The Supercar Registry

Just learned from another forum HERE that Bob Wingate passed away earlier this month.

Quote:

BOB WINGATE passed Sunday 9-15-19 from heart complications. He was born August 17, 1936 and lived a good long life in Glendale, California.

It was Bob himself who was the guy on the ground promoting Corvette in the early days. Wingate was ''THE West Coast Pioneer at the grass roots level where the action was''

Starting in 1956 as a salesman for Clippinger Chevrolet, in California, Wingate sold Corvettes and got involved in all kinds of Corvette activities from 1958-1974. In 1959, he created his first Corvette club at Clippinger and in 1966 was one of the founding fathers and first President of Western States Corvette Council, [WSCC]. Many Clubs from Canada to Mexico were created with Wingate’s guidance.

Autocross, slalom and road racing events were also a big part of the West Coast Corvette culture. Bob was a leader who helped mold the national SCCA rules for autocross and slalom racing. No wonder Southern California Corvette sales skyrocketed. The guy was everywhere promoting Corvette. Wingate says, “It didn’t hurt that I got full support from my dealership and became good friends with Joe Pike and Zora Duntov.” But Wingate’s positive attitude was the key to sales.

By the mid-1970’s, BobWingate’s name drifted east and was THE name in “old” Corvettes along with Buxbaum in Chicago and Wasserman in New Jersey. We’d never met them, but by their names commonly seen in magazine ads, everyone knew, “they must be somebody really important”.

Turns out, they really were important!

BOB also found and sold the three 1968 L-88 Corvettes to the JIM GARNER ''AIR'' RACING TEAM from Gledhill Chevrolet. In these Hi Performance days Wingate sold many Camaro's, Corvairs, and passenger cars with high performance engines and transmissions. THIS WAS the TIME of ''GLORY YEARS OF HEARTBEAT OF CHEVROLET in AMERICA'', and Bob was a big person in the history of the Corvette and Chevrolet. Services will be private with family members.