Ok so the last blog was a bit of a downer.  Sorry about that.  Let’s pick up the pace a little here!

Holey smokes, that’s was a long day but man was it cool!  Now you all know how much I love supermodified racing.  You all know how I say they are the baddest cars on earth.  You all know how much I brag about the raw power, yadda, yadda, yadda.   I’m here to tell you that until you have felt a nitro car go down a drag strip, you have not lived!

See how I said ‘feel’ and NOT see?  Dudes and dudettes, you don’t watch these cars, nor hear, nor smell.   No, oh no, you FEEL them.  Every single cell left in even the most die hard life time PBR drinker will shake, bang, smack, rattle, and otherwise attempt to exorcise itself from the body when these cars go down the strip.

I thought  that this year it would be blase’ after seeing them last year.  Much to the contrary, I was even more into it as we walked through Nitro Alley in “The Strip” at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  It’s so much excess in all aspects of the sport that it’s nearly impossible to take it all in and comprehend it.  All I can say if you just have to FEEL one of these shows!

Then we headed over to The Bullring for practice and again I am going to tell you that it blows my mind how much deeper the west coast supers pile it into the corners.  At the end of the chutes its seems as if they are trying to make like the cars running at The Strip and just keep on going straight.  But then like a slot car they jerk to the left and make the corner and all is well.

I had a blast hanging out with Mikey Turner and Jim Belfiore. Talk about some stories!  I met DJ Kaity and re-acquainted with Chet(one of the LVMS Bullring announcers), then Brent and Chris Seelman showed up!

Jim Birges was showing off his new Belfab car and turned in the fastest lap of the night @ 12.8 seconds.  Not bad considering that the track record set last year by supermodified rookie Nick “The Middletown Madman” Heygood is a 12.59.  AJ Russell was into the 13 flats but only after they repaired an issue with oil blowing out of the breathers and a loose injection nozzle.  Jeff Russell had some problems with the injection as well but got things going with some decent laps.  Rick Cameron shook the cobwebs off and went back supermodified racing for the first time in some 2 and a half years but never seemed all that comfortable in the car.  Rookie Justin Mack is from Washington and a regular on the Northwest Sprintcar Racing Association tour and has some overheating problems in an older but beautiful Hyder.  Another supermod rookie was in the Birges Purple People Eater and looked ok.  His first name is Tim and I didn’t write down his last name.

Bryan Warf, Willie Northammer, Troy Regier, Bobby Dalton and Kirk Wartman are all in town and will run tomorrow.  Word on the street is that Ray “Guitar Man” Stebbins is on the way down along with another driver and car in tow.  It doesn’t look like we’ll see any of the Colorado cars as we were told that it took them 4 hours to go 7 miles with all the bad snow and they pulled the plug, turned around, and headed back home.  I don’t think Mike McCann will be in with the 14 for Lonnie Adamson to run either as he’s coming from Oregon and I would have thought we’d have seen him tonight.

Either way it was fun seeing the guys again since the last time was back in April.  I’m stoked for tomorrow as I think we will have a good crowd and some new fans that we can turn into big fans.  Here’s hoping everything goes well with the webcast so those that can’t be here can listen in, but most of all, here’s to a safe, fast, and fun race!

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Off I go again. I’m so tired, I’m not even so sure what direction we are going, especially after we did, what seems to be a complete circle.

This has been a wicked long week with so much to get done before having to leave for Vegas this morning.  Just a lot of last minute stuff trying to get newsletters, press releases, web updates, and a bunch of new audio cut.  A friend told me last night that “You’ll never work a day in your life if you are doing something you love.”  I laughed and said I don’t think I’ve ever worked more!

My head does hurt from burning the candle at both ends and I’m hoping I can get a little bit of sleep on the 5 hour flight from JFK to LAS.  We’ll see, but at least it’s not as bad as riding the train and I might be able to catch a couple winks.

I’m still not sure this is one of my smarter moves making this trip, kind of like the blog I wrote a couple back, you know the about how none of this stuff we do in racing makes much sense at all. Even I am starting to question just what it is that keeps me wanting to do this right now.

I guess that I am driven to lead this merry band of loosely organized racers of roadsters by my example.  I want to show all of them that we can bring the band together, promote it, help to keep it stable and perpetuate it for as long as we can so that some kid can have his day as he cheers on his hero.

If it’s the death of me I’m going to prove to people that it takes a lot of work, non stop attention to details, and the ability to always seek the good in people so that we can come together for one casue that will, in the long run, not only make the DIVISION stronger, but helps us each to learn a little more about each other and have a little more tolerance towards those that we would otherwise dismiss as fools.

Yet, this morning, I’m not so sure of it all.  I think maybe it’s just because I’m tired but I all i can think of is that there was more to get done before I started this trip to, well…do more.

