Galletta's Karting Club

2021 Season — The Season That Never Was:

Our 2021 season was unfortunately completely lost due to circumstances out of our control. And it’s a long, sad story.

A long cold winter at Galletta’s Greenhouse’s Backyard Speedway… as well as a lost race season lay ahead.

Only kiddie karts on the track in 2021…

For the first time since around 1989-90, no go-karts raced in the back of Galletta’s Greenhouse. Not even a single kart took a practice lap, let alone videotaped points races with several karts.

Why?

NOTE: Normally, this shouldn’t and wouldn’t be public knowledge, but it connects DIRECTLY to why we didn’t race.

It more or less started in Spring 2021, when head mechanic/track groomer Matt Stevens’ wife kidnapped their kids away from him and his eldest daughter’s school and hid at her parents’ house for 3 days.
(And it was over basically nothing… a Children’s Tylenol that grandma gave their youngest because she had a fever? This is what parents and grandparents do, not let their kids suffer with fevers, Lyme disease, and lice but judge others… but I digress). On top of this, the property owner (the kids’ grandma), believes that things… happen… over there and they shouldn’t be left there.

Matt was a nervous wreck over this, and the whole ordeal set him and his greenhouse work back quite a bit. After authorities (State Troopers, and CPS) were called in, they agreed to get back together.

Grass and weeds haven’t grown on the track in 26 years!

While this was going on, CPS was utterly appalled at the water damage to the roof of their home. He and his wife needed to repair it or risk it getting condemned. The damage had slowly developed over a few years and sadly got neglected (Matt was busy with work and kids, Melissa was busy with work and… being apathetic and unwilling to invest in home upkeep), leading to basically a giant hole, which occurred from snow and ice buildup over the particularly rough and long winter.

But there’s a problem.

Melissa believes that the income she makes at her full-time job as a Teacher’s Aide (and child tax credit, COVID relief money, etc.) is hers and she takes zero responsibility for the roof over her, her children, and her husband’s head. It is completely Matt’s problem to her. He — with his extremely limited income as a seasonal greenhouse head grower (in a bad economy to boot) and stay-at-home dad — must pay for the repairs in full in her eyes, and guilt trips him over it.

Since he could not afford a roofer, he planned to do it himself (much like he often repairs his road vehicle for similar reasons).

Believe it or not, lettuce was actually growing, too.

The repairs were taking Matt all Summer, and his inexperience with roofing compounded greatly by his fear of heights meant that little to no progress.

With Fall weather approaching, Matt’s brother Chris, sister-in-law Rung, and his mother Mary loaned him the $4,500 to pay for a professional roofer so the job was to be completed before the Winter. When we handed the money over, we distinctly said that Melissa is to pay it back and not Matt, as she works full time and Matt is a stay-at-home dad. Again, years later, Matt cannot pay it back, and his wife had other things to spend money on that were more important (like, multiple daily deliveries for herself from Walmart, Amazon, flatbed tractor-trailer hauls from Lowe’s, UPS, USPS, Fed Ex, etc…).

GoFundMe

Fundraiser for Matt’s roof repair… deleted. But the debt remains…

Matt has kept the karts and track running strong for 25+ years for no pay. Whatever nominal rental donations he gets, go completely to kart parts and gas. They do not cover his work, and most people don’t have the time to help him. We set up a GoFundMe if anyone wished to help Matt out and collectively help him pay his debt to his mom, brother, and sister-in-law.

We plan to return to regular racing in June 2022, and we are contemplating two Klassics (or maybe a Mid-Summer Championship) to make up for our lost season and have a 2021 Make-up Champion along with a 2022 Champion. UPDATE: We returned to racing in 2022, but without enough regular drivers, we were unable to hold a 2022 Klassic.

Summer 2022 UPDATE – GoFundMe… is gone, but the money is still owed in full:

For some reason, the GoFundMe was deleted. We were never given a reason or warning, and it earned $0.00 and Matt has still been unable to pay it back in addition to his wife being as adamant in her position as ever. So… here we are.

Well… at least Chris and Matt’s kids got to enjoy the track in 2021 and early 2022. But… Don’t even get started on Melissa demanding a little kid who visited to pay $25 for a bent electric cart axle when she owes (ehrm, claims that she doesn’t owe) $4k for a roof. Lets… just drop that, okay?

