Saturday Night Special
Rusty Mitchell and Star Mazda Head for the Top
By Kate Shaw
Photos © Jamie Longmuir 2009
BOWMANVILLE, Ontario (August 28, 2009) — Rusty Mitchell (No. 66 Motorola Mitchell Motorsports) wowed the crowds last weekend at Trois-Rivières, Quebec when he captured pole position from the smart-money favourite Peter Dempsey, and then he proved it wasn’t just luck by going out in the race and leading every lap but the final one.

This weekend’s challenge could not be more opposite in terms of the track, layout and even the weather, but Mitchell is fully prepared to get out there and do the same again.

“The track is really good this weekend,” he said, after the second Star Mazda session of the day. “The grip keeps improving as the various series practice – our cars don’t have any argument with the rubber the other teams are using; the only time we have any problems is with the Skip Barber cars. This track is fun to race on; it’s wide open and there are only two or three times you brake on the whole track. It’s much faster than Trois-Rivières; there you never got a chance to let the brakes cool down, and it’s so easy to over-ride the corners. At Mosport the real challenge is in Corner 2; if you come into it just right, you’re flying – if not, you are going into the gravel or you are going to hit something and hit it hard.”

About the prospect of rain, which always arises at Mosport but looks increasingly likely for tomorrows qualifying, at least, he was sanguine. “I have only raced a few times in the rain,” he said, “and these cars can get pretty exciting in the rain, for sure. But I am looking forward to racing here whatever it does. This is a great track!”

Mitchell was born into racing, more or less; his father raced late-model stock cars in the best Southern Short-Track Saturday Night tradition, and Rusty travelled with him absorbing the atmosphere and the ambience. At age 14 he got his first go-kart and started experimenting with racing on his own, but it wasn’t until he graduated from high school that he started racing in earnest. “I’m not like some of the kids racing in this series,” he said. “Some of them started racing when they were six! In Midland (Texas), football is the big thing and I played football, baseball, basketball while I was in high school like the rest of them did. After that I got interested in racing, and have been doing it ever since.”

And his experience goes from the ground up; when he was 16-17 years old, he helped the man who is now Mitchell Motorsports chief engineer rebuild old Chaparral race cars including one driven in the 1950s by the legendary Jim Hall. “Now racing in those cars,” he said, “was a commitment. The seats were aluminum gas cans, and there was no box around your legs; the nose just narrowed down and had fiberglass around it. And when Jim Hall attended the installation of his car in the museum, he wore the uniform he had worn to drive – a white jump suit and a helmet with goggles. They laid their lives on the line in those days. It was purely amazing to see what they went through.”

He’s definitely interested in making a career in racing, and he’s practical enough not to limit himself too much, but open wheel racing is definitely his first choice. “Indy Lights is probably the best option right now,” he said frankly. “Atlantics are a little on the downside right now, but when the prize money they offer is paid out this year, who knows what might happen?”

While open wheel cars are his first love, Rusty admits that he wouldn’t mind moving into sports car racing at certain selected tracks: Sebring, Road Atlanta, Laguna Seca – and of course Le Mans.

“Just to run Le Mans once,” he said, “and soak in the atmosphere, the history, the whole experience of that track! And I love running at Laguna – there is nothing to run against and when you come flying over the [corkscrew] there’s nothing like it in the world. Well, nothing but Turn 1 at Road Atlanta – I had a big one there [in the Star Mazda car] and broke just about everything on the car against the wall, but I would love to take a sports car through that corner and up the hill wide open.

“Actually,” he concluded, “I would like to make a career of racing in any kind of car. But for this weekend I am really looking forward to running wide open on this track. There may be other tracks with better facilities but for racing you can’t beat Mosport – it’s such a fast track that you hold your breath as you lap, and that’s the way I really like to race. Other tracks have big run-offs and all kinds of ways to save you from yourself. But Mosport is like the old European tracks; it just challenges you to bring your best and doesn’t forgive you if you don’t. That’s the kind of challenge I like. And the car has been getting better and better all weekend, so I am sure I will have a great race.”

About the protest filed by his team last weekend involving a controversial pass under yellow by another competitor, well, the judges ruled in favour of status quo. But Rusty Mitchell has already decided on the best revenge of all: he fully intends to beat Alex Ardoin soundly tomorrow afternoon.

Look for Rusty Mitchell coming to a Top Step in a Star Mazda race near you.