Galletta's Karting Club

Galletta’s Karting Club – ’10 Season, Event #17 – Saturday, Sept. 24th, 2010:

UPCOMING SCHEDULE:
2010 Season, Season-Ending Event #18 – Saturday, October 2nd, 2010; Approx. 2pm is:
THE 15TH ANNUAL GALLETTA’S KARTING KLASSIC KARTING CHAMPIONSHIP 200-LAP (APPROXIMATELY 27 MILE) INVITATIONAL MARATHON TO DECIDE UNDISPUTED OVERALL CHAMPION OF OSWEGO DIRT  KARTING! Cookout is an option, please come forth to us with plans on what you want to bring or donate to the cookout. If nobody comes forth (paper plates, hot dogs or hamburgers), no cookout.

The 15th Annual Galletta’s Karting Klassic 200 of 2010 : Will be on — unless weather or inability for multiple regulars to race forces a change — be on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010, with a cookout and time-trials starting in the early afternoon and the 200-Lapper starting as soon as the qualifiers and the drivers are all set to go. We prefer Saturday so we can make it a long day-and-night without work or school the next day and avoid NFL football Sunday. If you’d like to be involved in the cookout, either donate some money for food or bring the food on race day, per usual for our Klassic Cookout. Please let Chris and Matt know if this date is an absolute no-can-do, because it looks to be the best date for our schedule due to Matt and Melissa’s every-other-Saturday bowling schedule and NFL on Sundays. More below.

[YOUTUBE VIDEO FORTHCOMING!]

Per usual, other than posing pictures, all in-action race snapshots are screen captures directly from our weekly race DVDs, which document the entire race from usually two camera angles, usually are anywhere between 1 – 2 & 1/2 hours, and are only $5 each, in higher quality resolution than our YouTube vids which they are made from. Just like the donations that run all of the karts, all proceeds go back into the club (in this case the DVDRs and the website). Every regular season race has been videotaped since mid-2005-and-up, and every Galletta’s Karting Klassic has been videotaped since 1998-and-up. Order any DVD directly from Chris (email, phone, in-person, mail) anytime.

10-LAP HEAT EVENTS:

Ogie instructs Carlee in the ways of devious evil, then flips you — the viewer — off.

45-LAP REGULAR SEASON FINALE FEATURE EVENT:

We put a twist on the handicap start for the regular-season final. Because we have had a base core group of around 8-10 skilled veteran drivers all year, the handicap has changed little once most of the competitors acquired a feature win. And traditionally since 2005, once a driver secured at least 1 feature win, then we threw wins out and went by points-per-race invert. This race, however, we decided to mix it up (we sometimes do this if the starting handicap is pretty much the same for a few weeks in a row) and went with total wins handicapped in the back because although we are close in points, a handful of drivers scored more wins than others Tim (3 wins) Randy (2 wins) and George (2 wins) had more wins but less points-per race (hence they started in front of some with less wins), but it made no difference for Matt (3 wins) because whether you handicap by points or wins, he starts in the rear. This enabled Melissa (1 win) and Chris (1 win) to get a slightly better starting position. However, again, Doe (0 wins all-time) and Larry (0 wins this season) are still handicapped up front, and the racing is so close that passing is at a premium. With few driver errors made due to the experienced competitors, mechanical failure is often the difference between 1st and last this season.

Melissa Stevens (#19), Larry Phillips (#04), Chris Stevens (#8), Matt Stevens (#33), George Russell (#6), and Tim Galletta (#54) display just how close the racing in this year early in the 45-lap feature at Galletta’s. Right out of picture frame ahead of them is Shadoe Russell (#26) and right behind them is Randy Platt (#187).

Shadoe Russell (#26) led every lap of the 45-Lapper, but that doesn’t mean the race was boring by any means. Behind his rear bumper, battles were furious (yet clean) from 2nd to 7th. Larry Phillips was strong early until gunk in the carburetor slowed him to a near-standstill. Melissa Stevens (#19) had her hands full in staying near Shadoe while holding off challenges from Chris Stevens (#8), Matt Stevens (#33) and George Russell (#6).

