8/23/2009 – Galletta ’09 Family Reunion 15-Kart Races Won by Brian Galletta & Matt Stevens (+YouTube)
Galletta’s Karting Club – 2009 Season, Week 11:
The Gas Flathead Championship Series of The Planet continued on Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 at John J. Galletta Memorial Backyard Speedway:
A special evening of racing was ahead for August 23rd, 2009, as we had two feature events lined up. The late John J. Galletta – the founder of Galletta’s Greenhouse – would have been proud, and was surely looking down from heaven as four of his children looked on as five of his grandchildren and one great-grandchild raced in the First-ever “ALL-GALLETTA 30!”
Brian Galletta won the first-ever “All-Galletta” 30-Lap race at Galletta’s Greenhouse Backyard Speedway, and Matt Stevens won the 45-Lap Veteran feature by catching a fast Russ Hockey in traffic. The race was essentially Russ, Buddy, Matt and Chris in a fierce battle for the lead with Matt utilizing lapped traffic to take the lead with a couple laps to go – much to Russ’s frustration.
DVD & YOUTUBE PLAYLIST MENU:
DVD Menu for the All-Galletta Family Reunion Race (also available above the article via YouTube)
FEATURE #1: ALL-GALLETTA ROOKIE & REFRESHER 30-LAP B-MAIN FEATURE RACE
After a practice session, all six contestants – a group of (most, but not all of) cousins of Galletta ‘s Kart Club founders Chris and Matt Stevens – drew for position. Remember, the reason that we do not like drawing is that the odds favor the fastest guys 99 times out of 100, making it an anti-handicap way of racing. This was no exception, Brian Galletta – the only competitor who has had any substantial prior experience – drew the pole, making it very easy for him to use his knowledge of the karts and track (including a feature win, some heat wins, time-trialing 2nd fastest and and leading a large chunk of the 2003 Klassic) and dominate all 30 laps unchallenged for the win. His brother Kevin had 2nd for most of the race, except for a back-and-forth battle with his cousin Bob. Bob’s brother Tim had the most passes, but also the worst luck, as two karts stalled out under him. He still managed fourth. Tim’s son Justin and brother Gary rounded out the back of the field. All in all, everybody raced great and had no wrecks whatsoever, just a couple spins, showing that they all easily qualified for the veteran event later in the evening. Here are the competitors:
August 23rd, 2009 “ALL-GALLETTA” 30-Lap Finish:
1st. Brian Galletta (Galletta’s #5)
2nd. Kevin Galletta (Galletta’s #0)
3rd. Bob Galletta (Galletta’s #4; ®)
4th. Tim Galletta (Galletta’s #9, 7, 2; ®)
5th. Justin Galletta (Galletta’s #1; ®)
6th. Gary Galletta (Galletta’s #6; ®)
® = 1st-Time Rookie Driver
Most of the family was unable to stick around for the Veteran events, although they were qualified in and are hence being scored in the 2nd feature. They all had a great time, as did we, and we are hoping that they race more often (some of them want to build some karts!). Now for the veteran portion of the event.
FEATURE #2: REGULAR VETERAN A-MAIN FEATURE POINTS RACE
Now it was time for the regular veterans to arrive and start phase two of the event. The 1st heat was dominated by Buddy Cottom after he took the lead on lap 1. He was followed by Chris Stevens, Dick Dann, and Melissa Gabel.
The 2nd heat again was a doozy, as after Larry Phillips spun out in the lead, Russ Hockey and Matt Stevens put on a huge battle for the rest of the race. Matt pulled along side of him a handful of times, but couldn’t get the pass. They were followed by Larry Phillips and Gary Miller. Although he qualified in the heat, Gary’s mom, Nancy, just passed away and did not feel like racing the feature. Everyone at Galletta’s prayers, thoughts, and well-wishes are with Gary and his family.
