Racing points championship racing from 1996-current at Galletta's Greenhouse's Go-Kart Speedway Sundays from June-August & Saturdays from September-October, and summer
Thursdays (or Fridays) at Oswego Speedway Kartway. We race exclusively with limited-modified 5hp Briggs and Stratton flat-head motors all with affordable 100% stock parts
at Galletta's, & 5-8hp motors at Oswego.
DRIVER PROFILE FOR CHRIS "CHRUSHERCOMIX" STEVENS (2006-08)
Chris with his wife Rungnapha "Aoo" Stevens
after a 10-kart, 45-lap race win at Galletta's on
7/18/2008.
Name: Christopher John Stevens
Nicknames: "Chris", "Crusher"; "Chrusher"; "Chrusher Comix"; "Chrush"; "CJ"; "Triple C"; "ChrisChrusher"; "Galletta's Boy"; "Somkid" (wife's name); The Cerebral Chrusher"; "Smooth Chrusher"; Pen name of "Chris Galletta"; "The kid that draws comics"; "The guy who makes fun of poor sport drivers on his website, man he's an @$$#0!&".
Hometown: Oswego, NY, US of A.
Chris "Chrusher" Stevens
with the Galletta's Greenhouse #8 at the Galletta's 2007 Klassic (9/23/2007).
Karts: Co-owner all of the Galletta's Go-Karts (driven the #8 from 2004-up, driven the #2 and #5 to championships; all Ogre Chassis).
DOB: 5/22/1974
Marital Status: Married; wife Rungnapha or Au (pronounced "Ooh?"). [Damn, she's hot!]
Occupation: Galletta's Greenhouse Florist, freelance graphic artist, cartoonist (his mature-teen-and-up Chrusher comic book/graphic novel & Towner his family-friendly comic strip), illustrator (his children's book named Tee & Wee) & website builder and webmaster (Galletta's Greenhouse, Galletta's Go-Karts & above cartooning sites).
Years Racing Go-karts at Galletta's: 1991-current.
Career highlights: Track Championships in 1999, 2000 & 2001 (2nd place to his brother every other year). "Klassic" Championship Race Victories in 1999, 2000 & 2001. Oswego Speedway's 1st Annual Dirt Supermodified Yard Kart Classic in 2007. 2006 Feature victory at Oswego Speedway's mixed-class dirt go-kart track. Countless career victories, including over 22 feature wins since 2002 season. Won in several different karts throughout career.
On August 30th, 2007, Chris "ChrusherComix" Stevens won the Oswego Speedway Classic Weekend's Dirt Supermodified Yard Kart Classic 50, his 1st Feature at Oswego since 2006, and his 3rd overall feature of 2007 in his Galletta's #8. His father Wesley Ogre Stevens took 2nd in the Galletta's #4, and his brother and head mechanic Matt Stevens got 3rd in his Galletta's #33. This makes the three originators of Oswego-area Yard Kart racing taking 1-2-3 in the first ever Oswego Yard Kart Classic!
Chris and his wife Au after the 2007 Classic win. Chris wanted Matt to pose as well, but he was nowhere to be found. Picture courtesy of LocalTrax.com and XtremeFotoz.com! View more on this race here. More->
Chris "ChrusherComix" Stevens (posing with his #1 fan & wife, the lovely Thai tower camerawoman Rungnapha "Au" Phengpataew Stevens) after he won an exciting 50-Lap, 14-kart Feature event on June 10th, 2007. (Sorry we had to Mosaic out Chris's #1 sign, as he accidentally used the wrong finger!)
On August 26th, 2007, Chris "ChrusherComix" Stevens wins his 2nd feature of the year in his Galletta's #8, a 45-lap, 12-kart event. But the motor won 3 straight races, as the previous week Kyle Reuter beat Chris and Matt with it when it was on Chris' own backup, the Galletta's #5, and the following week, Chris won the Oswego Speedway Gas Kart Classic with it! Chris thanks his brother Matt and Melissa Gabel for their diligent work on the track and karts during the week, as he could not have done it without them. Oh, and Kyle for beating me with it the week before, haha!
(Left) Chris before winning the 1999 Klassic in the Galletta's #2 and
(right) after winning the 2000-2001 Klassics in the Galletta's #5.
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.
Chris before the 2006 Galletta's Greenhouse Klassic - 2006/09/23 - Photo by Gene Galletta, Remastered by Chris Stevens.
Favorite drivers:
Himself; his brother (to beat - HA!); Oswego Supermodified drivers Doug Didero, Bentley Warren, Doug Heveron, Joe Gosek (not so sure about his fans, though), Kelly
& Joe Miller*, Randy Ritskes* (who actually calls us nuts? Wow, what a compliment! Ha!), Cameron & Fran Rowe*, Ryan Coleman*, & several other Oswego Speedway veterans. Everybody who regularly races Go-Karts with us, has a great time, doesn't whine
is also in this list! I can't name you all, thanks! * = Oswego regulars that have raced with us at Galletta's!
Least-Favorite Drivers: Drivers that can't race clean. Drivers who bump and ram. 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 and copy all of our ideas and race their own tracks
or only race us with bigger motors than us and think that they're suddenly great.
Occupation: 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.RaviZacharias and KGOV'sBob Enyart Live); Fan/collector of composer John Williams' filmscores with over 400 CDs and DVDs with his music; favorite movies include the Star Warssaga, Indiana Jones movies, and several other Spielbergfilms; fan of San Antonio Spurs basketball and NY Jets football; loves visiting Thailand (his wife's native country); Collector of 1980s Transformers "G1" collectibles & animation and 1980s G.I. Joe. Crushing people who cross him in his comics (and occasionally his go-kart site),
hence his nickname, "ChrusherComix." Loves and owns countless pets,
including cats, turtles, toads, frogs, and fish. Loves computers, and home theatre systems,
and debating outspoken whiney atheist/leftist-liberal/anti-Christian
types. And, of course, karting!
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. Engine: Stock Briggs & Stratton 5hp
flathead tuned "Galletta's style" by Matt Stevens. Crew Chief: Myself and Matt Stevens Pit Crew: Matt Stevens, Wesley Ogre Stevens, Melissa Gabel Sponsors: Galletta's Greenhouse, ChrusherComix Inc., Emperor Sidious Palpatine, your 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 what runs at Oswego Speedway and our own
brand of incredibly affordable and competitive karting.
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. 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. 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.
What do you do when you are not racing and/or in the off-season? I'm a graphic artist. I create, illustrate, color, and self-publish
graphic novels, comic books, comic strips, and children's books while I'm not doing freelance projects. 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. Greenhouse work pays the bills, but it's more Matt's hobby 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. 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, I can think of anywhere between twenty and thirty
really good drivers that just gave up and stopped racing us. We always hoped that all the guys that raced 5hps with us for a year or two and stopped would come back, and we'd have some highly competitive 20-30 kart races.
We would put on the best kart races anywhere, bar none. 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: 9-26-07
and again on 7/18/2008.
Favorite drivers:
