Galletta's Karting Club

2001 Galletta’s Go-Kart Klassic

This season saw an 80-Lap, seven kart Klassic race on October 24th, 2001; our latest Galletta’s Klassic in history because it is usually in mid-to-late September annually. Long lost, it was recently located on VHS-C, digitally transferred and is now available for public consumption!

6th Annual Galletta’s Greenhouse Karting Klassic Time Trials & B-Main on September 30th, 2001:

While the above video at the top of the page contains the 2001 Klassic 80-Lapper itself, the below reel shows the Klassic Time Trial footage and the Bonus Points B-Main after it.

’01 Klassic START:
1st. Brian Galletta # [Galletta’s Greenhouse #1]
2nd. Eric Syrell ® # [Galletta’s Greenhouse #7]
3rd. Sean Stevens ® # [Galletta’s Greenhouse #2]
4th. Chris ‘Chrusher’ Stevens [Galletta’s Greenhouse #5]
5th. ‘Mighty’ Matt Stevens [Galletta’s Greenhouse #6]
6th. Wesley ‘Ogre’ Stevens [Galletta’s Greenhouse #4]
7th. Justin _______? [Galletta’s Greenhouse #3]
8th. Cameron Rowe* ® [Galletta’s Greenhouse #2]
9th. Fran Rowe* ® [Galletta’s Greenhouse #01]

KEY:
* = QUALIFIED ON 9/30/2001 but DID NOT SHOW UP TO KLASSIC. :'(
® = Rookie/1st Season Driver
# = Handicap Start

Most of the season, Limited Supermodified Team Rowe (Cameron, Rowe, Fran Rowe, and Gordon Smallidge) filled our ranks in these humble beginnings that we built from scratch. But by the time for our Klassic, Team Rowe outright abandoned their guaranteed rides for the Klassic, which actually deeply hurt us, as we loved racing with them (maybe the hunting, Limited Supermodified and family took all their time, but still… they never came back which always made us wonder? Did we do something to offend them?). Luckily, we got bailed out by Supermodifed Team Syrell! This left us with only had 7 entrants instead: three Syrell team members (Eric Syrell, Sean Stevens, Brian Galletta), a rookie named Justin (last name unknown) and three originators of the club (Chris Stevens, Matt Stevens and Wes Stevens). But we ALMOST could’ve had more.

This was the season where three of the five members of the Syrell Supermodified racing team raced with us (as seen in this great pic from Robert Clark Photography, complete with lightning strike over Lake Ontario!).

Chris won the 2001 Galletta’s Klassic & clinched the Point Title!

Eric Syrell led a good portion of the Klassic early, but Chris Stevens took the lead on lap 29 and led the remainder of the show by holding off Matt’s repeated attempts to pass him to win his third of three straight Klassics and earned points in the Klassic. He also BARELY passed and clinched his third straight Track Championship that year, in his orange Galletta’s #5 kart.

[One reason it was held so late is that nobody could make it until October. Galletta’s Karting Club 2001 Rookie of the year Cameron Rowe shocked everybody by not showing up for the Galletta’s Klassic, even though he and his brother Fran (also a Limited Super driver) qualified the event before (and nobody else showed up for that). Stunned by the no-shows, but thankfully the Syrell team bailed us out so that we didn’t just have to settle for a 3 or 4 kart Klassic.]

Now the finalized points standings: 

2001 – 6th Annual Galletta’s Greenhouse Karting Klassic 80
on October 24th, 2001 | Final Order of Finish:

* Videotape twenty years later revealed a 7th driver named Justin also started and raced in our 2001 Klassic. We have no basically ZERO recollection of him, but it was noted that the other drivers believed he “was a hazard out there” and broke more than one kart. He is forever unknown and did not get credited for this race until 2021! Go figure! If anyone knows who he was, let us know, and he’ll get credited with a full name.

2001 FINAL Point Standings for the Galletta’s Karting Season Box stock 5hp gas go-kart championship of Oswego, NY

KEY:
* = Klassic Win!
1¹ = Granted a feature win despite breaking in the lead with 1/2 lap to go.
** = After locating the 2001 Klassic videotape and digitally transferring it for viewing here TWENTY YEARS AFTERWARDS, we realized that a Justin (last name unknown) raced in the Klassic, and it was said that the drivers were noting that he broke a few karts down. In hindsight, we retroactively scored him in last place of the starters in the 80 lapper and placed him in his proper spot both here ad in the All-Time points. We just don’t even remember him, let alone his last name.

Note: We also held a November Fall race that did not count in the points this season. Matt Stevens won it. Technically, if we counted that one for points, Matt may have been able to edge back into the overall points lead. But since I (Chris) am the statistician and I won the Summer + Klassic points, I didn’t count it, haha! However, all joking aside, traditionally we do not count post-Klassic “Fall Exhibition” races in the points standings, so my overall Track Championship is legit.

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