Galletta's Karting Club

Karting 2011/8/5 at Galletta’s — 60-Lap Night — Twin 30s FULL Races

Above is this race’s menu. For a DVD copy of this race, please e-mail or call Chris Stevens and ask for this week’s race. Each disc is chock full of between 1 to 3 hours of racing in the highest-possible DVD resolution with Dolby Stereo 2.0 Surround Sound, predominantly from multiple angles and are only $5 each (discounts available for multiple copies or regular kart Galletta-Kart renters). We accept PayPal or cash, and can either ship or arrange for pickup. We now have THREE angles to catch all the action, although one is stationary on the start-finish line for those close call photo finishes.

OUR ANNUAL 10,000-ROCKS-TO-WIN!:

Every year at this general time, as Oswego Speedway holds their $10,000-to-Win / Mr. Supermodified race, we hold the same. Er, kinda’. I mean, we grew up watching Supers at Oswego Speedway and designed our track and karts in the early 1990s to be a small microcosm of our favorite race track and motorsport (except on dirt, and with 1-WD racing karts that corner better going right than any standard 2-WD racing kart can going left). Problem… we don’t have a spare $10,000. If we did, our track would no longer be a backyard speedway, but a pretty sweet karting facility and the karts would get some upgrades as well. Maybe even asphalt. But we’re just a for-fun racing club, run and raced by friends and family. So, with our humble, backyard racing budget (we operate 100% on donations and charge no money for people to watch or run a kart), we wondered what we have 10,000 of to give away. Rocks that one can pick from the track! So, the winner wins ’em! Except no winner ever picks them. Oh, well!

1st TWIN 30:

As usual, regular features start handicapped via our point formula. Drivers are inverted by (a) wins and (b) points-per-race average. It usually sets up the best possible racing, so it’s a formula that we are proud of. Some craziness before the race as the Galletta’s #1 throttle cable wasn’t working, which led to Brian Galletta instead driving the #7, a kart he is somewhat less comfortable in. Justin Galletta couldn’t make it and missed his 1st race of the year. But this is the reason why we have Retcon Makeup Races. It helps the driver who misses a race or two stay in the point standings.

Opening lap saw Jeff Tetro (#9) catch Brian Galletta (#7) snoozing and stole the lead before they even hit the start/finish line. The leader sets the pace (preferably not full speed, maybe 40-50% or so), and the green drops when the leader passes the two orange cones in turn 4. Drivers must stay in line until those cones are passes, then passing is legal.

Tetro again started slowly crawling away from the pack much like he did a couple weeks earlier, which was bumper to bumper with Matt (#3) doing his patented low-groove stunts trying to make his way to the front.

Tim Galletta (#54) tried to get under Joe Sereno (#5) and when Joe held him off, Chris Stevens (#8) and Matt Stevens were able to get by.

Shortly after this, the #54 blew a drive tire, which forced Tim into the #6 for the rest of the 1st feature. Brian Galletta held everyone off until a few laps to go, when Matt was able to sneak under him and take another shot at Jeff.

In a near-repeat of the 7/24/2011 race a couple weeks earlier where they had a near-tie, Jeff again held Matt off, but this time by roughly half a kart length. Behind them, Chris Stevens pulled alongside Brian Galletta, but Brian held Chris off in the same manner.

Done? Nope. We just gettin’ started, broski!

2nd TWIN 30:

As our usual twin-features go, the start of the 2nd is inverted from the finish from the 1st. This put Joe Sereno (#5) on the pole. Joe was pulling away and saying bye bye to the rest of the field in the early going, but got too high coming out of two and walloped the outside retaining tire, seriously bending up the front end steering rods on the #5 and forcing him to race the #2.

This set up last week’s winner Melissa Stevens (#80) in the lead, and although she doesn’t do very many passes, Melissa herself is always a tough pass. Also, keep in mind that although the #80 has traditionally been an ill-handling kart since it was first built, Matt drove it the week before and worked on it to get it up to par, something he always does with all of the Galletta’s Go-Karts. This is one reason why we are so close every single week, every single year, and closer now than ever before.