The Veteran Feature was fast and furious, with only two cautions. Russ Hockey passed both Dick Dann and Larry Phillips on lap one to take the lead and own the vast majority of this race. Buddy and Matt were able to track him down, but Russ was too fast. Buddy pulled along side Russ on lap 29, but could not get the pass and Matt capitalized. Chris was able to stay with the group, but everybody was so fast that nobody was going to make a pass without someone else making a mistake or gambling for a pass and falling short. That’s exactly what happened.
However, Russ’s dominance of the race came to an end on lap 36, when lapped traffic altered the outcome of the finish. Larry Phillips saw the passing flag and did what he was supposed to do – got out of the way, gave plenty of room for a pass and hold a good line. However, he stayed high and Russ thought he was going low to go. This left the opening that Matt was looking for, and he used it to pass Russ and take the lead. He didn’t look back for the final four laps and scored his first feature win since week 2 – which was probably his longest winless streak since the 2000 season!
(Note that Matt has flowers for the fruits who watch our website daily and hate us in jealous fits of rage and insanity getting ready for their lil’ 35-40 lap “Classics.” LOL!!)
August 23rd, 2009 40-Lap Finish:
1st. Matthew Stevens (Galletta’s #3)
2nd. Russ Hockey (Hockey #00)
3rd. Buddy Cottom (Galletta’s #5)
4th. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s #8)
5th. Melissa Stevens (Stevens #80)
6th. Larry Phillips (L&K Small Engine #04; DNF)
7th. Dick Dann (Dann #68; DNF)
8th. Gary Miller (Miller #24; DNS)
9th. Brian Galletta (Galletta’s #5; DNS)
10th. Kevin Galletta (Galletta’s #0; DNS)
11th. Bob Galletta (Galletta’s #4; ®; DNS)
12th. Tim Galletta (Galletta’s #9, 7, 2; ®; DNS)
13th. Justin Galletta (Galletta’s #1; ®; DNS)
14th. Gary Galletta (Galletta’s #6; ®; DNS)
15th. RaYzor C. (Galletta’s #2; DNS)
Key:
® = 1st-Time Rookie Driver
DNS = Qualified; Did Not Start
DNF = Did Not Finish
MC’s dad, Eric Howell, let a few of us use a GPS tracker to try and get our speeds calculated, and the fastest time of the night in it was Buddy Cottom, who wore it in the feature and scored approximately 48.9MPH at some point during the race. We thought that we were in that 45-50MPH range and the GPS agreed with that approximation. Wow! Before we shaved heads and used race cams, we were probably maxing out at 35-40MPH when we were box stock 5hps.
2009 Gas Flathead Dirt Karting Championship of Oswego Point Standings:
After 11 combined events at John J. Galletta Memorial Go-Kart Speedway from 6/8/2009 -thru- 8/23/2009.
Our complete Points Standings from the prior eight seasons are found on this webpage.
|
Rank |
Driver Name |
Years Pro at Galletta’s |
Total Points (Place) |
Average Points Per Event |
Events |
Features |
Heat Wins |
Feature Wins |
Feature Win % |
|
1 |
|
14th |
1,637.5 |
148.86 |
11 |
14 |
0 |
3 |
21% |
|
2 |
|
14th |
1,544.5 |
140.41 |
11 |
14 |
1 |
3 |
21% |
|
3 |
|
3rd |
1,485.0 |
135.00 |
11 |
14 |
2 |
1 |
7% |
|
4 |
|
3rd |
1,457.5 |
132.50 |
11 |
14 |
2 |
1 |
7% |
|
5 |
|
5th |
1,360.5 |
123.68 |
11 |
14 |
0 |
1 |
7% |
|
6 |
|
3rd |
1,358.0 |
135.80 |
10 |
12 |
2 |
1 |
8% |
|
7 |
 Larry Phillips(L&K Small Engine #04) |
2nd |
1,080.0 |
120.00 |
9 |
11 |
0 |
1 |
9% |
|
8 |
 Fred Collins(Galletta’s #9) |
5th |
939.5 |
134.21 |
7 |
9 |
1 |
1 |
11% |
|
9 |
|
9th |
482.5 |
160.83 |
3 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
20% |
|
10 |
|
4th |
460.5 |
115.13 |
4 |
6 |
0 |
1 |
17% |
|
11 |
|
3rd |
320.5 |
106.83 |
3 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
0% |
|
12 |
1 = Methanol |
4th |
241.0 |
120.50 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
13 |
|
2nd |
240.5 |
120.25 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
14 |
|
2nd |
227.5 |
113.75 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0% |