Well, let’s not drop it, YET.

Why?

Well, because…

2022 Update: Melissa Threatens Small Claims Court Over a $25 Part on Her Daughter’s electric car

In the summer of 2022, Melissa threatened to take our family friend to small claims court over a $25 part on a kid’s toy.

This family friend — who we’ll call, “Ken” — is the father of the child in question who damaged her daughter’s cart. Yes, the same person who — all the way out in Mexico, NY — helped Matt haul lumber and roofing supplies, gave him two snowblowers, and a heater, on top of also offered to loan Matt a bulldozer for track work, and probably would’ve helped him haul clay to track, something way overdue for our rough corners.

All this track and kart and 4 daughters, no sons. Go figure…

But see, to Melissa… the roof, snowblowers, and help on the roof over her head mean nothing, she didn’t pay for them, they were given to her, and they do not cancel out the $25 part.

Granted, the child did sell lemonade at a stand to raise the money for the part and was grounded from his tablet. Melissa disapproved of the child having to earn the money as being “inappropriate”, but took the cash without even a sorry or a thank you.

Oh,  y the way… that $25 part? Well, they didn’t need it because Matt bent it back into shape in a few minutes. It’s a little easier to bend than a go-kart axle.

And, in Mel’s World, the roof supplies that Ken brought has nothing to do with her (despite her, her daughters, and her husband living under it), nor do the snowblowers (despite demanding that her husband snowblow the driveways before she works), nor the heater or the help given to Matt to fix it.

Nope. Because they aren’t hers. The kids’ cart *IS* hers. And it *HAD* to be posted on Facebook and *HAD* to be paid. Immediately.

Ken now seems to blame Matt, Chris, and Chris’ wife over Mel’s actions now. (And the demands she made may or may not have been posted from a hotel in Oswego about 10 minutes from where they live where she periodically stays with or without her husband to enjoy the hot tub and pool. Even though she has a hot tub and pool. And not enough money to pay for the roof she lives under, and pay back the people who babysit her kids when she’s gone from 4:3o AM TO 5/6 PM EVERY WEEKDAY, NAAW… Oh, did I forget to mention that she wrote Lowe’s on behalf of her daughter’s Christmas wish and apparently was supposed to get a roof as a prize, but that supposedly fell through after they needed a roof? But they kept getting things that couldn’t be nailed down from Lowe’s instead… hmmm…). I could go on and on with these stories, but… well, you get the drift.

And you know what? She’ll still post snarky, narcissistic comments all over her Facebook about us CONSTANTLY, too. Including public wishes on Facebook for our line of work to fail (we are sushi chefs and do contract work locally, she’ll never touch sushi but rated the new sushi place in Oswego as, “the best sushi that will put others to shame!”), and weird calls to our workplace, health department, and worker’s comp that we are breaking rules and regulations (completely exonerated on every charge, and they said they know it’s likely a disgruntled family member making false reports, they just simply have to follow through with them — and these reports are VERY specific, with things about us that nobody but family knows… but… who could have done this?).

And you know what’s crazy? People will still somehow take the side of the person who not only owes us $4.5k, but attack the people who loaned her the $4.5k and try to get them fired from work!

Wait… what’s that you say? Try to get us fired from work? Wha?! Well, yes…

Summer 2022 Update: Attack of The Gables… Part Nine-hundred and… oh, we lost count…

The Gabels, for reasons unknown to any of us, keep gossiping hateful lies to friends and family about us all, and then constantly call in our workplaces and authorities trying to get us fired at work. When confronted… this happens (see above).

Monica Gabel is Melissa’s mother and Matt’s mother-in-law. Ever since sometime in 2010, she has been caught on several occasions calling our friends and family (especially those that race with us) and gossiping all sorts of weird and delusional lies (please let us know if she has done this to you). When confronted, she says nothing and maybe will flip you off and angrily mumble something indecipherable (see above). So, on top of kidnapping Matt’s kids and not allowing him to see them (mentioned above as one of the main reasons our 2021 Season was canceled), she has constantly been a menace for well over a decade now.

