barry mitchell
In Outlaw Drag Radial , Mitchell defeated heavy hitters such as Andrew DeMarco , Richard Reagan , and Eric Gustafson on his march towards the final round . There , he went up against Ron Hamby , but Mitchell ’ s win was the result of a big hole shot advantage . His 0.033-second reaction time gave him the jump over Hamby ’ s 0.081-second light , and although Hamby was quicker with a 4.199 at 178.14 mph run over Mitchell ’ s 4.235 at 181.37 mph pass , the win lights came on in Mitchell ’ s lane yet again .
“ Ron had never won one of Duck ’ s prize hats , so I hated it for him that he lost , but it was a personal best for him and still gave him some joy ,” said Mitchell , a good sportsman and a good friend . “ I didn ’ t even have time to think or talk to anyone after that first win , because we had to get the car ready for the next final round . Other winners were celebrating , but we were still working .”
Simultaneously , Mitchell had been working his way through the rounds in Pro 275 . Along the way , he took out Ed Grant , Kenny Hubbard , Richard Reagan , and Discovery Channel ’ s Street Outlaws star Shawn Ellington and his famed “ Murder Nova ”. For the grand finale , Mitchell ran against Steve Drummond , and his quicker and faster 4.207-second , 181.18 mph pass secured his win against Drummond ’ s 4.271-second effort at 178.17 mph .
“ Our group is the best of the best . To make ten rounds on Sunday , and have parts hold up , is incredible ,” admits Mitchell . “ We didn ’ t have any failures , and were able to simply focus on servicing the car and driving . To win two classes is some sort of superhero stuff , and there was a lot of luck involved . We had a lot of things go our way .”
All in all , Mitchell – who is not a fan of the word “ I ” and prefers “ we ” and “ team ” instead – wound up winning a total of $ 17,000 , which he graciously split between himself and the crew .
“ The hardest part of winning one of these races is that the whole team wants to win and all you are is the guy who gets to let go of the button ,” joked Mitchell , shedding light onto why it ’ s so important to him to share his victories with those who helped to make them possible . “ I know that one person can ’ t do everything , and everyone deserves a little something to take home . This isn ’ t just a driver ’ s race , it ’ s an endurance race , and a team race .”
The rest of the prizes , including the highly sought-after prize cowboy hats , swords , and champagne , were also divvied up amongst the team .
Despite the challenging schedule of competing in eliminations for two separate classes , Mitchell feels as though there weren ’ t any challenges with
ten rounds the car itself .
“ Whoever built it years ago did a really good job , and Kyle [ Huettel ] made a lot of upgrades ,” he stated . “ There ’ s still a lot left in it , I just need some more seat time . When you get to this level , testing is hard because you can ’ t duplicate raceday conditions without the same number of cars and prep .”
Surprisingly , Mitchell doesn ’ t really enjoy the stress of competitive racing itself , but prefers testing as he likes the challenging of racing himself .
“ I ’ m a competitive person , but I ’ m competitive with myself ,” he clarified . “ Every time I get in the car , I go through the burnout box and I don ’ t even look to see who ’ s next to me . I don ’ t care , it ’ s just a piece of equipment that has to get their bulb lit so my side of the tree can be ready to go .”
Although Mitchell attributes his success at SGMP to luck , it ’ s likely got to do with his mindset of seeing each pass as an opportunity to run a personal best and improve .
Once the excitement of winning two titles started to die down , Mitchell got back to work on his original plan for his 2016 season – a tuning year . Although he ’ s been extraordinarily successful in
Mitchell went ten elimination rounds on Sunday at Lights Out 7 with the help of a small crew which includes his wife , Heather .
Huettel ’ s former nitrous-huffing Camaro , he had been toying with the idea of going to a blower . In early April , Mitchell finally made the commitment to jump ship and struck a deal with Tim McAmis to purchase a new ’ 69 Camaro for Radial vs . the World use . Sticking with his tried-and-true Fulton-built power plant is a given , but Mitchell ’ s new Camaro will instead be powered by a 526ci Hemi with a screw blower .
“ I don ’ t know if we ’ ll win much more this year , but we ’ re going to focus on getting the new car up and running . It ’ s a huge deal for us to be able to get a McAmis chassis . My passion has always been blowers and blower Pro Mods , I ’ ve just never had the nerve to engage in trying to drive or tune one ,” he laughed . “ We ’ ve hired a tuner , and we ’ ve got everything else in the works .”
Other than a new car , which he hopes to debut at Donald Long ’ s second race of 2016 in the fall , Mitchell has his first child on the way and is expecting the baby ’ s arrival in mid-August . No matter where his life takes him – whether it ’ s the drag strip or the playground – Mitchell ’ s got plenty to be thankful for and an abundance of things with which he can stay busy . DI
PHOTOS : CHRIS SEARS , JAMES SISK
106 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated . com Issue 109