Galletta's Karting Club

JUNE 19TH, 2011: Week 3 of the Galletta’s Greenhouse Karting Club’s 2011 Season saw Rookie Justin Galletta hold off challenges from several veterans, including his father Tim Galletta, and cousins-once-removed Matt and Chris Stevens to duplicate his brother’s feat the prior weekend and win his first feature. The race was exciting and action packed, but all around the great action ON the track it seemed that everything else was… well… some say cursed by the Kevorka, as cameras, tapes, lights and caution lamps were all failing, and expected drivers who said they were coming failed to show on race day. As a result, we only have one camera angle of each race, although we were able to take a few shots with a backup handheld HD camera. Not much, but good angles of where we are hitting about 50-MPH, putting local methanol karts that cost 5-10x’s as much to shame cost/competition/logic-wise, yet pride means all the wannabe drivers still flock to the pay tracks thinking they’re awesomer (yet never show up to prove it... so all they do is prove they can pour more money into one kart for the same level of competition and… well… that’s it. Yeah, no thanks, we have better things to spend money on. We’re glad they have fun, but seriously, now. It’s just GO-KART racing! lol!).

DVD Highlight YouTube Video

Posted on June 19th, 2011 by ChrusherComix Studios

Highlights from Galletta’s Karting Club 2011/6/19 – Father’s Day 45 + Motor Explosion & Nice Pileup

All picture captures & video clips are directly taken from our weekly DVDs.

Above is this race’s menu. For a DVD copy of this race, please email or call Chris Stevens and ask for Galletta’s Karting Club 2011 Volume #3. Each disc is chock full of between 1 to 3 hours of racing, predominantly from multiple angles and are only $5 each (discounts available for multiple copies). We accept PayPal or cash, and can either ship or arrange for pickup.

Race Results

Again, one of our cameras went down, and the other had a broken tape when heat 1 started, our coverage was incomplete at best. However, we still had at least one camera angle of most of the action. The pics and videos this week won’t be as complete and diverse, but we still got some good shots.

Before the race coverage begins, we’d like to send our well-wishes and prayers to part-time Galletta’s Karter and friend Larry Phillips, whose father is having surgery to remove a tumor. Obviously, between that and the loss of his grandchildren’s father in his apartment building’s fire last Fall, Larry has been going through some tough times of late and his mind has been far from racing. But we’re thinking about him, praying for him, and hopes he feels up to racing soon. Now back to the racing coverage:

HEAT 1:

Randy Platt passed Justin Galletta on the drop of the green flag and pulled away from the rest of the pack for an easy win in his Bobandi-mobile/Platt-num #28.

Snapshot from Heat 2, where we are hitting a sharp turn going in at speeds around 47-50MPH. Yes, that does mean our track is bigger and our karts go faster for 1/10th the cost of most pay karting tracks, at least the local ones. We just need more drivers butts in kart seats! 😉 (Or fiberglass bodies that all look alike?)

HEAT 2:

Tim Galletta tested a different gear and found more power. However, he got sideways  in turn 2 which lost him a spot to Melissa, then trying to get Melissa back, Matt caught him. Rookie Jason Platt ran away unchallenged with the heat win, making a clean sweep of the heats by the Platt brothers.

45-LAP FEATURE EVENT:
As usual, our regular (non-Klassic) feature is handicapped by wins and points. Joe Sereno was leading the points after 2 weeks and tied for the most wins. The three rookies are doing very well, but with a handful of Galletta’s veteran drivers retiring in the offseason, our numbers have been unusually down.

The race started out fast and furious, with polesitter Jason Platt pulling away from the rest of the field in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #2 kart, much like he did in the heat. However, all by himself and pulling away, he spun himself out all alone in turn 2. Rookie mistake, as he may have easily won the race leading all 45 going away if not for that spin on lap 7. Randy Platt dropped out early with all kinds of bugs that are plaguing his fast-but-break-prone Platt-num #28, despite appearing to be the fastest kart of the night in his heat.

For the first 27-laps, the battle to behold was between the father-and-son due of Justin Platt (Galletta’s #7) and Tim Galletta (Sid Harvey #54), as Tim pressured Justin on every lap until the #54 sputtered to a stop on lap 28. Both Matt and Chris Stevens had to come back from a few accidents (Matt Stevens was plowed off of the track by a rookie in turn 2, and Chris Stevens was spun from behind by a rookie in turn 4, and Matt was also collected into that one as well, and shut his Galletta’s #3 down for the night with busted steering.). Rookie mistakes are part of the growing pains of a new driver, and they should not let the wrecks bother them, just learn from them.

However, when the wily vet brothers of Chris and Matt Stevens (who have been racing karts since the early 1990s, and for points since 1996), finally made it to the front, it was they who were pressuring rookie leader Justin Galletta. For the final 15 laps, Matt and Chris Stevens passed each other back and forth trying to overtake Justin for the lead. But Justin held on for his 1st career feature win, and on the last lap, Chris got the outside groove on Matt and snipped him at the line for 2nd. Unfortunately, one thing marred the otherwise solid night of racing, other than only eight drivers showing up (I thought Oswego was filled with racers? Apparently, only ones who wuss out when it comes to our track), was when Jason Platt was black flagged for excessive cautions with only 2 laps to go (we are usually very lenient with the rule, but the flagger is given permission to throw it at 5 or more cautions, particularly if one driver is involved in all said cautions, is slowing the race down, and is potentially being dangerous), and stormed off angrily. You can’t please everybody though, as the other drivers were upset that he wrecked into some of them, including 20-year-vet Matt Stevens who was very upset about being plowed off of turn 2 going full speed by a raw rookie AND his own brother Randy in week 1 (as seen in the video). We hope cooler heads prevail and he’ll be back. Rest assured, we only do this if we feel like people and equipment are being put into needless danger and being a hazard to themselves and others, so understand that it isn’t a bias, it isn’t BS, it’s a safety decision. The black flag has only been thrown for less than a handful of drivers in the 20-year history of the track, and the excessive spinout/wreck rule has been in existence since the 2006 season, so we are very lenient with it, and only throw it when we absolutely have to.

2011 Point Standings as of 6/19/2011 

For the Galletta’s Karting Club’s World Championship of 1WD Gas Flatheads held on Galletta’s Greenhouse Backyard Karting Speedway for the 2011 season to date. Our complete All-Time Points Standings from 2000-2010 are found on this webpage, and complete wins on this page.