What’s probably the worst case of all, she calls our workplace, the Health Department, Worker’s Compensation, and wherever else with exaggerations and outright lies about our business in an attempt to get us fired. For what, we don’t know… we barely see them as they live in Wolcott, we live in Oswego! In fact, when we 1st started the business in 2010-11, Melissa attacked me personally and said I’d, “never amount to anything!” and that we’d, “lose everything!” On top of this, when we were able to purchase our 1st home after saving (via living in my cramped parents’ home and saving as much as we could while working 364 days a year for years — which most people would never do), she lost her mind and turned up these accusations and hateful rhetoric.

There is more than one occasion where this has happened. We suspect more than we know (as sometimes we cannot figure out good friends who love to race with us just suddenly stop, SOMETIMES after being seen speaking with Monica? Hmm…).

The day when Monica Gabel revealed herself to the Jedi to have revenge… wait, I mean, angrily attacked me with delusional accusations of wrecking her daughter — but the video doesn’t lie, not that Monica would ever apologize. Psychotic, schizophrenic narcissists never do.

For example, in 2010, we lost what we felt were good friends in the Russell family — racing with George and his son Shadoe for a few years and always having a great time.

But we noticed they turned sour on us and said they were going to stop racing here. We were all puzzled, as we knew all the fun we all had racing (never once a problem). But apparently, something had been cooking behind the scenes.

One day, after a crazy late-season race in 2010, Monica attacked Chris after Melissa wrecked and accused him of wrecking her. The tape proved she was delusional, but not before Monica punched Chris in the back and screamed angrily at him. She then yelled at Aou and said, “GO AND WASH DISHES, YA’ CHINK!” and ran. When the tape proved there was noncontact, she never, to this day, EVER apologized and never spoke to me again (until the above video from 2022).

So… a few days later, we discovered that Monica had been contacting the Russells and had been lying with all sorts of false accusations, gross misrepresentations, and nonsensical exaggerations of things that were allegedly said in our home while watching our races. Back then, we used to transfer the then-videotapes to digitally formatted DVDs (with only our immediate family and… Melissa… around). The Russells were angry, and somehow believed my mom called Shadoe’s mom fat (she didn’t… she said that doesn’t pose in victory photos because she feels fat, and Melissa misinterpreted that as calling Mrs. Russell fat, told Monica, and she contacted them!), and that one of us called Shadoe a “R” word (none of us ever did, although some drivers did, drivers that they weren’t mad at. Smells like another Mel lie and Monica insanity!). The Russells then angrily bashed and fought us on Facebook, apparently believed Monica, never believed us and never came back. Why? Why does Monica do this? We have no idea!

Both Monica and her mom have been especially hateful  (and one could say racist and xenophobic) to my wife Rung (AKA Aou), and can often be seen staring laser holes at her, and on more than one occasion have said extremely hateful things like the aforementioned telling her to, “go wash dishes, ya Chink!” What… why?!

Aou was born in Thailand, moved to the U.S. in 2004, we married in 2005, started our small business in 2011, had children in 2014 and 2018 (while both of her parents died 3 days apart in 2018 and she could not fly to them 8-months pregnant!), and became a U.S. Citizen in 2019, all the time working hard for this.

Matt met Melissa in 2007 and they got married in 2008. At first, everyone got along, but for reasons unknown to us, Melissa and her family started to get extremely hateful and abusive towards us, especially Aou. All they say is angrily yell, “CHINK!” (an anti-Chinese slur, showing not only their ignorance but racist hate) and apparently (according to the above video) think that because in 2008 — literally days before Matt and Melissa’s wedding, when Aou happily and proudly served as her bridesmaid — when her Green Card needed renewal, the Gabels gave one of several letters of recommendation to the Immigration Office — saying that our marriage was real and not one of those fraudulent ones to stay in the U.S. over — and believe that they are 100% responsible for her being here. Their letter was not needed, we just gathered letters from everyone that knew us, but they believe THEY are the only reason and we are required to… what, kiss their asses or something? We don’t know! But Melissa loves to point US flags at us all the time… whatever that means.

