Galletta's Karting Club

SUNDAY, JULY 26th, 2015, OSWEGO, NY – For twenty of the event’s twenty-eight years, the undisputed champion of Oswego’s Harborfest has been decided at Galletta’s Greenhouse Karting Speedway – usually the Sunday night when Harborfest dies a slow death and the city’s streets become drivable again. Past winners of Oswego’s crown jewel of Harborfest have included illustrious names such as Kyle Reuter, Melissa Stevens, Kelly Miller, Fred Collins & Nick Dann, Matt Stevens and Wes “Ogre” Stevens. But Chris Stevens became a multi-time winner of the event in 2015, sneaking by his brother Matt and inheriting the lead from Kevin Galletta when mechanical issues forced the #28 to the pits. Only 25 laps to make sure Harborfest ’15 is hurried along and as dead as a doornail.  Points, pics, and videos will follow very soon. Ogie Stevens refused to participate in anything even remotely related to Harborfest or a Chris Stevens victory, hid the Championship belt again and napped indoors. Damn him.

25-Lap Feature
We were due for a regular-length show with 10 drivers, but two veteran drivers were unable to race this weekend due to prior obligations, one was at track-side had to leave to be with his pregnant fiance, another was there but left (he was just going to run a lap for points) and another driver doesn’t own a street legal vehicle didn’t have a ride. Due to this, we were on the fence on canceling our Harborfest event (we usually have a bare-bones minimum of 6 drivers, but 8+ are preferred). But, we mainly decided to run and not cancel our only because then two rookies have been telling us for weeks that they were planning to make trips from Fulton and Cortland for their 1st race at Galletta’s. However, race time of 7 pm came and went and still no sign of new drivers despite Kevin Galletta making the three hour drive from Buffalo! So, we can’t call it off after his effort. We started late, but decided to run a 25-lapper.

Starting grid is always determined by inverting wins and points-per-race.

Handicap Starting Order for the race:

But, as you can see here, sometimes so many drivers can’t make it and there basically is NO handicap. Feature winners start up front no matter what. Such was this week, as only Kevin Galletta and Melissa Stevens hadn’t won in ’15, BUT, Melissa just ran a few laps for points, so it was just Kevin going for his 1st win of ’15 with three of the four winners this season looking to pick up another one! One can honestly say that maybe 10-15 years ago, it was much harder to win at Galletta’s because there was more competition. That’s not taking anything away from the drivers who DO win, it’s just the truth that the more competition is harder to overcome than less. (Hell, the webmaster even won this race, but would rather have 10, 12, 15, even 20 karts on track than a paltry 6 or 7. The more competition = more fun racing!)

25-Lap HarBOREDfest Championship Feature Event Starting Lineup:
1. Kevin Galletta (Galletta Bros. #28)
2. Adam Lytle (Lytle Racing #33c)
3. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n’ Fur #19) ***
4. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse/Chrusher.Com #74)
5. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse/Chrusher.Com #4)
6. Branden ‘Tumor’ Matott (FOR SALE-> Matott #187² <-FOR SALE!)
7. Ray “Zor” Castaldo (Galletta’s Greenhouse #5)
8. Nobody (Galletta’s Greenhouse #0)
9. Nobody (Galletta’s Greenhouse #1)
10. Nobody (Galletta’s Greenhouse #2)
11. Nobody (Galletta’s Greenhouse #3)
12. Nobody (Galletta’s Greenhouse #6)
13. Nobody (Galletta’s Greenhouse #7)
14. Nobody (Galletta’s Greenhouse/Chrusher.Com #8)
15. Nobody (Galletta’s Greenhouse #9)
16. Nobody (FOR SALE-> Ruggio Racing #02 <-FOR SALE!)
17. Nobody (Galletta’s Greenhouse #33)
18. Nobody (Galletta Bros. Racing #42)
19. Nobody (FOR SALE-> Turner Racing #43 <-FOR SALE!)
20. Nobody (Galletta Bros. Racing #54)
21. Nobody (Woolworth #78)
22. Nobody (Scissors N’ Fur #80)
23. Nobody (Good Guys Barbershop #81)
24. Nobody (Good Guys Barbershop #88)

Key:
*** = Elected to start 3rd, handicapped 1st

Wait… why did I list all those karts? Because we have more karts than drivers almost every week. Granted, a handful of them are owned by drivers and/or are backups. But every week we have rentals waiting… waiting… waiting. And some good karts for sale as well. Come on out! I know Oswego likes to call itself a racer town, but it seems as if it’s racing not directly connected to Oswego Speedway, they don’t care. Is it cowardice? Snobbery? Too cheap? Too expensive? Too lazy? Or just don’t know we exist? C’mon! I never get a straight answer, just empty karts and people who DO show up scratching their heads as to why more don’t come up and have fun! Wow. Come out and race, people!

Kevin Galletta set the pace early on, but was a bit slow in the back stretch. After the race, Matt Stevens added, “I think he’s taking turn 1 wrong and losing momentum all the way down the back stretch because of it.”