The track was unfortunately getting pretty rough in turn 2 during the 2nd feature, and seemingly worse every lap. The ruts stretched from the very top groove to the middle of the track, blocking the quickest two or three lines on the track. The bumps took their toll on the karts, and Melissa’s #80 bent an axle on them after lap 21 which surrendered the lead to Tim Galletta (#54), and since Matt (#33) nipped Chris (#4) at the line on the last completed lap, it set Matt up on Tim’s bumper. This set up Matt Stevens (#33) for his mastery of the low-groove, and he blew by a bump-slowed #54 to take off for yet another feature win. Darn that tricky lil’ Matt!

Too bad about the bumps in the 2nd feature. A shame because 3/4th’s of the track was nearly perfect, especially the back turns and both straights. But one bad turn messes everything up, and Matt has some track work to do this week – helpers, as usual, are always welcome. (Sunday update: Track has been dragged and rolled and looks amazing!)

Matt slowly creeps away, but he isn’t too far gone. If we had more good drivers on track in addition to the very good ones that we already have, the chances of holding him back are greater. Meanwhile, 2nd through 6th has been tight all year, although Justin’s absence this week has put him in a little bit of a deficit. A make-up race should put him back in it. On a side note, this season has been an exceedingly small one (in terms of driver volume). Between a couple of drivers retiring from full-time racing due to age/health issues, one driver quitting because he is a penniless backstabber, two regular drivers quitting because they believed an irrational gossip, a few bought karts and never raced with us one (which makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever), and a few who used to race with us decided to race the more pricey 2-WD classes on other local tracks (which is ok in our book) and not race with us at all anymore (kind of backstabbyish). This means that only 13 drivers have competed thus far in 2011, probably our smallest active roster in the past 7-10 years. Let’s get more people out already! We have 14 karts and only 6-10 weekly drivers? Let’s go, people!

2011 Point Standings as of 8/5/2011 

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-‘the-last-completed-season’ are found on this webpage, complete 2006-08 standings on Oswego Speedway Kartway on this page, and 2000-to-‘the-last-completed-season’ wins are on this page.

Pos.	Name (Go-Karts Piloted) [Most drivers have clickable Driver Profiles]	Total Points (Place)	Average Points Per Feature	2011 Events	2011 Features	2011 Heat Wins	2011 Feature Wins	Career Feature Wins (2000-up)	Years Pro at GKC
1st	Master Matt Stevens (Galletta’s #33, 3, 80)	1,500.0	115.38	9	13	0	5	103	16th
2nd	Chris “Chrusher” Stevens (Galletta’s #4, 8)	1,440.5	110.81	9	13	0	1	55	16th
3rd	Tim Galletta (Galletta #54, Galletta’s #6)	1,410.0	108.46	9	13	1	1	4	3rd
4th	Melissa Stevens (Scissors ‘n Fur #19, 80)	1,390.0	106.92	9	13	0	2	6	5th
5th	Joe Sereno (Galletta’s #5, 1, 2, 9)	1,312.5	100.96	8	13	0	1	1	1st
6th	Justin Galletta (Galletta’s #7, 6)	1,228.0	111.64	8	11	0	1	1	1st
7th	Jeff Tetro (Galletta’s #9, 0) @@@@	941.5	94.15	4	10	2	2	3	3rd
9th	Brian Galletta (Galletta’s #1, 7, 9, 28) @@@	543.0	77.57	3	7	0	0	2	5th
9th	Randy “Bobandi” Platt (Platt-num #28, Galletta’s #2, 0)	400.5	100.13	3	4	2	0	3	3rd
10th	Jason Platt (Galletta’s #2) @	367.5	91.88	3	4	2	0	0	(R)
11th	Chris Doviak (Galletta’s #1, 9) @@	328.0	65.60	1	3	0	0	0	(R)
12th	Arnold “AJ” Nason (Nason #35, Galletta’s #1)	283.0	94.33	2	3	1	0	1	2nd
12th	Chase Sereno (Galletta’s #6, 9) @	283.0	94.33	2	3	0	0	0	(R)
14th	Rob Clarke (Galletta’s #2) @	194.0	97.00	1	2	0	0	0	2nd
15th	Andrew Pullen (Galletta’s #1) @	80.0	80.00	1	1	0	0	0	(R)

Handicap Start Order for the Next Race:

As usual with all GKC Regular Season events, starts are handicapped via (1) Wins and (2) Points-per-race. Exceptions are:
(a) 2nd of a Twin-Feature [Starting Grid for 2nd will be inverted from finish of the 1st], and
(b) Annual Klassic Championship 200 [Starting Grid is set via time trial speed, time trial order is set by total points].

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