Chris, looking nerded-up at the 2008 Galletta's Klassic 200 Lapper in the Galletta's Greenhouse #8!

<-Chris "The Cerebral Chrusher" Stevens won his fourth overall feature of the 2007 Oswego Karting season (three at Galletta's and one at Oswego), The Gary Miller/Ogre Retirement 45-Lapper on 11/4/2007. Chris won in the Galletta's #4, which used to be his regular kart in 1996 until he started using the Galletta's #2, the same time that Wes "Ogre" Stevens switched to the #4 permanently. However, Ogre is now retired due to his bone-crushing accident during the Klassic, and Chris's sore back needed the #4's soft cushy seat. First win for Chris in the #4 since the 1990s.

Galletta's Greenhouse hosted box stock gas flathead Briggs and Stratton 5hp karting races from 1990-2004, until visitors began making racing enhancements to their karts in 2005 (we've allowed some since, as seen in our rules page). Back in the early days, founding brothers Matt and Chris (and occasionally their dad Wes) used to battle it out in fierce back-and-forth battles with many a swear word and dirty wreck. They cut their teeth in those formative days, which is why they are such clean, calm, and formidable drivers nowadays. <-Here is Chris before winning the 1999 Klassic in the Galletta's #2 - ending his brother's 3-year reign as Galletta's Klassic Champion.

Favorite drivers (from big race divisions):
Himself; his brother (to beat - HA!); Oswego Supermodified drivers Doug Didero, Bentley Warren, Doug Heveron, Joe Gosek, anybody who races for the Syrell team, Kelly Miller*, and Randy Ritskes* among others. Other past/present Oswego drivers who raced with us and I cheer for when they race are Cameron & Fran Rowe*, Buddy Cottom*, Russ Bartlett* and Ryan Coleman*. Everybody who regularly races Go-Karts with us, has a great time, respects what we do, doesn't whine is also in this list! I can't name you all, thanks!
* = Oswego Supermodified and SBS drivers that have raced with us at Galletta's!

Least-Favorite Drivers:
Drivers that can't race clean. Drivers who bump, ram, and/or dump other drivers. Drivers who lose their temper too easily. Drivers who think that a bigger motor means a better racer. Overly boastful winners. People who will only race with bigger motors than you. Guys that race with us a few times, lose badly, then accuse us of cheating (some of whom also copy all of our ideas and build & race their own tracks). But the worst are drivers in other more expensive classes who think that our affordable brand of karting that we invented and built from scratch is "retarded" or inferior to them, look down on us, and think they're the $#it. Please. Enter our class at any time and see if you got what it takes. You'll either respect what we do and have a ton of fun, or get really annoyed that you get beat. ;-)

Occupation:
Chris' Art Studio:


Chris' artist profile:

Please buy Chris's new children's book (co-created and written by Robert Buchanan)
named, Tee and Wee: Health and Nutrition for Young Earthlings, ON SALE NOW:

Buy it or get a sneak-preview.

Chris' kid-friendly/family-friendly comic strip named Towner (with over 10 years of comics):


Chris' 2007 Graphic Novel, a drama; Chrusher - End Cycle:


Chris's 1988-1999 teen-to-adult-humor comic book named "ChrusherComix" (with over 20 years of comics):

Those that don't like his comics are subject to sore defeat in them and on the track.

Hobbies & interests:
Being with family & friends; His graphic art and cartooning websites (Chrusher and Towner); his Children's book (Tee and Wee) Judeo-Christian apologetics (favorites are Dr. Ravi Zacharias and KGOV's Bob Enyart Live); Fan/collector of composer John Williams' film scores with over 400 CDs and DVDs with his music; favorite movies include the Star Wars saga , Indiana Jones movies, and along with countless other films and collects collectibles related to them; fan of San Antonio Spurs basketball (when the refs aren't screwing them) and NY Jets football; loves visiting Thailand (his wife's native country); Collector of 1980s Transformers "G1" collectibles, comics & animation and 1980s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, as he grew up on both. Crushing people who cross him in his comics (and occasionally his go-kart site), hence his nickname, "ChrusherComix" - which is short for, "Chris' Crusher Comics." Pet lover who owns countless pets, including cats, turtles, toads, frogs, and fish. Loves computers, and home theatre systems, and debating outspoken whiney atheist/leftist-liberal/progressive/pro-death/pro-big-government/anti-Christian types (but he also admits that it's difficult to debate intellectually dishonest people who allow their hearts to cloud their minds with hate, lie to try and prove a point, don't admit it when they are refuted with empirical evidence, don't believe in truth, reject absolutes and don't believe in the law of non-contradiction). And, of course, karting (as long as it doesn't mean spending every waking moment and every free cent on the karts)!

Christopher Galletta Stevens

Create Your Badge

More of Chris & Matt's complete racing history is found here:

More Q&A with Chris:

Chassis: Galletta's #8 and #5 are both Ogre Chassis. Driven the other Galletta Karts too. When my father "Wesley Ogre" retired from weekly competition (mainly because his wife, my mom, will not let him anymore), I have also re-taken the Galletta's #4 as my backup, as it was originally mine when we bought it new out of the box for the club.
Engine: Stock Briggs & Stratton 5hp flatheads tuned "Galletta's style" by Matt Stevens. I would have nobody else work on my motor. Nobody could top him without flat-out cheating. He's just that good.
Crew Chief: Myself and Matt Stevens.
Pit Crew: Matt Stevens, Wesley Ogre Stevens, Melissa (Gabel) Stevens, myself.
Sponsors: Galletta's Greenhouse, ChrusherComix Inc., Emperor Sidious Palpatine, yo' mama.

