Galletta's Karting Club

MONDAY, AUGUST 29th, 2011: 10 competitors raced karts raced on a Monday due to Hurricane Irene’s leftover winds and rain preventing us from racing Sunday (no problem, we’ve been rained out of a handful of Sundays the last few weeks anyway). Returning veterans Mike “MC” Howell and the two Ken Lindsley’s added with the the core group that have raced all year to increase the competition on an already tough and competitive season thus far. And it was Chris Stevens spoiled Randy Platt’s plan of putting his freshly reinstated “Murder 187” kart back in victory lane, catching him snoozing on a restart in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #8 for his 2nd feature win of the year. Race results, pictures, stats, and videos coming when done! Sorry for the delays, work has been throwing monkeywreches into my usual duties, such as updating the videos and website as quick as I’d like. Pics, descriptions, results & points are up on this page. Check back soon for videos! Now let’s review the race, son:

DVD Highlight YouTube Video

Posted on August 31st, 2011 by ChrusherComix Studios

HEAT #1:

Matt Stevens (#33) makes his usual low-groove pass move on his wife Melissa Stevens (#19), and Kenny Lindsley III (#0).

Joe Sereno (#5) and Justin Galletta (#7) hold off Matt Stevens (#33) in the 1st heat. All three were extremely close in speed, and Matt’s usually crafty veteran tricks could not get the pass on the two impressive and constantly improving 1st-season drivers.

HEAT #2:

Heat 2 saw Randy Platt (#187) hold off Chris Stevens (#8) for the win, with Tim Galletta (#54) in striking distance. Ken Lindsley III also took the #0 back out for weight testing (even though he already ran the retcon race and the 1st heat), so we counted it for another make-up race. There was a race he would have made if we didn’t have a date change due to weather and attendance issues anyway, so it’s a ‘sorry about that’ deal.

50-LAP FEATURE EVENT:

NOW We’re talking!!!! Our 10-driver, 50-Lap feature begins! One of the biggest races of the year thus far! Quite refreshing after our barren middle of the season slump. And note how much fun the racing is with more people out there! Both to watch AND to race in!

On lap 10, brothers Joe Sereno (#5) and Justin Galletta (#7) got a little out of shape and rubbed tires in turn 4. They raced side-by-side – with Chris Stevens (#8) making it three wide at the finish line until he decided to pull out – down the front stretch and into turn one, when the #7 unintentionally drifted just enough into the #5’s line to catch tires, which sent Joe and the #5 wildly flipping off of turn 2, doing his best impression of hurricane Irene! A violent-looking crash to say the least.

A nasty wreck for sure. Joe is okay, proving his toughness in the wild ride that snapped the all-metal steering wheel clean off, and bent up the tie-rods. Joe shook it off and hopped into the unused Galletta’s Greenhouse #2 kart, which won a feature one week earlier with Randy Platt at the helm.

Shortly after that, Chris Stevens (#8) caught Randy Platt (#187) sleeping on a restart.
[Inset shows close battles between Tim Galletta, Matt Stevens and Ken Lindsley Jr.] Tim had a little bad luck after his tie-rod nut came loose and bending. Instead of using a time-out to fix it, he hopped into the unused Galletta’s Greenhouse #9, a kart he last drove in the 2009 Galletta’s Klassic 200.

Yep. That’s how close we were for most of the night. The track was decent other than a couple bumps developing in 2 and 3, and other than Randy and Chris crawling away in their battle for the lead, everyone else were bumper-to-bumper all night. Head-mechanic Matt really has these machines close and fast right now. And trust me, he takes more pride in seeing a close race than he does winning. Which makes it even scarier when he does pull off a bunch of wins in a row when these karts are so close. It shows his experience and craftiness behind these karts. And yours truly oughtta’ know, I’ve been racing against him since the early 1990s, and 2nd only to him in races, points and wins of all Oswego County karting leagues since then.

Chris held off Randy ‘Bobandi’ Platt for the rest of the show for only his 2nd win of the season, surpassing his 1-win total from last season (although he still eked Matt out by 1/2 point for the points title last year). But Chris and Randy were the same exact speed, as neither could pull away for the other all night, and if not for Chris catching Randy snoozing on a restart, Ran-the-man would’ve had 2 wins in 2 weeks.

Next race should be Monday, Labor Day, unless weather shuffles things around. Matt uncharacteristically struggled for most of the night, getting in a handful of wrecks and stalling/parking his two usually dependable karts – the #3 and #33. He wound up finishing the race in his wife’s backup, the #80. Not a good night for Matt, who usually is either winning or challenging for wins every single night. However, again, this proves the theory that if enough solid veteran drivers are out there, Matt doesn’t find victory lane so easy to get to. You think you’re a bad driver, then come out and try to hold off Matt and see how bad you are (and 30-40 lap short track “Championships” prove nothing). It got done this week (holding Matt back that is), but rest assured, when Matt struggles one week, the next week he is usually on fire. Get ready, drivers!

SPECIAL SHOUT-OUT TO THE DOZEN-OR-SO LOCAL KART TRACK MINI-CLASSIC WINNERS THIS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1st, 2011!

Congrats on your accomplishment! The $25 trophy, $0.25 sticker and general admission Oswego Speedway Classic ticket certainly makes spending a few grand on a go-kart and a few hundred in entrance fees each year worth it, doesn’t it? We did that a couple of times (er, except for the spending a few grand on a kart part of it) so we know how special that is. Way to go guys! You make all us economical karters proud! All kidding aside (I mean, c’mon, we’ve heard and read some of the low things they have said about us simply because we choose our own, more affordable and time-tested way, have as much if not more fun than they do, and they somehow see it as an insult to them, which is beyond us, really… we’re all just karting classes and we all have affordable motorsport competition, which is what it’s all about), we are especially proud of the ones who won that did some teeth-cutting in our club! Now that that season’s done, get your scared, quittin’ butts out here and race with your buds who got you started racing in that pricey little place and get ready to run our 200 Lapper – the original, longest-running and largest local karting Klassic in the area! Ohhh… See what I did there? };^)WHEW! Busy week of work, car repairs, NY State Fair, lack of sleep, running errands, and a complex race where 10 competitors raced, along with no less than FIVE that entered Rectcon make-up races (hard because I have to go back and score each driver in the earliest race they missed) meant that it took me five days to get these points finished. Sometimes I make too much work for myself, but I want as competitive of a point system as humanly possible. I think we got that (look at the points, wins, and points-per-races… really close, and closer than most races). So do enjoy them!

2011 Point Standings after 8/29/2011’s Event

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, our complete 2006-08 standings on Oswego Speedway’s Kartway on this page, and our 2000-to-‘the-last-completed-season’ wins are on this page. At season’s end, the current totals will be added into the below.

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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	Chris “Chrusher” Stevens (Galletta’s #4, 8)	1,900.5	111.79	12	17	0	2	56	16th
2nd	Master Matt Stevens (Galletta’s #33, 3, 80)	1,874.0	110.24	12	17	0	6	104	16th
3rd	Tim Galletta (Galletta #54, Galletta’s #6, 9)	1,805.0	106.19	12	17	1	2	5	3rd
4th	Melissa Stevens (Scissors ‘n Fur #19, 80, Galletta’s #7)	1,742.5	102.50	12	17	0	2	6	5th
5th	Joe Sereno (Galletta’s #5, 1, 2, 9)	1,719.5	101.15	12	17	2	1	1	1st
6th	Justin Galletta (Galletta’s #7, 6) @@@	1,719.5	101.15	10	17	0	1	1	1st
7th	Randy “Bobandi” Platt (Platt-num #28, 187, Galletta’s #2, 0) @@	1,004.0	100.40	5	10	4	1	4	3rd
8th	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
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	Kenny Lindsley III (Galletta’s #0) @@@	263.0	65.75	1	4	0	0	0	3rd
15th	Mike Howell (Galletta’s #6) @	199.5	99.75	1	2	1	0	0	2nd
16th	Rob Clarke (Galletta’s #2) @	194.0	97.00	1	2	0	0	0	2nd
17th	Harold “Hal” Borland (Galletta’s #6) @	177.0	59.00	1	3	0	0	0	(R)
18th	Ken Lindsley Jr. (Galletta’s #1) @@	143.0	71.50	1	2	0	0	0	2nd
19th	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 then (2) Points-per-race. Exceptions are:
(a) 2nd of a Twin-Feature [Starting Grid for 2nd will be inverted from finish of the 1st, except wins still take precedent], and
(b) Annual Klassic Championship 200 [Starting Grid is set via time trial speed, time trial order is set by total points].