Galletta's Karting Club

Welcome to the Galletta’s Greenhouse Karting Club & Backyard Speedway’s website!

What We Do: We race customized backyard racing go-karts weekly on a dirt track behind Galletta’s Greenhouses in the Town of Oswego, New York, USA. We’re mostly just a bunch of friends and family, but always looking for more drivers to join us! What We’re About: Founded in the early 1990s, Galletta’s Karting Club & Backyard Speedway was created to race go-karts as competitively as we can for as purposefully affordable as we can (via rules), using karts that are hybrid – something between a prefabricated racing kart and a yard kart that can race fast and safe on both pay tracks and backyard tracks alike, all the while having drivers that are highly talented and experienced racers WITHOUT spending wars. The original, longest-running, and largest karting class in the area, we are also the easiest to join — we have over 20 equally fast, feature-winning, arrive-and-drive karts and over the years of hundreds of races have amassed a massive list of hundreds of drivers join into the weekly Summer-Fall races. If you like it, rent, build, or buy your own for a few hundred dollars to join and compete (instead of a few thousand like most pay track classes to take to join and compete, as we CAP the type or parts and prices). And, some of the more experienced drivers at Galletta’s have been racing more than a decade before any of the local pay tracks were built and some have hundreds of more races under their belts. Come race where Kyle Reuter once called, “the Rucker Park of karting.”

2024/8/13 – Twice-Rained-out Raindate Twin 20s Won by Chris Stevens & Matt Stevens [+YouTube] 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 13th, 2024, OSWEGO, N.Y. – A rainy Sunday led to a raindate of Monday, which led to another rainout, which led to Tuesday — which happens to be Faith Stevens’s 10th birthday! Unfortunately, we only had 2 visiting drivers make it, but we decided to force the show with only 5 drivers (2 of whom took laps for points and pulled off) as we may not race for at least another weekend or two: Matt Stevens has a family vacation to Florida all next week, and upon his return, we may be dealing with Chris and his wife (who is our heroic camera-woman that around 99.9% of the tower race videos are by) getting busy with work. Not to mention our alarming lack of competitors.

2024/08/04 – 28th Season Opener Winners: AJ Larkin & Matt Stevens

Sunday, August 4th, 2024, Oswego N.Y. – FINALLY! The 2024 Season is upon us! Later than ever, but better than never! And there was great racing for sure, and Anthony ‘AJ’ Larkin looked like he was shot out of a cannon in both races, but overdrove in turn 4 just a tad in the 1st feature while leading and crashed, leading to a Matt Stevens inheriting and once again padding his career win stats. However, AJ regrouped as he again stormed off with the lead in the 2nd Feature after passing Andrew Hook early on, but this time stayed there for good, securing the win, his 2nd at Galletta’s. Everyone hopes some of that rubs off when he races SBS at Oswego Speedway and he gets a win there as well! More info on the race page, here.

2024 Galletta’s Greenhouse Backyard Karting Point Standings (After 8/4/2024)

Pos.	Name (Karts Driven) / * = Makeups	Total Points	Average Points Per	Features Entered	Feature Wins	Feature Win %	Won / Heat & Makeup	17 Race Seasons	All-Time Wins	Last Race Entered	Last Week
1	AJ Larkin (Galletta’s #9; 7	132.5	66.25	2	1	50%	0/0	(R)	2	2024-08-04	3
2	Chris Stevens (Galletta’s #4, 8)	119.0	59.50	2	0	0%	0/0	28th	91	2024-08-04	1
3	Matt Stevens (Galletta’s #3, 74)	116.0	58.00	2	1	50%	0/0	28th	158	2024-08-04	2
4	Andrew Hook (Galletta’s #0, 78)	99.0	49.50	2	0	0%	0/0	2nd	2	2024-08-04	7
5	Melissa Stevens (SNFr #19)	86.0	43.00	2	0	0%	0/0	11th	8	2024-08-04	6
6	Greg Blanchard (Galletta’s #43)	82.0	41.00	2	0	0%	0/0	(R)	1	2024-08-04	0

RACE SCHEDULE:

