Galletta's Karting Club

Galletta’s Go-Kart Speedway 2006 Event #12 results:
Sunday, August 27th, 2006 (Two 10-lap heats & 40-lap Feature)
 
(LEFT) Dick Dann (#86) won his heat, shown here with a big lead on Ogre (#4) & Matt (#3).
(RIGHT) and Gary Miller (#24) won his heat, shown here pressured by Chris Stevens (#8).

For some reason, there were many wrecks and a lot of accusations of people putting others off the track in this week’s feature, and it wound up taking nearly two hours. However, in reviewing both angles on the DVD, we saw absolutely zero evidence of intentional wrecking. However, there were a few racing incidents that are just “racing deals” where neither party was at fault… just people not holding their own lane and “hook a tire and went flying off the track” type accidents. This is why the #1 rule is to avoid getting into another kart’s wheels. The two 1st-time drivers made 1st-time mistakes and wrecked a lot, and won’t be penalized, but they should know that they need to wreck up less. For some reason, the interior track official Ken did not enact the “inexperienced-guy-in-3-wrecks-&-you’re-out” rule and instead yelled at the two drivers who did this. That is the last time that it wasn’t enforced, but next time it will. And Ken had no right to say they can never come back, but he did have the right to tell them to park the karts after their multiple wrecks. To review the rule, a rookie driver is given 1 spin or wreck without penalty (other than restarting in the back). The 2nd spin or wreck, you must sit out green flag 5 laps. The 3rd spin/wreck means you are out of the race because you are a hazard and hurting equipment and potentially human beings in addition to disrupting and prolonging the rest of the race. For the most part, 99% of the time, the experienced guys don’t have this problem, so please learn from them and you’ll be running in the front and no time. You cannot win when you are a 1st-time driver, and especially a 1st-time-driver who wrecks. Watch the others and learn! They’ve been doing it for years!

In addition, we must re-consider the “pause-the-race-to-fix-a-kart” rule because it has caused a lot of bickering about lateness. The answer to the problem is to calmly discuss what we should do before the race, and not “pull a Gary Miller” and angrily storming off of the track mid-race uttering profanities. The late exit times are not the fault of anybody except the broken karts, occasionally late-arriving drivers, or occasionally track or kart maintenance. Sometimes they break from normal wear-and-tear, and sometimes they break by wrecking. Let’s stop the bickering and decide… will we wait for karts to get fixed or will we enact a “wreck-and-you’re-out” rule? Maybe we will fix the karts until a certain time (9 PM maybe?) and after that, don’t fix? Or don’t fix anybody at all? Matt, Chris, and Wes want to hear a vote from all the drivers… and not the whining during the race or bitching from spectators (who do not pay a cent to park on our property and watch our races; very nice of us, don’t you think?) and can leave any time if it gets too late for them. We are all friends and we also rent karts out… so what can we all agree upon and be fair? Discuss it with Matt and Chris before the race. Now to the results:

 
The racing action was awesome and only scarred by numerous wrecks and bickering. (LEFT) Here is a shot at a late-race restart, showing Chris “ChrusherComix” (#8) leading Matt Stevens (#3), and Ogre Stevens (#4). That wound up being the final order. Chris barely survived evaded wrecks and passed Bill Kuykendell (#6) on a mid-race restart. Bill protested the start and also when he fell off of the track late, but the videotape showed no misconduct (watch the DVD and YouTube video to see – the tape don’t lie). Ed Maynes, who has been fast but plagued by drive-wheel problems all year, finally reconstructed his rear with a hybrid racing go-kart setup. However, it proved to be extremely loose and then did not finish the race after catching a tire with Nick Dann (#0) and wrecking late. Hopefully, Ed can get it dialed-in before Klassic, as he is always a favorite to win in any given week. (RIGHT) Kristina Pitsley (shown here fighting with her own father – who died a few days later – and shoving people) has been indefinitely suspended from the race day events at Galletta’s for fighting with countless people, making numerous false accusations, and not to mention that she still not re-pay the 50/50 and rental money that comes up missing under her watch. See more below.

 
(LEFT) Yours truly, Chris “ChrusherComix” Stevens picks up his 3rd Galletta’s Speedway Feature win (counting one tie with Bill) of the year. Meanwhile, as Chris was taking his victory lap, there was fighting in the spectator area. The fighting will stop, and the person who is always in every single fight will be kicked out. Period. It will no longer be tolerated. One person has been involved in 95% of the fighting here since 2005, that person has been warned countless times, and that person has been indefinitely suspended until further notice. We don’t hate her at all, we do not dislike her at all; but the fighting, gossiping, lying, accusing people of wrecking others or cheating when they didn’t, sating everyone bringing a kart to race with us is cheating, verbal screaming matches and general misconduct… it all must stop. Period. We have seen it in person and on tape, and have heard it from countless spectators and racers. She cannot get along with her family, her friends, and people she just met. It has been recommended from a dozen or more different people at different times, including her husband and son, whom we enjoy having at trackside. This is the only way we see can stop it; suspension from race day events. Not her husband, not her son, as they never do anything to warrant it… but just her, and just her on race day. We’re sorry, but this is the only option that we have for now because she always fights with people. She can buy and watch the DVDs (RIGHT) if she wants to see her son race and re-watch the tapes before she falsely accuses people of intentionally wrecking other people when they are nowhere near the wreck, but the psychological and verbal warfare must stop. This ruling is indefinite, but it is not permanent. If she simply talks to us and accepts responsibility for her share of the verbal disputes and apologizes to us, and swears she will not be involved in any more fights, she will be welcomed back.

August 27th, 2006 40-lap Feature Final order or finish:

DNF = Did Not Finish Feature.
DNS = Did Not Start Feature (though qualified in Heat).
Updated point standings beneath the “rant” section…

2006 Galletta’s Go-Karts Point Standings
After 12 feature events from 6/11/2006 thru 8/27/2006:

2006 Volume #11 DVD:
Contains the August 27th, 2006 and a low-resolution version of the September 3rd, 2006 races at Galletta’s.Two camera angles of each race.  Price $5.

Mark Miller in the 6.5hp-powered Outlaw #007

Oswego Speedway Dirt Track Go-Kart Exhibition:
Friday, August 25th, 2006 (One 10-lap heat & 20-lap Feature)

Mark Miller (6.5hp OHV #00) got the win, but behind him, controversy occurred on and off the track. Why do we always have drama when we race at Oswego Kartway? Every race at Galletta’s is fun, calm, cool, and rational, all with gas-stock 5hp motors, single-wheel-drive racing karts, and nobody ever complaining about rules or cheating. Every race at Oswego Kartway has controversial track officials making unfair decisions, mixed motors, and people angry with the officiating and the mixed-motor lawlessness. Which track is supposedly the professional one and which one is supposed to be the not-for-profit backyard one?

UPDATE: Although the Galletta’s Karting Club ran the inaugural 2006 season at Oswego Speedway‘s Dirt Kartway as an exhibition, in order to do the All-Time stats in the 2008-09 off-season, we retrograded the points. Meaning, we had nobody recording the race, nor scoring where everybody finished, although we do know who entered the race and who won each. So, each driver has scored 60 points for entering a race no matter if they finished 2nd-through-16th, and the Feature winners earned 40 more for the Feature win. Using this method, we are finally able to create the points. So… here is the finalized version of the:

2006 Oswego Kartway Gas Stock/Super Yard Kart Point Standings:
FINALIZED. Each driver earned 60 points-per-event, except for the race winner earning 100 points-per-win.

Post-Race Notes – Look, people must STOP starting drama and trashing us behind our backs, and treating our “for fun” go-kart racing like WWE or MMA! Enough already!: 

At the Oswego Speedway‘s dirt track, we give kudos to Mark Miller, who won a hectic race. Although we have had disagreements with Mark in the past over racing different kinds of engines than we do, he is a very hard-charging and competitive driver, and we always hoped that he would get a stock Briggs 5hp and Matt could help him set it up to race with us. The very same goes to Mike Billion, who is also a good, hard-charging driver, as he was unfairly wrecked by a total lunatic driving a Raptor racing class go-kart numbered 21x. The 21x (who we’ve never met and don’t know his name), also appeared to intentionally wreck Mike and several other drivers, damaging more than one kart and severely damaging Brian Bortel’s kart, breaking off the front wheels and bloodying Brian’s shin. Why?

Many laid the blame of this completely on not one, but two of the track officials in charge, one of which is a limited supermodified driver who seems to flat out dislike us although we only know him as a limited driver, flagger at the kart track and nothing else, and the other is a man who raced with us at Galletta’s a few times, and clearly plays favorites with his good buddies, admitted to cheating with their OHV engines, and also seems to have a bone to pick with us. These track officials lied to us on more than one occasion and told us that we could run our own class of stock 5hps if we had more than 4 karts (which we have had every single week), then forced us to run in an open class with mixed horsepower OHVs and Raptors (the souped-up racing versions of the stock 5hp Briggs that we all race with) and run away from us and/or ignored us every time we wanted to speak with him about it. Then, when we arrived, we asked if we were too late to make the show. When we were told that they hadn’t started yet (other than warm-ups), we paid, signed in, and began preparing our karts to race. Without warning, the same track official started the heat race without any warning to us and threw the green flag even though he saw us there and saw us coming to the track. He later stated that we were late. If we were late, then we were never told this when we arrived, he didn’t tell us when he saw us before the heat, and it certainly didn’t stop him from taking our money (and I, Chris, didn’t even get one lap of racing in, yet I still paid the full fee). He was also rude and dismissive to us and to my wife, who saw him see us and quickly waved the green flag so that we could not drive on the track. Wow.

This open class and has caused a lot of problems (Do you force the Stocks to race Limiteds? Or Limiteds race Modifieds? Or ISMA race wingless supers? Then why do you force us to race with different types of karts?) that have made us decide that we won’t race there anymore unless they allowed us to race in our own class, or at least punished drivers that cause accidents. They do neither. We have no problem with the Oswego Speedway itself, as we and our family have been weekly attendees and loved the races there for decades. But we feel like we’ve been lied to and treated unfairly by the dirt track officials, and it is thanks to that we will not race there unless they clarify some things with us. But I fear that Mr. Furlong and Mr. Gioia will not be happy to hear about a few lunatics out there wrecking everybody and hurting people, and they should not tolerate it at all.

Finally… a certain person – who was was running around with printed pages off this site (some from last year) and taking friendly nicknames, race descriptions out of context, and badmouthing us to everybody in sight including total strangers –  should stop it, especially because they are a laughing stock of a bad driver and a mean-spirited gossip. The website is free for all to read, and there is nothing to hide in it. Tons of pictures, videos, and points. We do all this for zero profit, just for fun. We don’t put nicknames to be mean-spirited, we make them up BECAUSE WE ALL HAVE FUN AND HAVE FUNNY NICKNAMES FOR EACH OTHER! Apparently, this humor is considered evil to some at the Woodland Trailer Park, and we have been slandered to everyone who will lend an ear. For what? Having fun racing go-Karts?

Lighten up, people. Please do not take things out of context, call us cheats, and then try to make us enemies. It’s low, and if you think any of the comments I made are bad/offensive/inappropriate and need editing, then take them up with me directly and tell me what is offensive or inappropriate and I will do my best to explain myself and edit them accordingly if needed. Do not spread false rumors and take old webpages out of context. We all have funny nicknames, but the funny thing about a nickname is that out of context it seems like a slam. Nonsense… anybody who knows me knows that although I’m a serious, honest, mild-mannered guy, I also like to have fun and joke around with my friends and family — people who actually know me know that I’m a cartoonist who has drawn funny comics for kids and for more mature audiences since I was old enough to pick up a pen or pencil and draw something — and our karting club and this website is a reflection of my sense of humor. We are all friends and family racing, we do not cheat, we do not purposefully wreck people, we don’t hate people we race with and want to cutthroat beat them, we only want to race with people who obey our box stock rules, and cheaters can’t race if they can’t be honest about box stock, ok?

I have noticed that in doing this website, only a couple of people have had a problem with it – cheaters, people who did not want us to point out something wrong, and people who are clearly in need of better reading comprehension courses, because they are not catching the tongue-in-cheek tone of some of the comments (or maybe I need to try harder to make it funny? Who knows?). If that is the case, then I’m glad that this website stands up for truth, clean racing, and rule-abiding racing amongst friends and family while also being fun. If you want to race for blood and try to cheat, then do not race with us. Thanks. We likely will not run at Oswego Speedway’s dirt track anymore next season unless these problems are cleared up and the track operator assures us that these things will no longer happen. Comments? Scroll below and post them instead of printing up pages of the website and starting shit. It’s weak, immature, slanderous and stupid. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Chris Stevens
Webmaster, Racer, Video Editor, Statistician, Promoter, Co-founder of the Galletta’s Go-Kart Racing Club