Galletta's Karting Club

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Posted on July 26th, 2011 2011 by ChrusherComix Studios

Since 2010 season, we have allowed drivers who have missed at least one show to enter “Retcon” races when they are here. These are short heat races that are designed to be “make-up” races. Running this event will place each driver in the points as if they ran the show, but be scored at the back of the pack of the drivers who did attend and run (and shall be scored (a) in the order they raced a make-up race and (b) the order they finished the make-up race). We do this because we want everyone to have a good shot in the points race, and feel as though “dropping” your worst performances, or not counting certain shows for points is &@\/. We held a 2nd retcon race on 7/5/2011 when Chris Doviak, Joe Sereno and Andrew Pullen rented the track for some hot laps:

RETCON RACES:

35-LAP FEATURE EVENT #1:
Since we took the week off last weekend (unlike many karting classes, we had less than 8 and will only run a feature with a minimum of 8 karts. We prefer 10-15, as we believe the best drivers show their stuff in traffic, and quite frankly, founders Matt and Chris are bored by racing with only a few karts on a track, much like an audience finds such small races on any track in any racing division in the world boring as well), we decided to run 70 laps via Twin-35 lap features. They are popular with the drivers because the competition is so close and passing is so tough that when the field gets flipped, making for a good chance for two different winners (and in the track history, we have not yet had a clean sweep of any to date).

The first feature had Tim Galletta’s #54 sitting on the pole with his brand-new, never-before-used I/C that he purchased on eBay and had race-tuned by his cousin and master motor builder, Matt Stevens. And Timmy was hauling @$$!

However, Timmy had Chris Stevens starting behind him, and he too had a brand-new motor, one that he purchased back from AJ Nason (after Chris bought it for AJ last season, and AJ’s purchase of the former Russell motor made the motor expendable to AJ). AJ’s loss is Chris’ gain, as after a Matt-tune, he too was flying in the Galletta’s #8, it’s first time out since its motor blew in the opener.

However, Chris was also pressured by Matt Stevens, who decided to change motors to one that he hadn’t used since last season. Matt was hauling butt as well, doing his usual slingshot pass attempts on his brother and cousin. And due to a lack of cautions, Tim, Chris and Matt just kept eating up ground and came upon lapped traffic. Due to our 1-WD karts effectiveness at performing slingshot passes, we had considered calling our karts “Slingshot”, but Tobias beat us to the name.

Rookie Joe Sereno in the Galletta’s #5 (which we discovered after the race suffering from a slowly-wearing clutch sprocket and a cracked head), was off the pace and could not get by the lapped traffic of 1st-time rookie Chris Doviak in the Galletta’s #1. This bottlenecked the track as Tim, Chris and Matt battled fiercely behind them.

The bottleneck of traffic altered the outcome of the race tremendously when Tim Galletta tried to get under both Sereno and Doviak to lap them, and caught tires with the #5. Matt then snuck under everyone and would have taken the lead of the race with Chris in 2nd and Tim 3rd if not for the caution being thrown. Because of the yellow, this put Chris into the lead (leading Matt on the last completed lap) and Tim had to go to the rear.

Chris then held off Matt for the rest of the race to take his first feature win since 8/2010 and his first win in the #8 since 8/2009.

35-LAP FEATURE EVENT #2:
The 2nd feature started with some exciting action. Jeff Tetro, back for his first race since his impressive 3rd place finish in the 2010 Klassic pressured Joe Sereno for the lead, and nearly had him until he got caught in the slower low groove and got passed by several competitors. Joe–who, again, did not know the Galletta’s #5 had a worn clutch and a cracked head–was fighting valiantly, but did not have enough to hold off the same 3 hard-chargers from the 1st feature – Tim, Matt and Chris.

Tim was again hauling, but again had Matt and Chris to fight off. And for most of the race, it appeared that Tim was going to hold off Matt for his 1st feature win of 2011. However, one mistake is all it takes when the racing is that close. And Tim’s foot fell off the gas in turn 2, enabling Matt to sneak by him. A couple laps later, Tim’s foot again fell off the gas in 2, which then enabled Chris to get the pass. Chris has been there before, as in leading late in the 2003 Galletta’s Klassic Championship, his foot fell off the pedal once in the same 2nd corner, allowing Matt Stevens to pass him (and eventually win) and fall off a second time in turn 2 to allow Wes Stevens to then take 2nd. A rough night for Tim, who had a great shot at winning either of these features, but he was happy with the power of his brand new motor, and is eagerly awaiting next week’s race.

2011 Point Standings as of 7/3/2011 

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-to-last-completed-season are found on this webpage, and complete wins on this page.