7/5/2007 – Galletta’s Club Karts Taken Out at Oswego Speedway Dirt Track by Eric “Rammer” Raponi, Tarnishes teammate Joe Hayden’s 1st win at the track! +YouTube
Galletta’s Go-Karts at Oswego Speedway’s Dirt Track on 7/5/2007:
Four members of the Galletta’s Go-Karts Racing Group again ventured to Oswego Speedway’s dirt track out back.
The race was won by Joe Hayden in his OHV 6.5hp #5, leading the entire race from his handicapped pole starting position as many battles and wrecks occurred behind him.
Team Galletta’s: Matt Stevens #33; Chris Stevens #8; Kyle Reuter #0; Wes Stevens #4; Xtreme Photos pic.
All four Galletta’s Go-Karts that raced were rammed and wrecked by the same OHV 6.5hp guy (who then verbally assaulted Kyle Reuter after the race), who was not reprimanded by the track operator, which prompted this webmaster/karter (Team Galletta’s #8 Chris Stevens) to stop going to Oswego Speedway on a weekly basis. (Xtreme Photos pic.)
On 7/5/2007 at Oswego Speedway’s dirt track, 4 members of the stock 5hp Galletta’s Go-Karts Club (including its 3 founders) raced in the Oswego Speedway dirt yard kart class and all got wrecked by one driver, who then also verbally assaulted Kyle Reuter in the pits after the race. This YouTube video clip and pictures by Xtreme Photos (please visit their website and buy prints of these great pics!) shows most of the incidents. All we want is this driver to race clean and don’t ram others. He already is allowed a bigger motor, so he shouldn’t need to ram anybody.
Joe Hayden (Team OHV Outlaw #5), leads Wes Stevens, Kyle Reuter, Mat Stevens and Chris Stevens (of Team Galletta’s Greenhouse FH #4, 0, 33 and 8 respectively), with Eric Raponi (OHV Outlaw #83) trailing.
Chris in the Galletta’s #8 was able to get under his Galletta’s teammates and looked to the lead, using his breaks in order to not get into the Hayden #5, tries to go for the lead, waiting for an opening under the Hayden #5.
Eric Raponi (Outlaw OHV #83) trailing Chris Stevens (Galletta’s FH #8).
Chris had good handling in the #8 and looked for the lead.
Eric Raponi followed Chris by Wes Stevens, Kyle Reuter and Matt Stevens.
Chris is seen here winding up for an attempted slingshot pass on the Hayden #5.
Outlaw #83 takes out Galletta’s #8 and stares at his handiwork. Track operator chuckles and says Galletta’s #0 (of Kyle Reuter) did it.
In hindsight, it did appear as if #83 was working to help his teammate hold the lead.
The spin was significant enough for the #8 to do a near 360! While accidents do happen in racing, the stare-down as it happens does make it appear as if it was purposeful and malicious. Track operator disagreed.
Team Galletta’s have been racing go-karts since the early 1990s, and that is not how people race “naturally”… turning backwards to see a kart you “accidentally” spun out.
#83 also spun out admiring what he did.
Kyle Reuter, a veteran of possibly hundreds of karting and Quarter-Midget victories in his young career, is like, “Seriously?”
Reuter and Matt Stevens had to take evasive action to not get collected in the near-pileup. Kyle hadn’t seen an illegal pick like that in 4 years of starting shooting guard for the Oswego State Lakers!
Outlaw #83 then took out Wes Stevens in the Galletta’s #4, which chain-reaction-wise took out Kyle Reuter in the Galletta’s #0.
While some spectators may think it is fun and games “wreckin’ and racin'”, wes Stevens injured his leg when Reuter hopped it during the crash. It’s all fun and games until people get hurt. Then, just kick them off the track, apparently.
After #83 succeeded in taking out Wes Stevens and Kyle Reuter, his wife and daughter were heard (and caught on the above videotapes — just listen if you want proof) cheering and making fun of Reuter’s race suit and getting mad that Team Galletta’s were wondering why #83 kept taking them out to the track operator who apparently didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, and to him it just looks like Team Galletta’s were just having a bad day. One could say they were either playing dumb, or…?
The same driver of the #83 then spun Wesley “Ogre” Stevens in the Galletta’s #4 out and plowed him off of the track. Kyle Reuter (in the Galletta’s #0, who #83’s family hurled insults at from the sidelines about his fire suit), had nowhere to go and ran over Wes’ front end (and legs). #83 took out two Galletta’s Karts in one fell swoop. He then argued with track officials when the correct decision was made to place him at the rear of the track. I had a few things to say about the wrecks and inconsistent rules, but I didn’t want to clutter the page with my diatribe other than I’m personally not going to go every week anymore because of the recklessness and temper of one driver in particular, and the lack of the track operator to properly punish people who purposefully wreck others – friend or not. If he and his family remained calm and he raced clean and fair, nobody would have a problem. Comments and exchanges about this race can be found on the message board here.
