ADDRESSING BASELESS ATTACKS FROM THE RUSSELL FAMILY AND COMPLETE STRANGER FRIENDS:

From 2007 to 2010, we raced with Shadoe Russell and his father George Russell . These were people who we genuinely liked, as they were friendly with us, had a passion for racing, and decent sportsmanship. George proved to be a good driver from the start due to prior dirt racing experience, but Shadoe was a beginner and at first caused a lot of cautions -- some dangerous -- due to his inexperience and nerves. Over time, Shadoe improved into a solid competitor and even won a feature late in 2010. However, due to circumstances that were outside of our control, knowledge and jurisdiction, someone badmouthed us to the Russell family and they erroneously believed baseless gossip over our friendships and competitive kart racing partnerships. This is a shame, as we enjoyed that friendship and had fun racing the Russell's, but that friendship was ruined by people who have never raced a go-kart, nor even understand the races that they claim to watch, mixed with the irrational and threateningly violent temper that George Russell at times demonstrated to have. But on this website we not only document every race that we hold (videos, pictures, race result, descriptions, wins and points -- all for free, no charge and just for the fun of sportsmanship amongst friends and family), and also defend ourselves when attacked. Here is the story:

On 10/11/2010, Mary Russell, the wife and mother of Galletta's Karting Club drivers George and Shadoe Russell respectively, accused property owner Mary Stevens of calling her and her family horrible names, which nobody heard. George and Shadoe have raced with us incident-free for four years (2007-2010) and nobody at Galletta's would ever say anything like this. This all occurred on Facebook as follows (NOTE: if any of the pictures do not load, refresh the page, that may load it next time):

This was said on facebook on 10/11/2010 and went unseen by us until 10/15/2010, and in the meanwhile it was followed by horrible, malicious, cowardly and asinine comments by an ignorant "joke" of a total stranger who claimed to have been here yet we do not know and we have never met (and then rather cowardly refused to answer me, typical of two-faced dishonest gossip liars), yet and we are unable to respond to it, effectively being libel/slander and essentially a block of our freedom of speech. However, it did not end there, and it continued on Shadoe Russell's facebook on 10/14 through 10/16/2010, which was the very first time we heard of it and were able to respond to:

Since then, the above postings from Shadoe's Facebook have since been deleted (we at Galletta's all have been de-friended, but they remain friends with all of the people whom they met racing at Galletta's, including some that have called them vicious names behind their backs), and Mrs. Russell blocked us from her own Facebook, where she started all of these horrible comments to her facebook friends and allowed strangers that did not know us to take cheap and cowardly pot-shots without defense (so much for freedom of speech, no? One-sided cheap-shot comments while ignoring/blocking the other side of the story is NOT freedom of speech AND VERY biased, one-sided and hence VERY unsportsmanlike, Mrs. Russell and lil' bunny-face woman who we have never met but never let that stop a gossip!). The pictures are the only evidence of this we have. We never met these people, and if they ever were here to watch a race once, they never introduced themselves, thanked us for hosting a free race with their friends, nor had the intellectual honesty explain themselves in what they meant or come to us with any complaints. Since this woman never explained herself nor apologized to us for her hateful comments, I can only give a hypotheses to what she is talking about, as it is the only likely time that this self-deluded fool could possibly be talking about. In all likelihood, this baseless gossip was probably one of the spectators here cheering mindlessly for Shadoe as he proceeded to wreck himself and several competitors in a 2009 race (including taking out race leaders as a lapped kart, as he had done several times in 2007-2009, which made some people swear to never race anymore if we allowed him on our track because of the danger), causing a lot of anger and complaints that he was a hazard and needed to get the black flag for not only his own, safety, but the safety of everybody on and off the track (this mean hers too). Apparently, this woman is an ignoramus about safety and sportsmanship, as her vision was clouded by blind bias towards her friend Shadoe, as he had many people cheering for him despite his tenancy to be in last place and wreck any kart that got close to him. This happened in 2007-2009, oddly when Doe was... quite frankly... terrible and hazardous. In Doe's defense, he steadily improved and turned into a competent driver in 2010, but not that Melissa-Schilling-DeCandia would ever know, as she blindly judged us for being impartial officiating for safety purposes and stopped watching Shadoe race here and make improvements! If that is her idea of sportsmanship, she needs to reevaluate her entire worldview, as it is heavily ignorant and skewed to her own clouded personal opinion, shunning reality for her feelings no matter what empirical evidence is right in front of them. Typical of many people like her nowadays. Again, if this woman explained herself and apologized, then this page wouldn't need to exist. But because of hate-filled, slanderous people like her, the world has problems with dishonesty, libel, and baseless character assassination. You will never catch me doing that, as if I say something, you better believe I have proof and evidence to back my claim, and a clear and concise defense in my honor and the honor of whomever I am defending. Do you, MSD? The truth has no agenda, and the facts don't lie... but people do. Meanwhile, I have their libelous garbage for all to see right here. So, what exactly happened that would make our friends do this to us? My grandpa Galletta - founder of the greenhouse that sponsors this club and father of the property owner Mary Stevens - was a cop and I like playing detective, so let's piece it together, shall we? Let's look back.

Apparently, Monica Gable apparently traded phone numbers with the Russell's one race day earlier this year. When, we don't know, but it was well before the Klassic, as Monica was not there, and the Russell's were not at the previous day's race. Seems rather harmless, as we are all a friends-and-family race club, no? We all get along and have fun racing, and 99% of the people who race with us have nothing but great things about the fun of the race, the pro-level competition, the affordability, and thanks for us. That's the point of our club! In fact, the Russell's raced with us on and off between 2007-2010 with nary a complaint. However, something abruptly changed, and oddly enough, at the height of George and Shadoe's success (as they both won features late in the season). Apparently Monica called and told the Russell's over the phone that Mary Stevens called them names and said that she didn't want the Russell's here. This is simply untrue. If it were true, why would we have built a complete kart for Shadoe, and a motor for George, stored them for long periods of time over the last two years, handicap them on the pole, invite them to all of our races and done everything we could to help them race with us? All the while when the other local track that we used to race at didn't want us to bring them? Not to mention how their karts are all prepared for pennies on the dollar- something that would cost thousands of dollars for anybody else to do for any other race class in the country, bar none. Think about it. What sense does it make? Well none, unless you piece some evidence together.

Why would Monica Gable, Matt's mother-in-law, say such horrible things about us to people she hardly knows? Especially odd is how Monica has called and spoken to Mary Russell (a stranger who she just met and barely knows) seemingly more than Mary Stevens (her daughter's mother-in-law of 2 years). That is a rather good question. Gee... why would she? Hmmm... well, maybe it is an odd coincidence, but maybe... just maybe it has something to do with one night prior to the first rant posted by Mrs. Russell. Let's have a flashback, shall we?

On the 2nd of two rather pointless and semi-boring 30-Lap "Fall Bonus Point" Features at Galletta's on 10/10/2010, Chris Stevens was accused of pushing his sister-in-law Melissa off of the track. However, the evidence in the animated shot (on the left is a smaller-scale thumbnail, but you can click on this picture to view a larger animated picture of the accident) does not align with the accusations. She drove off the track untouched, and had done it a few times before, most clearly on 8/8/2010. However, this did not stop Monica Gable. She angrily blamed yours truly, Chris Stevens for the wreck because I was battling Matt right behind her and was riding "too close" to Melissa, and told both me and my wife Au to "Go to hell!" Monica also called Au, who is Thai, a "CHINK!" Needless to say, everyone was stunned, as we have always gotten along great with Monica before this occurred. A part of racing is racing tight and close, and you have to be able to handle that and not wreck yourself. You also mustn't blame innocent people when a wreck occurs. It's a sport, and sportsmanship is what is called for, not angry attacks. This was all simply stunning. I simply said nothing other than "I didn't even touch her. But nobody yelled at her when she clearly put me off the track earlier this year. Please get off the track so that we can resume the race." I also knew the tape would prove my innocence, and just wanted the race to resume, while my wife Au was so stunned and hurt by Monica's actions that she had could not continue recording the rest of the event and then also could not eat or sleep that night. Monica also falsely accused Au of pointing in her face and telling her to get out, which clearly did not happen and no eyewitness can back up. As I recall, Au simply told her that I wasn't even near Melissa when she went off the track, and she asked Monica, "what if the tape proves you wrong?" -- Which it did, not that Monica ever watched it. She just told Au to, "shut up!"

