7/11/2023
Lincoln Park Speedway
Matt Mitchell Keeps Digging
If you are going to take the point lead, why not do it in style? For Matt Mitchell a recent Lincoln Park Speedway triumph was the culmination of weeks of searching and a bit of trial and error. Not that he has been that far off. His overall performance allowed him to remain near the top of the standings, and as he correctly observes, “consistency wins championships.”
How Mitchell got to this point in his career isn’t hard to understand. It didn’t come via a checkbook; it is the result of rolling up his sleeves and getting dirty. He’s done this his entire life. A union carpenter by trade, Mitchell went to work two weeks after his graduation from Rensselaer Central High School. As for his racing team, it is largely a two-man operation.
His introduction to the sport came through his father Andy Mitchell. Andy began his career in 1978 at Rensselaer and Crown Point primarily in the Sportsman division and in six-cylinder cars. In time he would race late models and cut a wider swath traveling to Illinois haunts like Santa Fe Speedway, Kankakee, and Fairbury. Then came Matt. It is an old story that Mitchell puts in the most basic terms. “It got to the point where dad couldn’t do his program the way he needed to,” he says, “It was a choice between buying tires or putting diapers on his kid.”
Andy did what needed to be done. In 1987 he shoved the car, still on the trailer, to a remote corner of his shop. There it sat. To a ten-year-old boy the car was a source of wonder. Looking back Matt says, “I kept telling him he needed to get it out.” Then, showing plenty of pluck as a youngster, he decided he would help. As he encouraged his father to get back in the game it was time for a little lesson in economics. Matt found work mowing grass, and it went well. He decided to use some of his money to help Andy get back in the game. In 1999 and into the 2000 season Andy was behind the wheel but the price tag to be competitive was just too steep. Matt tried to intervene again. He proclaimed that he would help get his dad what he needed. To that end he called Hogue Engines in Akron, Indiana. At first Bruce Hogue was incredulous that he had an eleven-year-old kid on the line. He asked to speak to Andy who assured the builder that this was a learning experience. After detailing all that was deemed necessary to build a competitive piece Bruce delivered the news. “He said you need this and this and this,” Matt says with a laugh,” and he said that will cost you about $35,000. Do you have that laying around?”
Matt was hungry to race as well and by 2001 he was racing karts at Crawfordsville, Indiana and across the border at Kankakee. In time his father joined him. Mitchell would race at Upland, Camden, and even take on the pavement at Illiana Speedway and the Pepsi Coliseum in Indianapolis. In the end he would take three track titles and a regional WKA National championship. One of his biggest memories of karting came in an exhibition race at Fairbury, Illinois. “We were on the full track,” he says, “we raced on a Sunday after the stock car races and that was the fastest, I have ever gone in my life.”
After the 2004 season the family traded the karts for a 600 micro and Matt began appearing regularly at U. S. 24 in Logansport and at Peru, Indiana. He was the Rookie of the Year at Logansport in 2004 and continued in the micros through 2010. Then an unexpected thing happened. “We were in Peru for a two-day show,” he recalls, “and a kid came up and said I will trade you a turn-key modified for a turn-key micro. We looked it over and we exchanged cars in the driveway about 2 o’clock in the morning.” By this point in his career, he calculates that he had taken the checkered flag ninety-nine times.
He had acquired a 2004 Hobbs chassis and with help from the proprietor he got things in good running order. The piece served him well until wall contact at Kokomo brought its days to an end. A new car was secured in 2013, and two years later it required replacement. Since that time, he has used a Diamond chassis which fits him well. Mitchell served notice in 2017 when he was the track champion at Daugherty Speedway in Boswell and finished third in Indiana UMP points.
It was a satisfying but grueling year. By this point Matt was working on an extensive project at Purdue University. His father, who was a superintendent, and a union carpenter had his plate full as well. They decided that this year they were going to see just how good they could be. “I don’t think the car ever left the trailer,” he says, “We would take off and go to Montpelier, come back, go to work, and then go to Shady Hill. We also raced at Boswell and Kankakee on Friday. It was fun and lucrative.” Mitchell battled Jamie Lomax and Randy Lines all year for number one, and he was in the top ten in National points. Then it happened. He had a job to finish and couldn’t take off. He missed some critical events. Disappointing? A little. Yet, this simple father-and-son team showed they could take on anyone.
It is still that way. Today, competing with the best means going against one of his longest friends – Derek Losh. While Losh is a few years older they have been friends since high school. In fact, Derek’s crew chief will offer a hand when needed. Mitchell marvels at what seems to be Losh’s parsimonious level of preparation but thinks it all comes down to his rival’s “engineering mind.” “He doesn’t unload that car until Wednesday or Thursday,” Matt says, “and they will thrash on the car after work on Friday and go to the racetrack. I don’t get it. And I have watched him put the car together engineer style. That is the frustrating part. So how can he do that and beat us by eight-tenths in qualifying? Then there is his favorite line which I call b.s. on all the time. He comes in fashionably late like he always does and says, ‘I don’t know if this thing is going to go around the racetrack.’ Whatever.”
The truth is the longtime friends will share ideas – to a point. “A couple of weeks ago I wasn’t doing well,” Matt says, “and Derek says here is where you are struggling, look into this. We can’t give each other a straight answer because we are competitors. But I ordered a bunch of stuff on Thursday, and it showed up from Diamond on Friday after I got off work. We thrashed on the car until midnight and then finished stuff on Saturday morning. It was back to its old form.” Back to his old form means back in victory lane, a place he visited three times in 2022.
Racecars have their own personalities and sometimes if you just rub them wrong, they lay down on you. Mitchell has no idea why his car was so fickle to begin the season. “At the end of last year, I was confident we had a solid car,” he says, “so I didn’t think we needed to do any major homework on anything. We just needed to keep up with the times because in racing everything evolves so quickly. I pulled the engine out of the car Thanksgiving week, and I shoved it into the corner of the shop. I didn’t touch it until after Winternationals at Volusia because UMP rules often change after Florida. I got the engine back in, put new springs on and freshened up the shocks. The first night it just wasn’t there. It was like what happened? So, I went back and tore everything back down that week and redid everything, checked all our numbers and everything was right. I couldn’t figure it out.” Now things seem in order and, in his words, “we are back to chasing Derek.”
Except he is not. Now he is the point leader and in control. Does that matter to him? It does. “Some people say it is just a track championship, it doesn’t mean anything,” he notes, “Well, yes it does. The fans in the stands want to see that. That is the nostalgia of it. I still think winning a track championship means something.”
He is doing it his way, and as he goes about his business, he understands just what his father and main sidekick went through years ago. He has been with his wife Alicia since they were sophomores in high school. The couple have two young boys Luke and Caleb. There are baseball games and 4-H meetings to attend, and a marriage to keep strong. It is all a balancing act. Right now, he is keeping all the balls in the air and having fun doing it. There is no reason to stop this train from running now.
Article Credit: Patrick Sullivan
Submitted By: Jill Spiker
