Galletta's Karting Club

Karting from 8/16/2011 at Galletta’s Backyard Speedway – 5-Driver/40 Lapper

All picture captures & video clips are directly taken from our weekly DVDs, which are almost always available to buy the day after the race. It’s best to pre-order them so I can have them ready on race day for you.

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.

Before the show, while awaiting drivers to arrive, Tim Galletta took the official Galletta’s-Cam and snuck a pose with – retired 3rd All-Time Points & 2006 Galletta’s Klassic Champion and current starter – his uncle Wesley “Ogre” Stevens!

TUESDAY NIGHT SPECIAL 40-LAPPAH’:

The postponement led to several no-shows. Originally, three regular drivers (in addition to at least two or three guest drivers) were all lined up for Sunday in addition to the five who did make the race, but unfortunately at the last moment could not make it. Oh well… still bigger than some Oswego Kartway classes. We are still awaiting the arrival of the legendary Marine Bobby Galletta for his first race since 2009, who will one day grace us with his presence and race. One day. Don’t know when, but ONE day! 🙂

As every regular season feature goes, start is handicapped single file based on an inverted first by wins and then by points-per-race-average. This again put Joseph Sereno on the pole and in search of his 2nd feature win in his already solid rookie campaign.

Early on, Joe Sereno just pulled away from the field. In fact, we spaced out quite a bit. But when the Galletta’s Greenhouse #4 driven by Chris Stevens developed a terrible push, which enabled Matt Stevens to get under him. Chris then spun out on lap 11 and parked the #4 for the night. He hopped into the #8. Melissa Stevens also had problems as her #80 couldn’t start the race, and her usually-trusty #19 also faltered, leaving her in the Galletta’s #7 for the remainder of the show.

NOTE: Again, unlike other tracks, because the karts are highly equalized, if a kart breaks or has a serious malfunction, drivers are allowed to switch karts (if one is open) during a feature for a points penalty (-5 pts. in the regular season, -20 pts. in a Klassic 200) and going to the back of the pack. And any Galletta’s Kart that doesn’t already have a driver is available to be driven, although obviously, when there are no more race-ready karts open, then you are out of luck. For this reason, many drivers do in fact have two karts for this purpose (active drivers Matt, Chris and Melissa do, and a handful of retired and semi-retired drivers used to). We also have time-outs, where if a driver breaks down and wishes to repair his kart, he/she can call a time-out and do so and return to the rear of the field. However, each regular driver is limited to only 3 Timeouts per season, and drivers who acquired at least one feature win earn a bonus time-out for Klassic if they choose to use it.

After a restart for Melissa’s #19’s breakdown, the race was then EXTREMELY close. Especially so when leader Joe Sereno’s reoccurring bad luck again popped back up at the worst time (while leading). Driving the Galletta’s Greenhouse #5, his ride started slowing badly, and oh that TRICKY lil’ Matt capitalized. He trapped both Tim Galletta (#54) and Chris Stevens (#8) on Joe and passed him low on lap 21. Although Chris and Tim followed Matt by, Matt never looked back. Joe finally obliterated the drive-wheel tire on the #5, blowing it to smithereens on lap 35, and not finishing the final five laps. A few spectators stopped by and looked interested. We hope they’ll be back out to race – as usual we are always looking for new drivers and more competition!

Good race for sure, but c’mon now… it’s getting a little boring. Between Matt picking off so many wins and less drivers than we’ve had in the last seven or eight seasons, we need more recruits. I know that at most karting tracks for the past five or so years, a five-kart race is the $#it and all, and a limit of 10 or so is all they can handle. But we’ve been racing since the mid-1990s, and since the mid-2000s, we’ve been having 10-15 kart races almost every single weekend from June and into Fall, and the size of our track (almost three times the size of Oswego’s more known and heavily financed pay track) could easily accommodate 20-30 karts if enough people showed up! But not this year. Between retirements, and a few disgruntled people badmouthing us, our numbers have been low. C’mon, we know drivers are out there. Yeah, you won’t beat us, but at least you can try, right? Too bad that in all of Central New York, we have yet to find a driver anywhere who can beat Matt, or even the top 3-4 of our guys for that matter. We have an open challenge, and have had one for years. We see the results. Matt just keeps winning, and our top guns can out race the top guns on any given kart in any given race. Period.

Again, our usual day is Sunday but will hold races on Friday or Saturday if it means more drivers. This is up to YOU. Let us know what day you can make it.

2011 Point Standings as of 8/16/2011 

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)	1,631.0	116.50	10	14	0	6	104	16th
2nd	Chris “Chrusher” Stevens (Galletta’s #4, 8)	1,550.0	110.71	10	14	0	1	55	16th
3rd	Tim Galletta (Galletta #54, Galletta’s #6)	1,530.0	109.29	10	14	1	1	4	3rd
4th	Melissa Stevens (Scissors ‘n Fur #19, 80, Galletta’s #7)	1,480.0	105.71	10	14	0	2	6	5th
5th	Joe Sereno (Galletta’s #5, 1, 2, 9)	1,433.5	102.39	10	14	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
8th	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
13th	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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