So... what is the conclusion? It should be obvious to annybody with even the slightest cognative skills who read this and put two and two together.

Monica Gable, clearly mistaken and possibly delusional about the nature of our racing (and how close racing and little bumps aren't against the rules provided that it causes no wrecks), angrily ranting false accusations and even after spewing racist comments against anybody who drove too close to her daughter Melissa, further backstabbed her own family - her own daughter's in-laws, as she called Mary Russell and told her anything she could think of in order to sow discord against us - including how people were afraid to tell Shadoe he was racing light and that George was racing recklessly, exaggerating what Mary Stevens said about not wanting to pose in pictures because she has a weight problem (and misjudging it as an intentional slight against Mary Russell), and lying that anybody in our home ever called Shadoe a bad name (rather, other people - that he is all still friends on facebook with - did in fact call him the name). Well, it worked. The Russell's bought it. Congrats, Monica. As if we didn't have enough problems with some other local racers not liking us, you gave friends more.

Now, back to the comments, which continued for one more final exchange before the Russell's deleted and de-friended us. The final few comments are found below:

Mary Galletta Stevens wrote:
"Here we are again , some disgruntled people and some more accusations against us at Galletta’s.  It all started because twenty years ago a 14-year-old kid bought a go-cart, then his brother bought one, then their father got one to race with them. Then friends joined, then we made our own carts, then word of mouth and we had people we don’t even know racing. Some of these people were those that didn’t know how to race. We have no control over the fact that they don’t drive well. All kinds of people came -- some nice, some mean, some even cheat to beat us which made us speed our own karts up, hence riskier driving. I hear it all of the time, “someone may get hurt,” but no one is more concerned than me. I complain,  but I am outnumbered by those who enjoy the racing so much. Out of respect to my family, I concede, and time  after time I stand by and watch people attack us, hurt our feelings and leave for what they see as greener pastures, because it can’t be their fault so it must be ours. This is our home, we open our yard to people out of the goodness of our hearts, to have fun, for friendship and good times.  WE ARE NOT A PROFESSIONAL RACETRACK, we are a bunch of friends (maybe so, but some maybe not), because friends stick around, and when I look around, I don’t see many. Maybe it is pride, maybe competitiveness, but some people seem to think that the only way to beat Chris and Matt is to race somewhere else. I am a Christian, have been, all of my life. I believe the Bible, that he who would be first, let him be last. In other words , put others first and God will bless you, I believe God with all of my heart. Matt and Chris were raised this way and God always helps them, they don’t cheat, they are blessed.
May God have mercy on the people who turn on us, the principals by which we live will guide us all of our lives, and we feel good about our dealings with them. People come and people go, but God is a friend who sticks closer than a brother, and so we have peace. We are not perfect, but we never stop trying. 
Maybe people who read this will understand, maybe not, but at the end of the day you have to live with yourselves. We can. If we always try to do right, then God will bless us. You can badmouth us, but you can’t ever take that away from us.
I understand that many will not accept any of this advice and this is fine. Someone once said, “ you can’t get blood out of a stone.”  I wrote it in a poem a little different.  I said “ A stone does not live or die, but only is a stone.” Some people never see the truth, they just exist, and when their life is done, they have only served themselves so no one remembers them. Yet those who love humanity  and leave a part of themselves will leave a memory that will never die, but those who are spiritually dead will never really understand what it is like to really be alive.
Good luck to all of  those who are not with us, I hope you feel that you have finally won. I hope your lives have been made richer , and that you have better memories of racing than the memories that you have left us.
Mary Stevens, property owner.