On one lap of wheel-to-wheel racing between the #33, #6, and #8, the #6 made contact with the #8, which enabled George, Matt and Randy Platt to get the pass on Chris. If Chris wasn’t a 20-year veteran of racing these type karts and knows how to save them, he probably would have spun off the track in turn 4. [Chris was infuriated, because these are OPEN WHEEL race vehicles, meaning RUBBING DOESN’T MEAN RACING — RUBBIN’ MEANS WRECKING. And wrecking CAN MEAN PAIN, INJURY, OR DEATH. This isn’t NASCAR, where drunk redneck hick fans too liquored up to know what a wreck feels like financially or physically think it’s cool to bump because millionaire machines have top-of-the-line safety features. Wrong. We race courteously, or find somewhere else to race. Don’t complain if a little bumping occurs next week, George.] When trying to get back up to 3rd a few laps later, Chris made contact the #187, and then momentarily losing control, crashed with Tim Galletta. On a restart, George spun the #6 and Randy made contact enough to warrant going to the rear. The racing, still bumper-t0-bumper, finished with a bang as Chris gave Matt some of his own medicine and gave the outside-in slingshot to his brother and tied him at the stripe, which is usually what Matt does to everybody else. Everyone agreed however, despite George acting irregularly, it was a truly great race, and other than the #04’s mechanical failure, a perfect way for all to gain momentum going into next weekend’s 200 lapper!

“So easy a CAVE-DOE could do it! BWHAHAHA!” Ogie again manipulates the outcome yet again. Ogie is becoming quite the menace publicly, whereas before he meddled privately!

[NOTE: Oddly, and somewhat shockingly, someone reported the above picture as abusive on our picture hosting service and had it taken down. Really? Are you serious people?! I  mean… really? A puppet… playing with a motor… as a joke… um… are you really that stupid? Listen, a few suggestions: 1) Get off drugs, 2) stop being a pussy that gets offended by a harmless joke that NOBODY thinks is offensive… I mean, a puppet tinkering with a motor?! Really?! , and 3) try really hard to be smarter with a thicker skin, you daft dolts. Drugs are frying your brain and making you paranoid. It is a joke that is not the least bit offensive. If you think it’s offensive that a bearded kid nicknamed Doe is called “Cave Doe” by friends who thought it is cute and funny (including some that you THINK have your back? The ones calling you and talking shit about us who thought YOU guys were idiotic looking when they 1st saw you), then you just need to lighten up. If it gets reported again, I’ll host it personally and it will also get a nice new edit job and be a LOT worse, so, don’t… OK?  I am a cartoonist who likes everybody and never tries to be mean or hurt anybody… but when someone attacks me and/or my family and/or my work or passions… then, I have a dark side. This website is my work. Don’t try it. Thanks.]

DVDs are available of every single Galletta’s Karting Club race held since mid-2005 at Galletta’s (including every Galletta’s Klassic since 1998, and every Oswego Kartway race between 2007-2008) and are of DVD-Quality (far superior to the YouTube videos, which are edited and compressed for time) for $5 per disc. Each disc contains between 1-2 hours of racing action, usually from two camera angles, complete and unedited. Most of the pictures on this website are lo-res screen captures from the DVDs. Contact Chris for your copy today, and he can make any copy from our archives, just ask.

Here is the final regular-season point tally for the 2010 season, and contrary to the demands of Gary Miller Sr. (who raced very little this year), we will time-trial in the order of total points so that the highest-point scorers are rewarded with the freshest track. And contrary to the ideas of George Russell, it is the one time during the year that we do not handicap the start. The reason? It’s the 200-lapper and it is to decide the Championship. What do you think we counted the points for all season?

2010 Galletta’s Gas Flathead Dirt Karting World Championship Point Standings:

After 17 combined events at John J. Galletta Memorial Backyard Go-Kart Speedway  from 6/7/2010
-thru- 9/24/2010. Our complete All-Time Points Standings from 2000-2009 are found on this webpage.

It’s nice to know people appreciate us online, and we recently found this excellent review about backyard karting! Thanks guys