Melissa also tells people that she won’t pay the roof back because she loaned us money for a vehicle in 2010. Yes, she did… we were $300 short for our car (and we didn’t have to take out a loan for so little), and we paid her back exactly three days later… something she leaves off. She also posts extremely insanely delusional and nonsensical accusations against us and even our mom (her mother-in-law, who allows her to live on her property rent-free and babysits most of the year for free) on social media (and all of our friends and family see it) ALL of the time. It also occasionally bleeds into our Active Karters-Only Message Group, which everyone gets sick of. So do we, which is why we never defend ourselves on Social Media, as it makes us look like bad guys if we ever do so.

2023 Update – Roof paid back or… NAH, LET’S GO TO DISNEY WORLD INSTEAD!

Melissa, while claiming she doesn’t make enough money to pay back the roof — despite her full-time job as a teacher’s aide for the Wolcott School District and side hustle as a pet groomer — and while constantly posting absolutely delusional lies, snarky pictures, and videos attacking the people who let her borrow $4.5k (that, alarmingly, people on Facebook ACTUALLY LIKE?!) BUT… she has the money to fully fund an 8-day/8-night vacation to…

Look, we are happy that Matt and his kids get to experience not only their 1st trip on a plane but also their 1st trip to Disney World, as we (me, my wife, and kids) did the prior January 2023 and he’s never gone on a trip like this in his life… but that’s not the point here. The point is… so much for Melissa not having enough money to pay back the roof over her head, but has enough for this trip AND nearly daily deliveries from Amazon, Walmart, USP, USPS, FedEx, DHL… the delivery people’s heads are spinning.

In the meantime, if anyone wishes to help Matt’s family pay back their debt, please consider it and contact us about it. Because his wife certainly won’t.

Closing note – Should this even be here?

There may be some people who think this shouldn’t be online on our karting website. Normally, I would agree. But… two things:

(1) Everything I wrote is true and wouldn’t be an issue if it didn’t shut down our season and bleed over to cause many fights in our karting message group, and…

(2) I ask you if you think that I shouldn’t post this… Do you tell Melissa the same thing when she:
– Posts completely delusional nonsense and absolute LIES against us on public social media posts?
– Owes $4.5k in debt to you?
– hates your guts,
– gossip about you and your spouse to your friends and family?
– blasts her nieces’ mom and dad in front of their grandmother, mostly lies and gross mis-exaggerations?
– takes snapshots of private messages between you and your brother out of context and shows them to everyone to try and make you look like an asshole?
– says racist things and calls racist slang about your spouse?
– and tries to get you and your wife fired from your job?

No?

If not, then shut up, have a seat, and enjoy the show.

Well… back to the karting coverage…

FULL SEASONAL ARCHIVES — Every Race Video in our History!

Scroll below to see HUNDREDS of our prior race videos dating between 1997-2020, and see how Matt was both in every single one of them, but also maintaining almost every single kart in them as well! With no pay whatsoever.

COMPLETE GALLETTA’S CLUB SEASON RACE AND COMPLETE VIDEO COLLECTION APPENDIX — 1990s-current:

Enjoy each of over two decades worth of our competitive point-racing seasons with hundreds of race pages and videos! Each season will have its own list of pictured race descriptions, point standings, driver profiles, and complete races on embedded videos to each race (as early as the 2002 Klassic and complete season videos dating back to mid-2005). This is exhaustively done, and I really hope you appreciate the work we put into the site and the hundreds of races we show you for no charge, just… all I ask is please don’t use ad-blockers to help cover the site and server costs (which it never does)! Thanks! – Chris

[WPSM_AC id=8610]

…and the net result of all-time points is…

ALL-TIME GALLETTA’S KARTING CLUB & SPEEDWAY ALL-TIME (2000-2020) POINT STANDINGS:

Drivers all-time stats at two of Oswego, New York’s Dirt Karting Tracks: Galletta’s Greenhouse Backyard Karting Speedway (2000-2020), and separately the Oswego Kartway [1-WD Mixed Motor Gas Division] (2006-2008). You can scroll the chart left, right, up and down to see all 371 different drivers on record. NOTE: In-season points are not added to this total until after the current season ends and pre-2000 Points & Wins are currently lost in storage (they will be added if located).