![9/26/2004 – 9th Annual Galletta’s Go-Kart Championship 100-Lap Klassic [+YouTube]](https://karting.gallettasgreenhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2003/10/2004kartklassic.jpg "9/26/2004 – 9th Annual Galletta’s Go-Kart Championship 100-Lap Klassic [+YouTube]")
9/26/2004 – 9th Annual Galletta’s Go-Kart Championship 100-Lap Klassic [+YouTube]
In 2004, 48 different drivers raced in 36 events, climaxed by the 100-Lap 9th Annual Oswego Dirt Karting Championship. It was also the 1st where we allowed mixed motors – traditional 5hp flatheads and new 5.5hp OHVs for drivers over 200 lbs..
The start of our Annual Galletta’s Go-Kart Klassic!
Galletta’s Go-Kart Racing Association Galletta’s Speedway 9th Annual “Klassic 100″(Held 09/26/2004) . Above is some Klassic footage. There were two versions of this race recorded:
- A Mono VHS-C version – which was paused differently and contains just the racing action, and…
- A Stereo VHS version – which wasn’t paused as much and had some additional footage... of spectators talking trash… mostly about yours truly, Chris!)
2004 Galletta’s Go-Kart Championship 100-Lap Klassic
Held on a beautiful Sunday, September 26th, 2004
Start via time trails (Outside is ahead w/ Galletta’s 1-WD/Right-Turn Karts):
| 1st) Chris “Crusher” Stevens (17.25 in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #8) |
2nd) “Fast” Ed Meynes (17.26 in the Maynes Motorsports #18) |
| 3rd) Matt “Mush” Stevens (17.34 in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #3) |
4th) Wes “Ogre” Stevens ( 17.46 in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #4) |
| 5th) Dan Murdock (17.81 in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #1) |
6th) Tim Donovan ( 17.92 in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #7) |
| 7th) Jason “The Hammer” Mills (17.99 in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #6) |
8th) Adam Barlow (18.04 in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #2) |
| 9th) Barrelin’ Brain Bortel (18.76 in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #0) |
10th) Brian “Roads” Conzone [1st-time “Guest” Driver] (19.12 in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #5) |
-
Chris, Matt and Wes are in their 9th season racing at Galletta’s.
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Jason is in his 2nd season racing at Galletta’s.
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Ed, Dan, Tim, Adam and Bortel are in their 1st season racing at Galletta’s.
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Roads is in his 1st (and only?) race at Galletta’s.
Galletta’s 2004 Go-Kart Klassic start – the 9th Annual edition of the biggest Kart race in Oswego, NY! Wait… it’s the only one, isn’t it?
Race recap:
Chris Stevens (in his Galletta’s #8) time-trialed into the coveted outside pole position, but it was Ed Maynes (in his #18) on the inside pole that took the lead, defied all prior concepts of lasting 100 laps without breaking with a stunning strategy – he tried to lap the entire field, and did succeed in lapping half of the field of competitors within the first quarter of the race. This surprised everybody, as the usual strategy is to take it easy, save the kart, the track, and fuel for the marathon endurance race. It’s how Matt and/or Chris have won every Klassic thus far.
Ed Maynes tried to lap the entire field in the 1st 20 laps of the 100!
Ed Maynes in his green #18 completely dominated the first portion of the race, not only leading, but pulling away, putting a few karts down one lap, and one kart down at least two. He led the first 41 laps without one challenge, as several of the other drivers chose to try and save their karts, while Ed’s was try to lap everybody. But his strategy backfired when his kart had several breakdowns – including a steering column that snapped in two (much to the chagrin of his two sons who were noted in the background of the videotape wishing to punch certain competitors in the face [apparently Chris Stevens for having mechanical problems so offended them that they wished they were big enough to punch him? wth?!], and Ed himself blamed Ogre’s weld job for the break). Regardless, the breakdown handed the lead to Matt Stevens (in his Galletta’s #3), winner of five of the previous eight Galletta’s Go-Kart Klassics, and that is usually the equivalent of an anaconda vice grip of death around the race.
Impressive field at Galletta’s for the 100!
A large chunk of the racing was bumper to bumper throughout most of the race.
Barrelin’ Brian Bortel focuses on defeating Jason “The Hammer” Mills.
(Above) Jason Mills leads Barrelin’ Brain Bortel early in the event.