|
15 |
Tony Gonyeau |
® |
226.0 |
113.00 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
16 |
|
4th |
155.0 |
155.00 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
50% |
|
17 |
|
1st |
147.0 |
147.00 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
18 |
|
1st |
147.0 |
73.50 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
19 |
|
® |
144.0 |
144.00 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
20 |
|
® |
139.0 |
139.00 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
21 |
 Asaad Al-Hanini (Galletta’s #2, 7, 1) |
® |
137.0 |
137.00 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
22 |
 Todd Sharp(Galletta’s #9) |
® |
135.0 |
135.00 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0% |
|
23 |
|
® |
131.0 |
131.00 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
24 |
|
® |
130.0 |
130.00 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
25 |
|
® |
124.0 |
124.00 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
26 |
|
® |
123.0 |
123.00 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
27 |
 Austin Hicks(Galletta’s #24) |
® |
118.0 |
118.00 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
28 |
|
1st |
118.0 |
118.00 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
29 |
|
® |
115.0 |
115.00 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
30 |
|
® |
108.0 |
108.00 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
31 |
|
® |
108.0 |
108.00 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0% |
|
32 |
|
® |
106.0 |
106.00 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
33 |
|
® |
106.0 |
106.00 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
34 |
|
® |
104.0 |
104.00 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
35 |
 Zack Sawyer (Galletta’s #1) |
® |
95.0 |
95.00 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
36 |
|
® |
87.0 |
87.00 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0% |
|
37 |
|
® |
86.0 |
86.00 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
38 |
|
3rd |
83.0 |
83.00 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0% |
Jesse Vivlemore
Soliman Barakat
Justin Bonacquisti (Galletta’s #5)
Josh Chetney
Andrew Miller
Neaiamh Al-Hanini (Galletta’s #1)
Brian Paul
Ken “I drive SBS so I’m too good to pay Matt for a kart rental” Pierce
NOTES: All karts are 1-WD and all Motors are 1-WD 5hp Gas Flatheads with Stock ’90s Carb, shaved head, and select pre-approved Dyno Racing Cams (different weight requires different ones allowed; 94-SS is the standard for light/medium weight groups – AKA anybody under 220 lbs.). This means fast, equal speeds and, cheater-free engine-builders, all for low prices. Two karts so far this season were not gas flatheads (a methanol flathead with raptor carb and a gas stock 6.5hp OHV), and although they were allowed to run and scored their full points, but their placement did not penalize anybody else with the same gas flathead motor, who were scored as if the other motored kart was not there.
COMPRESSED (AND DAMAGED) HIGHLIGHT REEL VIDEOS:
Expanded Highlights from the ALL-GALLETTA 30 on August 23rd, 2009:
(I apologize for the poor quality of the video. I probably need a new PC, as this one is over 6 years old.
The DVD, however, is uncompressed and is full quality.)
I apologize for the poor quality of the YouTube video (My PC was acting up and the encoding had errors, but the DVD is uncompressed).
The Galletta’s Kart Club 2009 Volume #11 DVD:
JAM PACKED! Two camera angles of the races held on August 23rd, 2009. Fourteen competitors, two heats, the 1st “ALL-GALLETTA 30” Feature race and a regular veteran 40-lap feature, and a second Tower angle from the previous weekend’s 45-lapper. Over 2 hours in highest-quality resolution. YouTube preview. 16:9 Anamorphic widescreen video, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Surround, and two camera angles of all of the action. Price $5.
