Galletta's Karting Club

7/5/2014 – Matt Stevens wins 5th of July 50-Lapper in Galletta’s Greenhouse #6!

SATURDAY, JULY 5th, 2014, OSWEGO, NY –   After taking a weekend off
due to not enough drivers (we don’t believe less than 8 drivers makes a class),
sometimes Chris and Matt Stevens have to show that their karts aren’t better
than everyone else’s. They are ALL fast and ALL capable of winning races with
an experienced and talented driver at the helm.  Many
drivers have proven it through the years , but still, from time to time,
the sometimes neglected backups that nobody thinks are fast need time to shine.
So sometimes they go out in backups that sometimes get scoffed at as inferior,
or a newbie will think are junk. For America’s birthday 2014, Matt hopped into
the often-ignored/scoffed-at Galletta’s Greenhouse #6, and Chris hopped into
the often-ignored/scoffed-at Galletta’s Greenhouse #0, and they promptly scored
1st and 2nd with a half track to to spare. Dave Turner and then Kelly Miller
led early with Adam Lytle and Chris Stevens in chase, but a wreck took the top-3
out and set Matt up for the win (although Chris did get back into it and
challenge him before settling for 2nd with mechanical problems – no brakes and
stuck throttle). Points leader Eric Woolworth took a crazy wreck into the tower
as well. More details, pics, points and a video clip are here!

HEAT 1

START:
1. Adam Lytle (Lytle Racing #33c)
2. Kelly Miller (Galletta’s Greenhouse #7)
3. Kevin Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #28)
4. Eric Woolworth (Raven Tavern #88)
— RETCON MAKE-UP CREDIT
5. (R) Keith Raymond (Galletta’s Greenhouse #1)

Adam Lytle holds off Kelly Miller for the 1st heat win.

FINISH:
1. Adam Lytle (Lytle Racing #33c)
2. Kelly Miller (Galletta’s Greenhouse #7)
3. Kevin Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #28)
4. Eric Woolworth (Raven Tavern #88)
— RETCON MAKE-UP CREDIT
5. (R) Keith Raymond (Galletta’s Greenhouse #1) = Earned 11th in 6/7/2014 40-lapper

HEAT 2

START:
1. David Turner (Platt-num-Turner #43)
2. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n’ Fur #19)
3. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #0)
4. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #6)
5. (R) Keith Raymond (Galletta’s Greenhouse #1)

David Turner holds off the top-3 drivers in Galletta’s Point-scoring history
(and therefore all Oswego area karting itself!) in heat 1 for the 1st heat win.
Not bad for your 1st heat victory!

FINISH:
1. David Turner (Platt-num-Turner #43)
2. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #0)
3. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #6)
4. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n’ Fur #19)
5. (R) Keith Raymond (Galletta’s Greenhouse #1)

FEATURE

David Turner leads the opening laps in the Platt-num/Turner #43 (The former
Platt-num/Galletta #13).

START:
1. David Turner (Platt-num-Turner #43)
2. Adam Lytle (Lytle Racing #33c)
3. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n’ Fur #19)
4. Kelly Miller (Galletta’s Greenhouse #7)
5. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #0)
6. Kevin Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #28)
7. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #6)
8. Eric Woolworth (Raven Tavern #88)
9. (R) Keith Raymond (Galletta’s Greenhouse #1)

Adam Lytle takes advantage of the #43 being loose in turn 1 and takes the lead
in the early going.

Kelly Miller storms off in the lead blowing by a few competitors in the powerful
Galletta’s Greenhouse #7. However, he got loose in turn one, brushed the wall,
and came back down to collect 2nd place Lytle and 3rd place Chris Stevens. Sonofa…
that means 4th place Matt Stevens inherits the lead! Matt sometimes has all
the luck!

Matt leads the field in the Galletta’s Greenhouse #6, and often ignored, mocked,
and neglected kart. Many rookie renters raced it and believed that it is a stinker
and the vets have better karts. Wanna’ bet? Matt’s here to demonstrate that
ALL of his karts can not just win but blow away the field with an experienced
karter behind the wheel.