Chris Stevens leads several co-competitors in the Klassic, recovering from a faulty valve in the #8 to still grab 3rd in the Klassic with an ill-handling #5. Some kids were overheard on tape wanting to punch him in the face because of it. Go figure.
Chris “Crusher Comix” leads Dan Murdock, Ed Meynes, and Jason Mills into turn three. Chris was severely disappointed, as his #8 kart – which scored the fastest time of the day in time trials – was retired early in the race when the engine lost power and parked for the remainder of the event (The engine proved later to be permanently un-repairable – something wrong with the valve guides that no repairman we could find could fix. A shame, because it was a fast block when it didn’t hesitate). Chris had to take over his backup – the Galletta’s #5, which was driven by a one-time driver who was 2-laps down and fading (the driver was given his rental fee back. Apparently, the driver also altered the #5 and tightened the drive tire so much it was SLOWING the kart down and forcing it to spin. Comedically, Chris got blamed for trying to find out what was wrong with the #5 by a few spectators. Nice. When the #5 was repaired, Chris drove it to a 2nd place finish (something that the original driver and all of the spectators whom were ALL bashing him from the sidelines — and stupidly got caught on video, lol! — couldn’t do on their VERY best day of their entire lives!) 😉
Jason Mills got into a few competitors during the 100, this time spinning Dan Murdock in the #1 out.
Jason Mills (driving the Galletta’s #6) did finish the final lap as the 2nd place kart on the track. However, when track officials reviewed the tape, it was revealed that he had caused several accidents via intentionally ramming, pushing, and hooking tires. The above photo shows one of these events. In this DVD capture, we see the late Dan Murdock‘s last race was scarred by three of Jason’s accidents taking him and the Galletta’s #1 kart out of really competing in the event despite of some excellent driving that had him moving up the pack on more than one occasion. Jason also took out Adam Barlow (in the Galletta’s #2) once, and then Ed on at least one, almost two occasions. He also plowed Wes into a few spectators causing wrecks and one time in particular, caused a pileup involving four karts! Hence, Jason was initially disqualified to last place on the lead lap, but later it was considered too harsh of a penalty, so he was given his 2nd place finish with a disqualification of -10 points and a warning against wrecking people. Finally, Tim Donovan (piloting the Galletta’s #7) was incorrectly placed one lap down early in the race. Reviewing the tape, he was officially scored with the lead lap, and surprisingly held 2nd place to Matt for a large portion of the event. However, a slow-leaking flat tire did eventually lead to him being passed and then lapped by the entire field of karts. Brian Bortel finished a respectable seventh in the Galletta’s #0, albeit a lap down, his best race to date at Galletta’s, which was previously filled with nothing but last place finishes and fantastic flipping accidents which earned him the name “Barrelin’ Brian”.
Matt Stevens’ Klassic strategy has been baby the kart and don’t dig up the track at the start, and have more of it left at the end when it counts. Will wonders never cease — it worked yet again.
A familiar sight: Matt Stevens (much to the chagrin of everybody else) blowing away the competition en route to yet another big victory.
Your winner of the 2004 Galletta’s Greenhouses Go-Kart Klassic… Matt Stevens in the Galletta’s Greenhouse Racing #3.
After Ed relinquished his considerable lead, Matt turned it on and nobody could touch him, going completely untouched for his record 6th Classic victory in nine years, including his second 3-straight win streak. In an odd twist spectators were overheard on camera angrily wanting to punch people (including Chris Stevens, who had motor issues on the #8, a messed up setup on the #5, and a few times collected in accidents, but *still* recovered for 3rd. He had absolutely nothing to do with Ed’s problems, as the tape showed) and challenged the fact that their dad didn’t win after leading so many laps early, but this 100-Lapper is a marathon and not a sprint – Ed didn’t save his kart, broke, and could never regain the lead, unable to get higher than 2nd for the remainder of the race. Considering that it was later admitted that Ed used the very first racing part in Galletta’s Karting History (a raptor cam – all other karts are 100% box stock), we can’t feel too bad that he broke and his early dominance caused by an admittedly unsanctioned motor was overcome. Matt’s strategy of babying the kart for the first half of the race (or more) again proved the deciding factor yet again, with another seemingly effortless win. This event was videotaped (as is every Classic race since 1999, every single Galletta’s race since late 2005, and every single Oswego Speedway Kartway race since 2007; See our DVD store for more).
