGE UP & YOUTUBE UP!]

8/16/2011: Tuesday Night Delight – 40-Lap Special won by ONE-EYED MATT!

Posted on August 17th, 2011 by ChrusherComix Studios

TUESDAY, AUGUST 16th, 2011: Now, as many usual-readers knew, our SUNDAY, AUGUST 14th, 2011 race was postponed. Not due to rain, as we thought, as we didn’t even get enough to wet the track enough to race on. It was due to our leader, commanda’, track operator, and head mechanic Matt Stevens suffering a scratched cornea (that’s a part of the eye, for the dumber of our readers. Just kidding… none of our readers are dumb! Just the ones who didn’t know and/or got offended by that, heheh…), which forced us to postpone our regular racing action. Why? Well, because unlike any racer in the area, the one-man racer/pit crew didn’t have enough karts ready to race, nor could race himself. Oddly enough, the injury occurred in his sleep of all things. While I (webmaster, co-founder, fellow racer and brother Chris) offered to gouge his eye out for him so he could race with one good one, he – very agitated – declined. When I offered to run the races without him since he has a comfortable lead anyway, my life was… ahem… Um… endangered. So, per doctor’s orders, Matt was asked to take 7 days off any strenuous activity, and dirt racing, as everyone who has ever been around it knows, can irritate the eyes. However, Matt is too powerful and stubborn of a lad to let a scratched cornea stop him. With a good pair of goggles, he went from last to first — trapping Tim Galletta and Chris Stevens behind early leader Joe Sereno — to win our special Tuesday Night Delight. And as any of the 212 different drivers who have raced against Matt (between 2000-2011) at Galletta’s Greenhouse Backyard Speedway and the 39 different drivers who have raced against him at Oswego Kartway (between 2006-2008) knows, he always capitalizes on even the slightest mistake and almost always gets to the front, even with the same motor (or less of one in some cases)! He holds the wins and points on both tracks in the gas flathead division, and will likely never ever be caught in the all-time rankings of both tracks. Good race for sure, but c’mon now… it’s getting a little boring. Too bad that in all of Central New York, we have yet to find a driver anywhere who can beat him. We have an open challenge, and have had one for years. We see the results. Now let’s review the race: [RACE PAGE UPDATED & YOUTUBE VIDEO UP!]

SATURDAY,OCTOBER 8th, 2011: A grueling 200 laps. But yours truly – webmaster Chris Stevens – broke a 10-year dry-spell by winning his first Galletta’s Greenhouse Karting Klassic since 2001 (while running almost on fumes)! It was not easy, as he time trialed 5th, and had to come from the back of the field twice when he blew a tire in 2nd early, then clobbered a tree in 2nd late. But everything fell his way when the leader of the first 157 laps of the race, Matt Stevens, decided to refuel putting Chris in the lead with barely sputtering off enough fumes to get him the win with Matt all over him. Several competitors didn’t finish the marathon event, and the closeness of competition made this the HARDEST Klassic to date, with tough competition form first to last, including 2010 defending Klassic Champ Kyle Reuter (who lost a front wheel while in 2nd himself, crashed into the buckwheat in turn 2 and retired). For most of the first 100 laps, Kyle pressured Matt to set a fast pace, which in the end was the deciding factor that forced Matt to refuel with 43 laps to go, which put Chris – who made it back to 2nd for a third time in the race – in the lead. Chris actually benefited from blowing a tire early and conserving gas in the rear during the 2nd 4th of the race, which led to him having enough gas to take the checker, the first time the Galletta’s #8 kart won a Klassic – Chris’ previous Klassic wins came in the Galletta’s #2 (1999) and Galletta’s #5 (2000 & 2001). Chris has had several close calls in those last ten years (many 2nd and 3rd places, and a few bad luck breaks while up front in position to win).