I sense an ongoing theme here. Turn 1 was loose as heck, apparently, as yet
ANOTHER crash occurred! Points leader Eric Woolworth and rookie David Turner
plow into the tire-walls under the race tire and Woolworth flips violently.

Two clips of the crash:

Video of the 2nd Angle from Melissa Stevens’ Start/Finish Line Camera [Timestamped to crash]

Video from Rung Stevens’ Tower Camera Angle 

Well… okay, you caught us lying. Actually, Matt and Chris were concerned
that Eric was doing a little TOO well, and sent the David “The Hitman”
Turner to take him out. He did. Eric’s carcass was buried in the woods. We were
kind enough to mark his grave though.*

Later on, Kelly Miller took the #7 into
the tower again and hopped into the Galletta’s Greenhouse #9 hoping for better
handling.

Chris Stevens has also heard the complaints in the past of long-gone one-and-done
drivers who try our Galletta’s Karts, lose badly, and believe the veterans (particularly
Matt and Chris) simply have superior karts. Well, Matt and Chris kind of relish
proving naysayers wrong. The rest of the race saw Matt Stevens in the often-ignored-and-mocked
Galletta’s Greenhouse #6 and Chris Stevens in the often-ignored-and-mocked Galletta’s
Greenhouse #0 pull away from the rest of the field and get 1st and 2nd with
a half track to spare.

Considering Chris had a sticking throttle and a broken brake band while on a
loose track and still scoring a 2nd place finish is just a cherry on top. But
this point will be forgotten when the next batch of rookies come along and get
lapped in these same karts. Lessons learned: (#1) We do not fix the races by
giving ourselves superior vehicles, (#2) Experience racing ANYTHING, but especially
racing in these karts goes a LONG way in these vehicles, and (#3) racing go-karts
for around two decades usually means you’re probably pretty good at it, and
a beginner will not have very much of a chance, even handicapped up front with
an equal (or sometimes even better kart), until he/she gets enough experience
to learn how to take the track and keep speeds up. But will these lessons stick?
Our regular veteran Galletta’s club drivers all know this is the case, but rookies
(especially the ones who don’t take these races seriously and think we are a
bunch of stupid hicks who race junker karts) will not get it. The two most accomplished
karters in Oswego on the largest and longest-running karting track in Oswego
are here racing every week and provided people with equal backups to race against
at Galletta’s. Big track drivers such as our own Kelly Miller (Super Stock and
Supermodified driver) will agree… these races are as much fun as you can have
racing for the price and we go out of our way to make sure the track and karts
are ready for anybody to hop into and have fun – especially when one sticks
at it. The only thing we don’t have is consistent attendance of capable drivers
– as we can field around twenty karts on this track with these karts and only
get 8-10 butts in karts a week. Come on up and have fun… run with the local
karting masters.

FINISH:
1. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #6)
2. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse #0)
3. Kelly Miller (Galletta’s Greenhouse #7, #9)
4. David Turner (Platt-num-Turner #43)
5. (R) Keith Raymond (Galletta’s Greenhouse #1)
6. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n’ Fur #19, 80)
7. DNF – Kevin Galletta (Platt-num/Galletta #28)
8. DNF – Eric Woolworth (Raven Tavern #88, 78)
9. DNF – Adam Lytle (Lytle Racing #33c)

Now to the 19th Annual Season Gas Flathead Karting World Championship at Galletta’s Greenhouse
Backyard Speedway Points!

2014 Gas Flathead National Championship / 2014 Galletta’s Greenhouse Karting Speedway Point Standings

(As of completion of 7/5/2014’s race event.)