How and where did you become involved in racing?
As the history section shows, my brother and I have been watching Supermodifieds at Oswego Speedway since early childhood, and used to play race with pedal karts and matchbox cars as toddlers. In our teens, we bought a couple of yard karts, raced them in our backyard with friends and family and then it slowly it took off from there by modifying them into hybrid racing karts - half yard kart, half race kart. Oddly, I am incredibly bored by other classes and forms of racing other than wingless Supermodifieds at Oswego Speedway and our own brand of incredibly affordable and competitive karting. [But even so, after the way the Speedway management treated us and our favorite driver in recent years, I've even lost my love of that track. Good thing we still have our own backyard racing, or I'd be done with the sport or motorsport altogether.]

Why do you race at Galletta's Greenhouse Go-Kart Speedway?
Because it is my home track in my back yard. Duh! What a dumb question. Idiot. But seriously, we created our own class because not only we made a karting track in our backyard, but to keep costs down. To build a WKA kart, you're talking about thousands of dollars for a competitive machine. Similar for Champs. Other racing vehicles are the same, but even more costly. Our karting is regulated in order to be able to make a competitive machine that can win races for just a few hundred dollars. $200-500 and you got yourself a kart that can race with us. People always tell us to jump into other classes, change our rules to allow methanol or expensive racing parts, but they just don't get it. We do our class to keep an exciting race with 10-15 karts on a track bumper-to-bumper close with one mistake being the difference between a win and last. Try that in today's economy on any other track in the local area. We almost always have the closest and biggest shows, mainly thanks to my brother's diligence in making every motor as close to equal as he can make it, and our friends for sticking to it and developing into good racers. We're always looking for more, so if you're reading this and like the idea of weekly racing for just a few hundred dollars, then please join us. No other class is more affordable and competitive from first to last place.

Why do you race at Oswego Kartway?
We grew up watching the races at Oswego Speedway (the Kartway's parent track and behind where the track is located), so it's fun to race where we saw so many great races through the years. Not to mention it is a vastly different track to Galletta's and it makes for a fun change up. Our track has long straights and narrow, highly banked corners; Oswego has almost no straights, nice clay, and very little banking in their turns, so it is a different racing experience - almost completely opposite in terms of handling, top speed, and the fastest racing lines. Plus, we have friends who race there, volunteer, and have a good time as long as we can keep our kart counts up, and as long as we aren't forced to race people who only race us if they can use different, bigger horsepowered, and much more expensive motors than us (which for some stubborn and irrational reason, the track operator forces us to do). They've been called cheaters by some, but I 'd rather just say that it is just poor sportsmanship when the playing field isn't equal.

(NOTE: This was written before the Galletta's Karting Club's 2008-09 offseason banishment from the Oswego Kartway, in addition to their hate-filled insults and written threats of violence aimed at all of Galletta's, but even more so specifically and maliciously towards Chris. The entire story is found on this webpage.)

What do you do when you are not racing and/or in the off-season?
I'm a graphic artist and I publish my own books. I create, illustrate, color, and self-publish graphic novels, comic books, comic strips, and children's books while I'm not doing freelance projects. (Note: This is something that apparently shovel-wielding stalkers from the Oswego Kartway do not like, which is odd, but oh well.) In the last couple of years, I've taught myself how to build and maintain websites in order to help get my comics and our go-karting noticed. It worked, however, I get more insults and personal attacks aimed at me (from cowards who hide behind internet names, I might add, and never to my face) than success. Primarily, I'm a florist for my family's small business, and the Greenhouse work pays the bills, but it's more Matt's passion than mine. The rest of the time, I just spend with my wife, brother, mom and dad. 

Comments / Is there anything else you would like the fans to know about you, the team, or your sponsors?
My sponsors are Galletta's Greenhouse (my family's greenhouse) and pimping my own graphic artwork projects (ChrusherComix, Towner Comics, and Tee & Wee Children's Book ). And Emperor Palpatine, because he's my idol. (Um, that IS a joke... some readers of this site are dumb enough for me to actually need to put that!) So, that means I have no sponsors. Haha... don't need any for gas stocker kart racing! That's the fun of it, because it's low cost (a couple of hundred dollars a year) and high return of fun provided that everybody plays by the rules (Too bad that some don't). We love racing go-karts and we love racing good drivers. Over the last fifteen or so years, we lost track of the hundreds of people who have raced with us and then stopped. Of the hundreds we've raced with, I can think of anywhere around twenty really good drivers that just gave up and stopped racing us. We always hoped that all the guys that raced with us for a year or two and stopped would come back, and we'd have some highly competitive 20 kart races. We would put on the best kart races anywhere, bar none - and as it is, our 10-15 kart races are already the most competitive and exciting in the local area. But either they get bigger motors, jump divisions, race elsewhere or they stop racing entirely. That kind of stinks, but hopefully from here on out we can gain more drivers than we lose. We usually have a trade-off and stay around 10-15 karts. But... in closing... we know that the guys who give up just admit that they can't beat us. Ha!

Form was Updated on: 8/2009.

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This website is owned, created, maintained, and copyrighted © by Chris "Chrusher Comix" Stevens (including all text, pictures, artwork, video clips, and descriptions). The views expressed are not necessarily the opinions of others at the Galletta's Go-Kart Club or Galletta's Greenhouse (unless otherwise noted).