PS - To the Russell’s: In the past I have lashed out against people because I was tired of being snubbed and talked about on my own property, but I didn’t say anything towards your family, and I never said what I have been accused of saying by Monica. Many people have stabbed Matt & Chris in the back and now it appears to all that you now have done this too. I must admit and some people are agreeing with me now. I was right as usual. I don’t care if you race here or not, and we are certainly not begging you, but you are slandering us, and it is uncalled for. Matt and Chris are excellent drivers, they race clean and fair and they are not the cause of your troubles, and we don’t control the way the other people drive. Do you want us to ban everyone who you crash with, and be accused of being unfair?  Shadoe crashed a lot the ‘07-‘08 Oswego Kartway Classics, we didn’t ban him and we helped and raced with him for all this time, even building and repairing his kart. You have no loyalty and if you continue with that attitude, I am sure you will not succeed at any other track, but good luck. Also the Kartway management will say anything to get customers, we’ve heard it all. The problem with them is, they can’t handle the jealousy of seeing real driving talent in more affordable, homemade karts. Oh well, birds of a feather. One more thing, ganging up on people, especially with those who we have never met, is the most cowardly thing anyone can do, so why not team up with some more hateful people against us while you’re at it. I guess I do know all about truth.  Here we go again, a stone does not live or die, but only is a stone. Prove me wrong, you won’t.  One last thing: You all owe Matt an apology. He doesn’t deserve any of this poor treatment."

Then one final comment before the deletion and the de-friend-ing but Shadoe (which is ironic considering that Shadoe befriends everybody, including total strangers, fictional characters, celebrities, and two or three people that I have personally heard them call him the "R" word FOR REAL):

Mary Russell  wrote:
"You know what mary we have heard enough of your crap, first of all where would monica get this if it didn't come from you, and you stated that you apologized if I recall, second of all my husband and shadoe paid alot of money for their Karts and your son matt was paid well, so I don't want to here any of that, and like I said were done with this whole matter, as far as my son is concerned he dosn't need any special treatment I am very proud of my son, he did well this year I suppose you helped him be a better driver!!!!!!! you sure got enough bs I tell you that and  your making your self look like you have done nothing I wish that you would just drop this whole thing cause your looking like the ass here, were not teaming up with anyone we as a family stick together and we believe all should be treated equal and it's all about the galleta's they have to win all the time when they brake down or spin out do they go back of the track oh no they go right back in their spots let me tell you not only do we see this but others also and maybe they are afraid to tell the truth but I will not stand for your hurtful comments to me and my son, and you even admitted it , so take your stories and all your comments and keep them in your good Bible really tired of all the boo who shit from all of you all we don't owe anyone anything we paid everytime we came to that track and everything that matt has done for george's and shadoe's kart, so as far as we are concerned this is so done put a fork in it, carry on with your track people will see how you truly work and carry on with this nonsense of yours so mary please keep your comments to yourself cause we wish not to hear from you anymore cause you don't make any sense your just trying to cover up what you have said about my family and your trying to turn everything on us so you don't look bad, have a good night"

After Mary Russell said that final post, the conversation was then deleted and her son de-friended us. We will not allow the slander/libel to stand. As far as I am concerned, one of my favorite commentators once said, "You always know who won a debate. The person who doesn't run away and who isn't ashamed to continue the conversation, and posts the debate on their website." We have nothing to hide and are not ashamed of anything we have written. We are, however, offended about the slanderous and untrue things being said about us, and we never stand for it. You may answer and respond here: