Wing Side Up
by Bob Gangwer
Oswego, NY 11/16/09…In the waning days of this year, I’ve done a lot of thinking about the things that make this DIVISION great and what brings it fame. Now I’m not going to get into the definitions of the word ‘great’ or ‘fame’ because I think that even if I did, we’d all have our own way of describing what they mean.
What I’ve thought about while on the road or in the air, is the people that I have been exposed to this season. Some I’ve known for a long time, but I never really ‘knew’ them. Some I’ve be introduced to for the first time, and I feel like I have known them forever.
I am one of the crowd that often says, “It’s the people of this sport that make it great.” And while that may be true, how do we really define what that means? It seems obvious enough, yet I think if you ask 10 different people they will give you ten different reasons why that statement is factual.
I think you have to look at each individual involved with this DIVISION and without ranking them amongst all the others, listen to what they have to say, be interested in what they are telling you, and be self effacing enough to believe that you can learn from them.
Jim Belfiore is a good example of someone who probably doesn’t get the recognition he deserves when it comes to being a person that makes this division great. I’ve known Jim in one form or another for a pretty long time, but after spending a couple days with him while I was in Vegas for the SMRA event at The Bullring, I came to realize, even my perceptions were not completely right. I learned a lot by just sitting and listening. I had no idea that he had a real hand in the Masterman Marauder-or that Tom Silsby was ready to explode when he saw the car that he and Jim designed nearly win the Copper World Classic and be featured in Open Wheel Magazine.
Yet as upset as Jim and Tom were at the time that their hand drawn designs and notes had been mysteriously lost after a party in the shop only to turn up as one of the most beautiful pieces of supermodified machinery ever to exist but with another car builder’s name attached to it, Jim tells me it’s basically one of those deals and doesn’t want to dwell on it. He’s able to laugh at it now and when it happened, along with Tom’s help went out and built another car with a design that is more dependable and costs less. It’s not just that story that makes me think that, even though he wants no fame or glory associated with greatness, Jim should and will go down as one of the people who made this DIVISION the best in short track racing. Listen to this clip of what he thinks is his greatest accomplishment and I think you’ll understand what I mean-
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His is but one of a countless amount of stories you could tell about the people who have built these rockets down through the years. To me, they are all great stories, but great stories can only really be told by great people.
Like Jim Belfiore, Bruce Budnick, who essentially got his start with Jim back in the old Pines Speedway days, never went looking for fame or greatness. He just kicked back and it just sort of happened. He has a saying he says often to me, “Hey,” he begins with a finger pointing your way and with a questioning look on his face as he cocks his head, “didn’t you used to be somebody famous?”
What do you say to that? Everyone wants to be famous, or has dreamt of what it would be like, but few ever are. Bruce isn’t really famous by the terms of the whole of society, and really, few people even know much about him outside of the New England circle of supermodified racers. That seems odd, because as long as I’ve known Bruce, and it hasn’t been nearly as long as he’s been involved, he’s always had some great stories about the drivers he’s had in his cars that most supermodified fans would consider ‘greats’ or at least noteworthy.
Bruce doesn’t really talk much about himself when he tells these stories, he talks only about how the story being told happened while he was the car owner. When he realized a dream of winning the Jim Soule Dedication Award at the recent ISMA banquet, he was, by all accounts, beside himself and at a loss for words even though he had a lot to say with the few sentences he could get out. “I can’t believe I finally won something.” I think that says a lot about how we often let greatness pass by our radar because it’s not always as flashy as what we think it should be.
When I go west, I find greatness in guys like Shasta Raceway Park announcer Gary Cressey. Gary is suffering from a plethora of health woes, but he continues to love his job and speaks eloquently not of the things he’s done in his career, but of how he loves meeting new people and learning about them. In April when I was there, he asked me why I would come all of the way to California to announce a supermodified race and when I told him that I wasn’t sure, but that all I could sum it up to was a love for the DIVISION and a desire to spread the word so that others could enjoy it, he told me about how he once was able to do those things as well.
Gary’s travels and love of the sport took him to the big time of announcing including stints for NASCAR at Daytona and broadcast radio. But it he reminded me that those moments of fame were nothing compared to the joy he got from watching supermodifieds and being around the people involved with them at Shasta. He told me to always follow my dreams but know when to stop dreaming and enjoy the reality of what is happening around you so that it doesn’t pass you by. I think that speaks volumes about how to live life all the time and I also think that while many on the east coast have never heard Gary’s voice, they can understand that when he gets on the mic, he conveys the ideals he told me in that booth that day.
I could go on and on about all of the great people that are involved in this DIVISION and how the great people make the DIVISION great. I’ve been very fortunate to have been mentored and taken into trust by people like Curt Kern, Jimmy Shirey, Mick Schuler, and Jim Ferlito. I’m lucky to know guys like Glen Cornell who paints Jeff Russell’s cars, Jim Martel, Bentley Warren, Madera Speedway promoter Kenny Shepherd, writer Bob Gardner, and, well you get the picture.
I’ve learned much from each of these people and many, many others and I believe that within each of us there is greatness that just needs to find a way out. I believe that all of us can LEARN from each other about what it means to be great just by truly tuning in to hear what others have to say and by being open to gathering knowledge from their experiences. In turn we can quietly achieve a subtle fame without trying that will continue to make myself and others say-”It’s the people in this sport that make it great.”
The End
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