Position	Name (Go-Karts Piloted) [Hyperlinked Borders have Driver Profile] ®=Retcon T =Timeout	Total Points (Place)	Average Points Per Feature	Features	Feature Wins	Win %	Heats Won/Entered	Years Pro at Galletta’s	All-Time Feature Wins
1st	Matt Stevens  (Galletta’s #3, 74, 33, 6)	650.50	130.10	5	2	40%	0/3	19th	121
2nd	Chris Stevens  (Galletta’s / Chrusher.com / R&C Sushi #4, 8, 0)	603.50	120.70	5	0	0%	0/3	19th	70
3rd	Eric Woolworth (The Raven #88, 78)	569.50	113.90	5	2	40%	0/3	3rd	4
4th	Melissa Stevens  (Scissors ‘n Fur #19, 80)	527.00	105.40	5	0	0%	1/3	8th	7
5th	Kevin Galletta   (Galletta / Platt-Num #28) ®	492.00	98.40	5	1	20%	1/2	2	2
6th	David Turner (Plattnum-Turner #43, Galletta’s #9) ®	478.50	95.70	5	0	0%	1/2	®	0
7th	Adam Lytle  (Lytle #33c)	476.00	95.20	5	0	0%	1/3	3rd	1
8th	Kelly Miller  (Galletta’s #7, 9)	362.50	120.83	3	0	0%	0/2	7th	2
9th	Alex Bennett (Galletta’s #9, 2) ®	159.00	79.50	2	0	0%	0/0	®	0
10th	Cliff Crowe (Galletta’s #1) ®	143.00	71.50	2	0	0%	0/0	®	0
11th	Keith Raymond (Galletta’s #1)	116.00	116.00	1	0	0%	0/1	®	0
12th	Brian Galletta  (Galletta / Platt-Num #42)	96.50	96.50	1	0	0%	0/1	8th	6
13th	Matthew Daniels  (Galletta’s #1)	91.00	91.00	1	0	0%	0/1	®	0

Handicap for the next race:

As always at Galletta’s, every regular season points race is handicapped via wins and points-per-race. Only exceptions are Klassic (time trials) and 2nde of a twin-feature night (inverted from finish of 1st, minus winners in the back in order of win volume).

Photobucket is run by Extortionist Scumbags

Just a reminder near and dear to my heart. PHOTOBUCKET SUCKS RAW DUNG — While you CAN view the video on YouTube, Photobucket changed their rules and blurred/watermarked their pictures (holding embedding for ransom) and removed the videos. Need proof? At ine time, therese were two very small clips of Eric’s crash:

Can you see it? No? Thanks, Photobucket!

Can you see this one either? No? Thanks again, Photobucket!

The Galletta’s Karting Club has used Photobucket from 2007-2018. After they held our images for extortion, I (webmaster Chris) have had to painstakingly change EVERY IMAGE URL (hundreds of races over hundreds of races from the 1990s to now) to my own personal hosting.

Why do I keep the links? I could understand ads or affordable hosting, but they ask a pretty high fee and obtrusive watermarks. I do so to show you why you DON’T USE PHOTOBUCKET!

* = What?! Did Eric Woolworth Survive?

Also, Eric Woolworth is really alive and well. I know some of you people with poor reading comprehension may think we killed him, but… it’s just fiction, ok? OK? Got it? OK.

(Think I’m kidding? In the past, people have wanted to quit racing with us, kick my ass, kick us out of the local pay track, and alienate the entire county against me because they didn’t get that I occasionally use tongue-in-cheek sarcasm when covering our races! In 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2013, we lost drivers, friends, and even some in-laws because THEY DID NOT GET THAT I OCCASIONALLY CRACK JOKES ON MY WEBSITE AND TOOK IT AS HATEFUL PERSONAL ATTACKS. Sheesh… when did people become so humorless? It’s freaking go-kart racing, people! Wow….)

Besides, my wife and I employ Eric to help do sushi (we are the sushi franchise chefs at our local Oswego Price Chopper and SUNY Oswego) so Aou can get time off of work around the time she gives birth. We need his skeletal corpse ANIMATED! 😉 (<- Joke, see? Nevermind…. sheesh…..)

Next Race…

…is set for Saturday, 7/12/2014, 7 pm sharp Let’s go!