The Basics:

Hometown: Goshen, Indiana

Residence: Oswego, NY

Age:44

Birthday: December 2nd

Shorties:Shelby-22, Sheldon-17, Taylor-14

Some of My Favorite Things:

• TV: Rescue Me, Archer, and No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain
• Movie: Bullitt, LeMans, Gran Prix
• Food: BBQ (real slow melt in your mouth honest to God BBQ) Wings (Hot…and ONLY Hot.not asian fusion, sweet & sour, sukiyaki, bbq weird stuff. FYI the Bleu Cheese is for the celery NOT the wings and God didn’t make boneless chickens so you’d better not be eating boneless wings).
• Beer: Pabst Blue Ribbon
• Drink: Jim Beam-Neat
• Race Track: Winchester Speedway followed closely by Oswego Speedway
• Favorite Pastime: Grillin’, Chillin’ & Swillin’
• Favorite Race: Jim Shirey’s Hy-Miler Supermodified Nationals win at Sandusky Speedway.
• Favorite Car: Shelby Cobra 289

The Wing Side Up Story

Birth of a Brand-

Wing Side Up Enterprises was born of a passion for supermodified racing and got it’s start from Bob Gangwer’s desire to contribute a weekly column about supermodified racing to Dick Beebe’s Award Winning MARC Time Racing News.

Gangwer would find the name he needed for his new column by remembering a conversation he had with a friend and long time neighbor while getting this persons autograph during the intermission of a supermodified race at South Bend Motor Speedway.

“To my good friend and neighbor Bob,Willie Stutzman #88″

Upon saying thank you and good luck to Willie, he replied to Gangwer-”Thanks, we’ll try to ‘Keep It Wing Side Up and Wheels to the Ground.’

That simple encounter between a boy and his childhood hero not only gave rise to a successful weekly column about supermodified racing, but also became a mindset for Gangwer who would use his passion for the DIVISION to land by-lines in Area Auto Racing News, Short Track Racing Magazine, The Fresno Bee, and his local newspapers.  Being a photographer in addition to writing gave Gangwer the creative outlook he longed for and exposed his supermodified photos to readers of The National Sprint Car Annual for many years.

Read more stories about “Wild” Willie Stutzman HERE

It’s All About the Show-

From an early age, Bobby G. as he would come to be called, longed to be a flagman or an announcer for supermodified racing. Staging ‘big wheel’ races on the long driveway of his parents Goshen, IN home, he would take cues from his favorite flagman-Larry Hotram.  When the flagging chores became boring, Gangwer would then time the ‘drivers’ and announce the action doing his best to imitate the man that would become a mentor, advisor, and friend, Kalamazoo Speedway’s “Chubby Little Pronouncer”, Mick Schuler.

To this day, Gangwer strives to push the envelope of ‘ordinary’ and is always looking for interesting, unique, and exciting promotional ideas and ways to make the ‘show’ more appealing to the fans, and lucrative to the advertisers and sponsors.

The Pull of “The Lady in Grey”

Even while devoting 10 years of his life to go BMX racing, Gangwer’s goal from those early years had always been to make it to the “Home of the Supermodifieds” Oswego Speedway.  After seeing an article about Jimmy Shampine in Stock Car Racing Magazine, Gangwer knew that he had to make the trek to the Mecca of supermodified racing.

Finally in 1985 after much pleading with his father, the two made their first trip ever to Upstate New York to witness the International Classic 200 and it left a lasting impact on a young man that would eventually call Oswego his home.

In time, he would convince his ‘good friend and neighbor’ “Wild” Willie Stutzman to also make the drive to Upstate New York where Stutzman would become a fan favorite just like he was back in IN.

Bob of all Trades

Along the way Bobby G. has helped promote a supermodified race @ M40 Speedway in Michigan, turned a lot of wrenches as a ‘stooge’ on supermodifieds down through the years, worked for numerous drivers, tracks and sanctions to procure sponsorship, and has become “The Voice of  Supermodifieds” as the official announcer for ISMA (International Supermodified Association-www.ismasupers.com), SMRA (Supermodified Racing Association-www.smrasupermods.com), and the MSA, (Midwest Supermodified Association-www.midwestsupers.com).

He also is a board member of the SuperModified Racing Association,  United Supermodified Association at Oswego Speedway and co-Founder of the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series-aka SUPRS which is an online simulated supermodified racing league formed in 2004 in order to give back to the supermodified family in times of need.

Digital Age

Gangwer launched “Wing Side Up on the World Wide Web” in May of 2001 as a way to bring his column and photography to a wider audience while also providing “News, Views, and Reviews” for all supermodified sanctions coast to coast.

In 2008 Gangwer, with the help of his marketing manager, Annamarie Malfitana-Strawhand, revamped Wing Side Up on the World Wide Web and relaunched his internet show Wailing with Wing Side Up.  Wing Side Up has evolved into a multi-media clearing house of “All Supermodifieds, All of the Time” and is a respected source of factual, timely, and breaking supermodified news and entertainment.

From those beginnings and helped along with a lot of encouragement from his friends, Gangwer has continued to develop his passion for all things supermodified and has become known for his unwavering dedication to supermodified racing and the teams, drivers and fans that make the division what it is.

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