Oswego Speedway Gas Stocker Kart 2007 Points Standings:
After 4 races between 6/15/2007 through 7/5/2007
|
Rank |
Name & Go-Karts Piloted & Motor Used |
Total Points (Place) |
Average Points Per Event |
Events |
Feature Wins |
|
1 |
Matt “Mush” Stevens (5hp FH Galletta’s #33) |
396.00 |
99.00 |
4 |
1 |
|
2 |
Eric “The Spinner” Raponi (6.5hp OHV Raponi #83) |
353.00 |
88.25 |
4 |
2 |
|
3 |
Chris “Chrusher” Stevens (5hp FH Galletta’s #8, #G5) |
343.00 |
85.75 |
4 |
0 |
|
4 |
Wesley “Ogre” Stevens (5hp FH Galletta’s #4) |
338.00 |
84.50 |
4 |
0 |
|
5 |
Joe Hayden (6.5hp OHV Hayden #5) |
307.00 |
76.75 |
4 |
1 |
|
6 |
Kyle Reuter (5hp FH Galletta’s #0) |
258.00 |
86.00 |
3 |
0 |
|
7 |
Mark Miller (6.5hp OHV M-Miller #00) |
169.00 |
84.50 |
2 |
0 |
|
8 |
Lee Bartlett (6.5hp OHV Bartlett #924) |
144.00 |
72.00 |
2 |
0 |
|
9 |
Mike Billion (6.5hp OHV Billion #57) |
105.00 |
105.00 |
1 |
0 |
|
10 |
Dick Dann (5hp FH Dann #86) |
85.00 |
85.00 |
1 |
0 |
|
11 |
Oscar “Flyin’ Oz” Berry (5hp FH Oz #11) |
80.00 |
80.00 |
1 |
0 |
|
12 |
Gary Miller Sr. (5hp FH G-Miller #24) |
76.00 |
76.00 |
1 |
0 |
|
13 |
Nick Dann (5hp FH Dann #68) |
63.00 |
63.00 |
1 |
0 |
Oswego Speedway Gas Stocker Karts Inverted Points Per Race (Starting order):
| Start |
Name & Go-Karts Piloted |
Average Points Per Event |
Total Points (Place) |
Events |
Feature Wins |
| 1 |
Nick Dann (5hp FH Dann #68) |
63.00 |
63.00 |
1 |
0 |
| 2 | Lee Bartlett (6.5hp OHV Bartlett #924) |
72.00 |
144.00 |
2 |
0 |
| 3 | Gary Miller Sr. (5hp FH G-Miller #24) |
76.00 |
76.00 |
1 |
0 |
| 4 | Oscar “Flyin’ Oz” Berry (5hp FH Oz #11) |
80.00 |
80.00 |
1 |
0 |
| 5 | Wesley “Ogre” Stevens (5hp FH Galletta’s #4) |
84.50 |
338.00 |
4 |
0 |
| 6 | Dick Dann (5hp FH Dann #86) |
85.00 |
85.00 |
1 |
0 |
| 7 | Chris “Chrusher” Stevens (5hp FH Galletta’s #8, Galletta’s #5) |
85.75 |
343.00 |
4 |
0 |
| 8 | Kyle Reuter (5hp FH Galletta’s #0) |
86.00 |
258.00 |
3 |
0 |
| 9 | Mike Billion (6.5hp OHV Billion #57) |
105.00 |
105.00 |
1 |
0 |
| 10 | Joe Hayden (6.5hp OHV Hayden #5) |
76.75 |
307.00 |
4 |
1 |
| 11 | Matt “Mush” Stevens (5hp FH Galletta’s #33) |
99.00 |
396.00 |
4 |
1 |
| 12 | Eric “The Spinner” Raponi (6.5hp OHV Raponi #83) |
88.25 |
353.00 |
4 |
2 |
| 13 | Mark Miller (6.5hp OHV M-Miller #00) [DQ-start at end] |
84.50 |
169.00 |
2 |
0 |
2007 Volume #6 DVD:
Contains the July 5th, 2007 races from Oswego Speedway, and the July 8th, 2007 races at Galletta’s. 2 hours & 20 minutes of racing action.