2004 Klassic Official Order of finish***: |
|
100 LAPS COMPLETED:
|
| 1st) Matt Stevens in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #3 |
| 2nd) Jason Mills in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #6 |
| 3rd) Chris Stevens in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #5 (Laps 29-100) in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #8 ( Laps 1-28) |
| 4th) Wes Stevens in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #4 |
| 5th) Ed Maynes in the Maynes Motorsports #18 |
|
ONE LAP DOWN:
|
| 6th) Adam Barlow in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #2 |
| 7th) Brian Bortel in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #0 |
| 8th) Tim Donovan in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #7 |
| 9th) Dan Murdock in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #1 |
|
SEVENTY-TWO LAPS DOWN:
|
| 10th) Brian “Roads” Conzone [1st-time “Guest” Driver]in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #5 (Laps 1-28; -3 laps down at that point) |
|
KEY:
|
| * =Penalized -10 points for wrecking several competitors during the race.** = Brian “Roads” Conzone drove the #5 and was lapped twice within the first twenty laps by leader Ed Maynes. But when 2nd-in-points Chris Stevens’ motor on his #8 malfunctioned, Brian lost his ride to Chris due to a seniority decision (and that Chris owns the kart, and Brian was 2 laps down after 20 laps – officially eliminated from contention). We apologize for this and he is welcome back anytime (this is the only time this ever happened – it was the Klassic and the regular drivers had to take priority over 1st-(and only)-one-time racers; so please come regularly). Confusing to score however, as Chris was never lapped, though the #5 kart was indeed lapped more than once when Roads drove it in the early going. This led to great confusion with the official scoring, but we decided with this race to always score the driver and never the kart in a Galletta’s Speedway race, as some drivers retire and other drivers step into their karts. We have done it in the past to both keep point-scoring regulars in the points race and also to prove to some quitters that the backup karts are just as fast as the starter karts. Chris was then penalized -10 points for the kart change, and Roads was given 100% of his money back even though he raced around 20 laps. This incident has not happened in years since because we no longer have a shortage of karts like we did prior to 2006. Now, we all often have backups, and backup/rental karts open always.*** = A handful of karts were placed a lap down early. However, there was some controversy over who was a lap down and who got their laps back when the leader broke down and brought out a caution (what some racing leagues call a “lucky dog” scenario). In fact, the final was re-scored three times since its completion in 2004, as it is the most confusing in Galletta’s Karting League history. In the end, we thought and rethought this through several times and feel like the above order was the most fair to all, and the most logical upon several views of the videotape. We learned many lessons with this race, and now penalize points from any driver who wrecks others seemingly n purpose and especially multiple times, as well as penalize points from any driver that uses more than one kart under Galletta’s point scoring system. |
In Memoriam…
The Late Dan Murdock Oswego, NY Karter.
On a sad note, this race wound up being the very last for a very promising driver. Dan Murdock died in the karting off-season in a tragic snowmobile accident. He was a smart, talented, well-mannered, and exceptionally nice young man who loved our racing club, and all of us at Galletta’s miss him dearly. We have no doubts that he probably would have still been racing with us to this day, as he loved the racing here as much as we loved racing with him. He was named the 2004 Rookie-of-the-Year (a title he shared with Ed Maynes; see more here), and the Summer 2004 Visiting Points Champion. We named the 2005 Galletta’s Klassic the The Dan Murdock Memorial in his honor. On that day, we all felt like he was watching us from heaven. God bless.