So as I look out tthe window of this aluminum tube at the beatutifule site God is giving me this late Octorber morning, I have to just take a deep breath and accept that I did my best and am still trying to do my best to push this dream forward.  The horizon is now filled with the soft hues of a morning sun just beginning to peak over the clouds as we start our descent into JFK.  This site is so much more pleasing than that of a computer screen  and it’s a reminder that, no matter how much I or anyone eles places too much importance on saving a one of a kind type of auto racing, what I’m seeing right now is so much more of a reason to keep doing what I am and sharing it with those that will listen.

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On last night’s episode of Wailing with Wing Side Up, we broke the news about what the MSA’s latest travails when “Rockstar” Randy Burch came on to give the ‘official’ press release.

Here’s how it sounded on air last night-

Randy Burch Announces MSA breakup

It’s come to my attention, after going over what has become record setting numbers across the board from last night, that whenever we have Randy on the show, everyone tunes in.  I’m thinking that maybe Rhonda might call up her vast network and tell them they ‘HAVE to listen,” but whatever the reason you all like to hear him talk.

I think that says something about the direction the MSA could and most likely will, take from this day forward.  People trust the Burch’s to be fair, honest, and dedicated.  That goes a long way towards harboring good will amongst all the supermodified sanctions, tracks, competitors and owners and I believe will alleviate some of the animosity not only amongst all of the above, but specifically within the MSA itself.

I’ve never known the Burch family

Randy & Rhonda celebrate a win

to be anything but forthright and upstanding, and I don’t think anyone has to worry about Rhonda’s promotion skills.  Her dedication to details is what has essentially brought the MSA to the place that it is today.  And while she was doing great before, I think that with this latest development, her hands are freed to do even more and I know for fact that they will need more marketing and promotion to land a sponsor r two for 2010.

Even though she’s great and wears the ’superwoman’ pants in the family, she won’t be able to do it alone and that’s where I am hoping they will get the support they need.  Maybe their resignations last week woke some people up to the fact that more people need to put the bitching aside, step up to the plate and work together for the DIVISION as opposed to focusing on the petty, nit picking, self serving arguing that’s happened at nearly every MSA event this past year.  I sure hope so because we need people like Randy and Rhonda involved in this DIVISION to help us all realize that, with a little effort, a lot less ego, and a lot of empathy, that we can “All just get along.”

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Wing Side Up

by Bob Gangwer

10.25.09 Oswego, NY….One, two, three, four, five.  It’s not just an exercise in county that spurs me to mentally mark each of the white reflective markers on the right side of the eastbound lane of I-90.  At just past 5.00am on this damp, cold Upstate morning in late October, it’s a wonder that my, not so gracefully aging, mind can actually remember what comes after five.  But it does, and spurred on by the drops of liquid black gold making it past my lips to the hollows of my antacid coated stomach, I come to the tally of 40.

Continue reading →

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Yeah I know I haven’t finished the roadtrip story from Star…uhhh…All-Star yet. There’s more to tell. I even have a column from there that I want to put up. It’s all about taking the money and running with it. If you listened to Wailing with Wing Side Up this past Monday, you’d know what I meant!

Here’s the deal. A lot of you have been asking us to fix the chatroom. Seems many of you are having issues if you stay on WingSideUp.com, but few if any if you log in through Chatterous.com which is the site that actually hosts the chat. We have been over a lot of stuff with Chatterous and in their defense, they’ve been very helpful and quick to answer our questions and provide us with some possible solutions. However, none of those answers or solutions have worked to the degree that we want so that you folks can enjoy hangin out.

SOOOOO….guess what I’ve been doing since I signed off on Monday? Yup, working on getting a new and improved Wailroom going. I’m not saying it’s going to be the best or the final one we ever use, but I’m hoping that it’s an improvement. I’ll be honest, I hope it suits our needs to be advertiser friendly, yet not spam like to our listeners. We have an obligation to all of you and we’re working hard at trying to find that ‘perfect’ fit-if there is such a thing.

So, if you go to the ‘Code Test Page’ you can check out some of the things we are working on to try and improve your interactive experience here at WingSideUp.com.

I even added the Dizzler playlist that I’ve used for some time on my personal MySpace page. Some songs you may hate, some you may love, but we are all different and hopefully they aren’t too offensive to anyone and enjoyable to most.

If you wanted to know more about who Bobby G. is, you can figure out a lot of it by my musical tastes so take a listen!

I’ll warn ya, sometimes Dizzler acts a little goofy because it pulls from all over the internet and depending on how people have tagged their playlists or music, you could hear some really freaky stuff.

But then that’s half the fun isn’t it? It’s kinda like Forrest said-’Life is Like a Box of Chocolates…”

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