Galletta's Karting Club

The Galletta’s Karting Club & Backyard Speedway Scoring System

POINTS SCORING SYSTEM FOR GALLETTA’S GO-KARTS RACES:
– Points are tallied after each race and posted after each race all over this website. Our annual point series start with the first race of our year (usually the first Sunday in June), consistently runs every weekend all summer (every Sunday afternoon, but changes to some Saturdays during September) and ends with the Galletta’s Klassic Championship 200 (usually a Saturday in late-September or early-October based on weather and best possible driver totals). After the Klassic 200, the points are added to the year’s total, which in turn decides the annual track champion. We have an inconsistent Fall Challenge Series which does not count towards that year’s total, but as a separate Fall Bonus Point series, which in turn does get added to the Overall Point Series. Despite “professional” kart tracks superiority complex over our small but successful band of backyard racers, only Galletta’s has been operating since the early 1990s, decides an overall champion (and not a dozen mini-champions based on age, weight and motor) and has complete points and win records of every race and every season since 2000. 
– Since the late-1990s, all of our races have been scored by the following scale. A longer race awards more points than a shorter one, as each race is scored progressively according to how many laps it is. So for example, finishing last in a 200-lapper is more points than winning a 50-lapper. Also, bonus points are awarded based on laps scored in pedestal positions (top 3). It goes as follows:

LEADER BONUS POINTS SCORING:

In Feature events, bonus points are awarded to the top three drivers each lap as follows:
1st place = 1.0 point per lap
2nd place = 0.5 point per lap
3rd place = 0.5 point per lap

EXPANDED POINTS (Now includes 12 and 15 lappers)

 Race Classification:

– 8-lap, 10-lap and 12-lap races are considered heats. They usually do not have a full complement of active drivers and are more or less considered to be warmup races for bonus points.
– 15-Laps and up are considered “Feature Events.” Most regular features since the mid-2000’s have been 45 laps with 10-lap heats (occasional twin 30s, or 55-lappers without heats) and most “Rookie Races” tend to be 20-laps unless excessive wrecks shorten the show. An “All-Rookie” or “Winless” race is called a B-Main, as regular veteran racers and prior feature winners are not included in these. These count in a no-man’s land of a feature win, sometimes a 1/2 win.
– Our Annual “Classic Championship Race”, for us is known as “Galletta’s Karting Klassic”, is 200-laps as of 2007-and-up. [Prior to 2007, it had progressively increased in length (from 80 to 100, to 130, so on until 200) until we have experimented and reached the 200-Lap mark, which it will stay in honor of the race it was based on and gives homage to, the Oswego Speedway Supermodified International Classic — even though we score it and count ours towards our track points title and Oswego does not (IMO, it would make it even more interesting if they did, but admittedly would remove some luster from the last regular season race).]
– Cautions do not count unless (a) excessive cautions require cautions to be counted and the starter pauses the race to inform drivers that he will count further cautions, and (b) the Galletta’s Klassic 200 also counts cautions until the final 20 laps, which must be all-green. All races must finish under green at Galletta’s. Period. No awarding winners with passes under caution like some other local place did.

Additional notes on the scoring:

– Fall races are themselves post-season exhibition bonus point races (count for “All-time points” and “Fall series” races only) and do not earn leader bonus points. Why? Because it is very hard and time-consuming to score all of these races by hand (and calculator based on watching the taped races very carefully each week) and the point tally man needs a break. If we had more help, we would count them.

• Annual Galletta’s Klassic had never had awarded bonus points for laps-led until 2006-and-up, and now they do in order to increase the integrity of the racing by giving an incentive of leading early in such a long event. Before that, some drivers would purposefully stay in the back to save their karts for a late-charge. This way, drivers will want a piece of the top three positions, especially if positioning in the standings is at stake.

– Novice/Beginner/Newbie/Rookie traces (we count a novice/rookie as a driver in his first season, with less than 20 Galletta’s feature races under their belt) are sometimes scored as a heat, sometimes scores as a feature depending on how many drivers and how many laps are in that event. To be scored when you are a beginner, you must have signed and printed your name legibly on our Liability Waiver Sheet, and report to head point statistician (Chris Stevens) your clearly legible name and which kart you are driving. Otherwise, you may not get properly scored if there is any confusion. Our All-Time Points scale is littered with well more than a dozen drivers who raced only once or twice (mostly between 2000-2004) and never printed their name legibly nor said which kart they were driving. Please print your name clearly and report which kart you are driving, and you will be on our website in whatever season’s race that you entered and in our All-Time point scale.

STARTS (HANDICAPPING):
– Regular season races start in handicapped order. Galletta’s has a highly specialized handicap system in order to give every driver their best possible shot of getting a fair race in addition to making the competition at it’s best. It is loosely based on the Oswego Speedway handicap system, but we put our own touch on it. Instead of money-earning, we base ours after wins earned and points-per-race so that we never reward the fastest/highest-point-earning drivers unfairly starting ahead of less successful drivers unless a statistical anomaly occurs (i.e. not enough drivers race and everybody on the track is a high-point-earner/multi-time winner). Each start is usually inverted from points-per-race, with experienced low point-earners in front, high-points earners/race winners in back and beginners in the very back until they both earn enough points to register in the PPR standings and also prove they can race without wrecking). The Galletta’s handicap goes as follows:

REGULAR SEASON HANDICAP STARTS:
Group A: Racers who have raced at least once during the current season, have not ever won at any time prior race or season at Galletta’s, and start inverted by points-per-race.
Group B: Racers who have raced at least once during the current season, have not won in the current season, but have won at least one feature in prior seasons at Galletta’s, and start inverted by points-per-race.
Group C: Racers who have raced at least once during the current season, have won at least one feature during the current season at Galletta’s, and start inverted by points-per-race. If the starting order stays stagnant (too similar) week to week, and due to this some drivers collect more wins than others, then the start of this group will be revised to invert firstly total wins and secondly invert points-per-race. The handicap order is flexible in order to ensure the best possible chance for different drivers to win and not favor repeat winners (which every race class in the world has a problem with from time to time).
Group D: Racers who have not raced at least once during the current season but have raced in prior seasons at Galletta’s, inverted by either total career wins, weight, or order of qualification (it basically does not matter which and can be discussed before the race to whatever they agree to).
Group E: Racers who have never raced at Galletta’s, inverted by either weight, order of qualification, or chance (it basically does not matter which and can be discussed before the race to whatever they agree to).

Note: We sometimes will change up the formula if the race starts are identical every week, but it will always favor those who haven’t won by starting them up front and making sure prior winners and high point scorers will have to start in the rear and work harder for those positional points and wins. This handicap start formula does have one weakness, however… if we don’t have enough regular drivers, it becomes harder and harder to handicap prior winners, and when we run several races like this (with say 4-8 drivers), a driver can rack up easy wins without having to work too hard for it (we routinely had 10-15 kart races through most of 2002-2013, those wins were MUCH HARDER to earn).

KLASSIC 200 START:
– Klassic starts — in the tradition of and in homage to the Oswego Speedway Supermodified Classic 200 — via Time-Trial order, which is the only time all season that rewards the most successful drivers with a better starting order. Each driver is allowed on the track in the order of the Point Standings after the final regular-season race prior to Klassic.  They are allowed 3 laps (1 warm-up lap and 2 timed laps). The starting grid shall be from the fastest to the slowest, and that order is scored the same as a 10-lap heat. The Klassic is also the only race where we start double-file. All other Regular season and Fall races start single-file in order to help less successful drivers get a fighting chance to maintain their positioning.

PENALTIES:
– We do have point penalties at Galletta’s for infractions (such as under-weight, not going to the back when in an accident, passing under caution, ignoring/disobeying the head flagger, using a back-up kart that you did not start the race with, and being a hazard on the track wrecking people). See more on our rules page.

• All races are videotaped, and the races are scored after each race’s video is reviewed. Positions and penalties are sometimes changed after careful review (if you are caught on tape doing something illegal and no official caught it live, this isn’t pro-wrestling or other pro-sports… you don’t get away with it. We will penalize you in hindsight, although all of these penalties are extremely rare, often quite lenient and posted on our website — you won’t find many of any). All races are also available via purchasable DVD copies and highlight reels are often seen on every race page and on our YouTube channel.

• We also have All-Time Point/Win totals:
  Our ALL-TIME GALLETTA’S TRACK POINTS LIST is here.
  Our ALL-TIME 1-WD GAS STOCKER OSWEGO KARTWAY POINTS list is here.