2004 Summer Point Standings for the Galletta’s Karting Season
Box stock 5hp gas go-kart championship of Oswego, NYAfter 27 races between 6/13/2004 through 9/26/2004 Klassic:
|
Rank |
Driver name (Kart(s) Driven).Some signatures were illegible and cannot be digitally processed. |
Total Points (Place) |
Average Points Per Event |
Events |
Feature Wins |
* = Klassic Win |
|
1 |
|
2506.50 |
92.8 |
27 |
11* |
1* |
|
2 |
|
2435.00 |
90.2 |
27 |
7 |
0 |
|
3 |
|
1340.50 |
60.9 |
22 |
0 |
0 |
|
4 |
|
1106.50 |
73.8 |
15 |
2 |
0 |
|
5 |
|
888.50 |
98.7 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
|
6 |
|
805.00 |
89.4 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
|
7 |
|
609.50 |
76.2 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
|
8 |
|
527.50 |
48.0 |
11 |
0 |
0 |
|
9 |
|
518.00 |
64.8 |
8 |
2 |
0 |
|
10 |
|
351.50 |
87.9 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
|
11 |
|
348.50 |
69.7 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
|
12 |
|
303.50 |
50.6 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
|
13 |
|
296.50 |
59.3 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
|
14 |
|
255.00 |
36.4 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
|
15 |
|
227.50 |
75.8 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
|
16 |
|
180.00 |
180.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
17 |
|
163.00 |
32.6 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
|
18 |
Neil Gosch (Galletta’s #?) |
161.00 |
40.3 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
|
19 |
John “Burnsy” Burns (Galletta’s #0) |
114.50 |
57.3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
20 |
Mike Sur. (Galletta’s #?) (Sorendo?) |
97.50 |
48.5 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
21 |
Justin Gurney (Galletta’s #?) |
94.50 |
47.3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
22 |
Shane Miller (Galletta’s #?) |
77.00 |
38.5 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
23 |
“Ozzy” “___?” (Galletta’s #0) |
72.00 |
36.0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
24 |
Mike Cleary (Galletta’s #?) |
67.00 |
66.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
25 |
Ray “RaYzor” Castaldo (Galletta’s #0) |
66.00 |
66.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
26 |
Kevin ?? (Galletta’s #?) |
62.50 |
62.50 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
27 |
Ray Port. ?? (Galletta’s #?) |
51.00 |
51.00 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
28 |
S. Healy (Galletta’s #?) |
47.00 |
47.00 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
29 |
J.T. (Galletta’s #?) |
39.00 |
39.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
30 |
Toby (Galletta’s #?) |
39.00 |
39.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
31 |
Dustin “______?” II (Galletta’s #?) |
34.00 |
34.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
32 |
Randy “____?” (Galletta’s #?) |
33.00 |
33.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
33 |
Dustin “???” (Galletta’s #?) |
33.00 |
33.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
34 |
Justin Cook (Galletta’s #?) |
33.00 |
33.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
35 |
Kenny Krap (Galletta’s #?) |
33.00 |
33.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
36 |
David Beprist (?) (Galletta’s #?) |
33.00 |
33.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
37 |
Mark II???? (Galletta’s #?) |
32.50 |
32.5 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
38 |
Christian Eby (Galletta’s #?) |
30.00 |
30.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
39 |
Matt Ruggio (Galletta’s #?) |
30.00 |
30.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
40 |
Coop (Galletta’s #?) |
29.50 |
29.5 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
41 |
Tom II??? (Galletta’s #?) |
28.00 |
28.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
42 |
Rocky Crucitti (Galletta’s #?) |
25.00 |
25.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
43 |
Ryan Tucker (Galletta’s #?) |
24.50 |
24.5 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
44 |
Brandon B. (?) (Galletta’s #?) |
23.00 |
23.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
45 |
Matt “________?” II (Galletta’s #?) |
23.00 |
23.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
46 |
Tim “______”? I (Galletta’s #?) |
23.00 |
23.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
47 |
Greg “Schnook-umms” Costello (Galletta’s #?) |
17.00 |
17.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Check where these guys are on the… ALL-TIME POINTS STANDINGS AT GALLETTA’S!
Notes: As stated on the previous page, we had our biggest racing season to date, including the first time that other people started bringing their own karts to the show to make for even bigger and more exciting races than ever before. One rookie driver, however, did bring a bigger motor (a 5.5hp OHV kart), which had to be banned for the remainder of the 2004 season because the not one of the box stock 5hp flatheads could not defeat its extra horsepower, no matter the weight or experience differences. The driver was invited back to race with a flathead 5hp, but he declined. He came back in 2005 with a 6.5hp OHV, and started the only truly controversial and argumentative portion of Galletta’s Karting History. This, however, started the most disputed in history between 2004-2008, as documented here andhere. Again, points are scored via length of race, so some people who raced only 2-5 regular races may have scored less points than those who ran one big race [and every year, the Galletta’s Klassic is the biggest, ranging from 80-100 laps (in the 1990’s) to 100-200 laps (in 2000’s), so if you want to score big, then come to that race!].