• • NEXT RACE – TBA POSSIBLY SUNDAY AUGUST 25th, 2024!!!! We originally planned on Sunday, July 28th, 2024, but it was a practice session for just Matt and Chris Stevens and Andrew Hook. Matt did a lot of work to the turns and they feel better than they did all 2023. Special thanks to AJ Larkin, who greatly assisted on the track’s repair with his 4-wheeler and welding for our much-abused track drag!The 2024 Season Opener was originally scheduled for the first available Sunday in June 2024 was delayed almost two months because of a lack of a track vehicle! Our last two broke due to rust and other age issues. So… A TRACK WORK AND/OR A LOT VEHICLE FOR TRACK WORK IS NEEDED!!!!: Head track & Kart maintainer Matt asks if anyone would like to chip in and help work on the track, or knows of someone who can either sell or donate a cheap “lot truck” to drag and pack the track, so we can get the 1st race underway. Or just offer to collectively pitch in with your own. Any help and/or donations will be counted towards racing and track time!! Matt is hopeful we can begin one of these weekends but admits it has been harder due to greenhouse work and raising his two daughters… but the track needs some TLC… last year’s Klassic was rough due to the lack of a track work vehicle at our disposal. That reminds me…

• • 2023 FINALIZED POINT STANDINGS ARE DONE AND THE EDITED/NARRATED KLASSIC VIDEO IS FORTHCOMING: Head video editor/points and statistics compiler/website editor Chris apologizes for the massive delays in an updated finalized 2023 Point Standings. Much like his brother, Chris has also been busy, what with a day job running a small business with his wife all Fall-Spring, raising his own two daughters, chipping in with his parents’ greenhouse, and a well-needed vacation last winter meant that the website didn’t get an update all offseason. Chris is working on it now! Whether you can chip in and help with track work or race (preferably both), we hope to see you there!

The Next Race:

June 2023 | Either the 26th Annual Klassic 200-Lap Championship, or 27th Annual Season Opener… or Both?! This Year? Next Year 2023? …Up to YOU!

• Some Weekend in June 2023 – The  26th Annual 200-Lap Point Championship Klassic, which would be set to run in the afternoon after the completion of the Time Trials and the Starting Grid Klassic pictures in Fall 2022… IF weather and racers cooperated! …weather held up, but not enough drivers showed! We have either cancelled the 2022 Klassic or postponed it to the 2023 Opener. Again… Driver dependant! Stay Tuned.
• Postponed to… whoever weather and drivers allow: Despite the weather being unbelievably excellent for all but one weekend all Summer and Fall, our race season has been sporadic due completely to poor driver attendance, but the show must go on. Fortunately, enough drivers have agreed to show up for our Klassic Championship, which is usually our point season Finale. Sadly, not enough of our drivers were unable to cooperate and show up for any of the great weather weekends we had that could’ve run a 200-Lapper in the DAYLIGHT. It deeply puzzled founders/racers Matt and Chris, who had been ready to roll the entire season, but then it dawned on us… most of our guest racers are Buffalo Bills fans, and we know they never show up to let alone win Championships or back up all the bragging we hear from them! Aaah!!!! Now it all makes sense!

When Do We Usually Race?: Races are scheduled every Summer Sunday (June-August) evening, and then every Fall Saturday (September-October) afternoon (unless poor driver attendance or bad weather forces us to cancel). Exact timing TBA and based on active driver consensus. This is subject to change based on the weather’s effect on the track condition, and driver count. In addition, our schedule is flexible, and depending on weather and driver availability, we can occasionally change to Fridays or Saturdays to beat rain or for a special event. But our go-to dates for racing are usually every Summer Sunday and every Fall Saturday that we can race. What Do We Race?: We race mostly custom-built ‘arrive-and-drive rental’ but also allow ‘run-what-you-brung’ karts (classed only by motor type with weight handicaps; our fleet is completely race-modified Briggs 5hp flathead engines, see Matt for details on work done to each motor and what is allowed based on weight and/or experience). Our class is a maximum of 20 qualifiers on track, and we’ve never had too many racers, rather we rarely have enough drivers to fill all of our open karts. Come on up! Keep in touch for more details. Read on to see our twenty-year history of weekly points racing (with COMPLETE race videos and complete rundowns of each season since 1995 – and race from 2005) every June through October in Oswego, NY! Enjoy!

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