Adam “AJ” Lytle attempted to pass Kevin in the low groove and both Matt (in the #74) and Chris (in the #4) trained by the #33c. “I gotta’ try to learn the low groove sometime,” Lytle responded when asked during a mid-race caution.

[Inset upper left] The #28 lost a chain late in the race, and Chris happened to just pass Matt for 2nd after he was unable to get the #74 into 1st. [Inset lower right] Chris takes his 4th feature (in 3 different karts) of 2015, making up for ’14 where he only won the final regular season race before the ’14 Klassic 200!

25-Lap HarBOREDfest Championship Feature Finish:
1. Chris Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse/Chrusher.Com #4)
2. Matt Stevens (Galletta’s Greenhouse/Chrusher.Com #74)
3. Adam Lytle (Lytle Racing #33c)
4. Kevin Galletta (Galletta Bros. #28, #54)
5. Melissa Stevens (Scissors n’ Fur #19) – DNF
6. Branden ‘Tumor’ Matott (Matott #187²) – DNS
7. Ray “Zor” Castaldo (Galletta’s Greenhouse #5) – DNS

Key:
DNF = Did Not Finish
DNS = Did Not Start (Attended, left before race began waiting… waiting… waiting for new guys… ZZZzzzzzzzzz….)

When asked by your humble interviewer, Chris said, “Experience plays a big role in these races, but many times, a little luck is the difference. Taking away when Matt got me twice due to no passing flags, I’ve just been a lot luckier this year than last. And no matter who wins, Matt’s the head mechanic of all the karts anyways, so he basically wins every race no matter the driver. The #4 was shelved since week 2 when despite it getting 2nd, had mistiming valves. Matt fixed it and lost to it. Is that a win/win, lose/lose, or win/lose?”

2015 Gas Flathead National Championship / 2015 Galletta’s Greenhouse Karting Speedway Point Standings

As of completion of 6/7/2015 – 7/26/2015’s race events in the 20th Annual World Championship of Clockwise Gas Stock Flathead Karting:

Position (Prior)	Name (Go-Karts Piloted) ®=Rookie *=Makeup Features T =Timeout k=Mid-race Kart Change (-5pt)	Total Points (Place)	Average Points Per Feature	Features	Feature Wins	Win %	Heats Won/ Enter	Years Pro at Galletta’s	All-Time Track Feature Wins
1st	Chris Stevens (Galletta’s #8, 4, 0, 5) k	1,162.00	129.11	9	4	44%	0/2	20th	75
2nd	Matt Stevens (Galletta’s #33, 3, 74, 1, 2) t	1,093.50	121.50	9	3	33%	0/2	20th	128
3rd	Adam Lytle (Lytle #33c)	991.50	110.17	9	1	11%	0/2	4th	3
4th	Keith Raymond (Good Guys Barbers. #88, Galletta’s #6)	912.00	114.00	8	0	0%	1/2	2nd	0
5th	Kevin Galletta (Galletta Bros. #28, 54) *	910.00	101.11	9	0	0%	1/2	3rd	2
6th	Melissa Stevens (Scissors ‘n Fur #19)	717.00	79.67	9	0	0%	0/2	8th	7
7th	George Sweeting (Galletta’s #7, Sweeting #81) ® k *	623.50	89.07	7	0	0%	1/2	®	0
8th	Eric Woolworth (Woolworth #78)	487.50	97.50	5	1	20%	0/0	4th	5
9th	Ray Castaldo (Galletta’s #7, 5, 1)	372.00	74.40	5	0	0%	0/0	®	0
10th	Nick Cameron (Galletta Bros. #54, Galletta’s #7) ®**	332.00	83.00	4	0	0%	0/1	®	0
11th	Brian Galletta (Galletta Bros. #42, 28)	297.00	99.00	3	0	0%	0/1	8th	8
12th	Ray Lewis (Galletta’s Greenhouse #9) ®	199.00	199.00	1	0	0%	0/1	®	0
13th	Kevin Finn (Galletta’s #6, 9) ®*	191.00	95.50	2	0	0%	0/1	®	0
14th	Branden ‘Tumor’ Matott (Matott #187²)	164.00	82.00	2	0	0%	0/0	2nd	0
15th	Liam Shaughnessy (Galletta’s #1) ®	122.00	122.00	1	0	0%	0/1	®	0
16th	David Demling (Galletta’s #6) ®	115.00	115.00	1	0	0%	1/1	®	0
17th ( tie )	Kristina McCann (Galletta’s #2) ®	87.50	87.50	1	0	0%	0/0	®	0
17th ( tie )	Brielle Wilkins (Galletta’s #1) ®	87.50	87.50	1	0	0%	0/1	®	0

Handicap Starting Order for the next race:

Inverted by the Galletta’s handicap system of inverting wins and points-per-race.

Next race is due for Friday at 6pm, with a Sunday at 6pm rain date. If Friday and Sunday are both forecasted to be likely rainouts, we will schedule Saturday at 6pm. As usual, with any race, if less than 6 drivers are at trackside, we may postpone.