Dwight Mitchell Part 1

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show notes. Okay, let's get to it.

Dwight Mitchell, part one. Alright, a couple weeks ago I was going through some old magazines and I

came across this article that I remember quite fondly and it was on Dwight Mitchell and then

so I was like reading back over it and I'm like this could be someone worth interviewing. He's

popular in Porsche circles for being dominant in autocross and also a champion SCCA driver.

Anyway, in this one we talk about him getting his started racing by climbing inside a go-kart and

his go-kart racing days which led to early racing with his cars. He had a 356c and a 356 speedster

but anyway here's Dwight Mitchell, part one.

Who is Dwight Mitchell? An old skinny white guy.

Okay, how did you get interested in cars? When I was in high school and college I played two sports,

baseball and basketball but I wasn't really good at any of them but I was very competitive

and I believe it was my junior year I had an instructor that had raced a go-kart and he knew

I like cars. He says why don't you come out and try driving my go-kart and I said you're fine

and so we did and I got in the cart and in five laps I was faster than the guy that owned the

cart and raced it so I figured okay there's something going on here and we had shortly

before that we bought a 356c coupe. I went to a Porsche club parade in 1965 in Santa Barbara

and I'd never driven the car in anger but I decided I'm going to enter all these events

and so in the class I was at first time and I ever ran an autocross and was on a racetrack

so it was fairly fast so I won my class so I thought you know I'm a competitive guy I started

on to something I'd buy a go-kart and see if I can race it and that's how I got started.

Okay so what grade were you in when you went and your teacher invited you to go ride the go-kart?

It was just like in the HP parking lot right? Correct you got it and that was how like what grade?

I think I was this I think I was either a junior or senior in college.

So when did the three when did you get this 356c? December 31st 1963.

Well how old were you at that time? Let's see that would have been 25 back in

those days there was an insurance break if you're a young man you paid a higher rate

but if you're 25 or older you paid less a lot less so that's why we decided to buy a sports car

after I turned 25. So um but you you race go-karts right? Yes. So is that before the 356 like from

the time that you got in your teacher's go-kart to the 356 or when did that happen? This event

saying at Pila Packard was I believe would have been 1959. So I raced go-karts for three years

before even bought the Porsche. Okay like what was the go-kart racing just like local people

showed up with go-karts or did you go out of your city out of the state or what? I joined the go-kart

club there was a go-kart race it was going to be a back of the valley raceway and it required two

drivers and they had a bazillion people enter entered this thing this guy built a one-off

go-kart uh was a mercury outboard motor on it it was faster and blazes and uh there was like 50

entrance in this race and I qualified on the front row first time I ever drove it so I I figured

okay I guess there's some talent lurking back there somewhere and unfortunately uh when the

race started the owner of the car drove the car the drive mechanism that he set up I think failed

on the third lap of the race or something so we never got to figure out what had done I was too

bad because it really would have been fun to to try. Where's the furthest you went during this

kart racing I'm just trying to see like how broad this kart racing was like if it was just Bay Area

basically only in California okay go-karts were just starting to explode and uh when there was one

out near Livermore that was attempted to be close to a copy of Laguna Steak it was in a

fold went up and down hill it was fast first couple times I drove it I was kind of scared but

the first kart I bought was a single engine kart and that wasn't enough for me so

I brought what was called a sea open kart which was a two-engine kart that had some pretty good

amounts of horsepower it was when I first started driving it was scary fast but I got used to it.

We lived at the time in what's now called Silicon Valley and so probably went to some events in

Southern California and Northern California but at that time there was no place I'm not

aware of any national series go kart races. Yeah I was interviewing someone recently I don't know

if it was John Morton but someone someone said like early on like yeah go kart racing had like

taken off and was like huge in California it was like a time where it just like I said didn't

exist and then all of a sudden it was just like everybody was doing it. Yeah I raced 59, 68, 61 and

62 and won several California state championships and won a lot of races. I don't know why this

came up but like it came up in my feed on YouTube and I was they went over all the go karts from

every era and the new ones they have white tires they're on the ground and they're you know but

they had like professional drivers that race the new go karts try on a track all these older ones

through the years and they get in some of those early ones and they were just scared out of their

mind because the tires were skinny and they just didn't really have brakes as well as the new ones

did and they're just like I would never drive one of these old ones. Well there are new shifter

parts in those days there were three levels I forget what the cc was I drove I had a you know

I can't even think of the brand of the car and I used some mccullough engines which were not the

fastest engines the west bends in those days were fast and there was a fellow that built a

go kart that used an outboard motor and it was very fast but it was also very heavy. Yeah so then

you turned 25 and you bought a 356. Correct. Let me back up I actually won a race that I never

had to go kart and it was at a track in San Carlos California for some reason there was a lot of

people who dropped out on the last lap me and another driver were going and we ran into each other

and we were boasting at the side of the road with the car stopped and since I was farther down the

road than he was in the last lap I was shown as the winner of the race. There's a number of tracks

in the San Francisco Bay area and like the winner of the Livermore was by far the best.

My wife never drove a go kart but she came out and watched the races. Anyway I work in Livermore

so I'm just wondering like where this track probably used to be and I forget exactly how you

got there. Remember this is a eons ago yeah and but it was very very professionally done.

It was a serious thing to have for real go kart racers. They don't use the word go anymore

they're just called karts or karting. So you you just bought the 356 when you were 25. Correct.

We delivered it on New Year's Eve of 1963. And what drew you to Porsche?

There used to be a bunch of once a year imported car shows and I thought why I wanted an L for

a male but I would go around and I would close the doors and the first time I closed the door

on the 356 I go whoa this thing has felt a whole lot more quality before servicing go kart

I had a Triumph TR2 it was just a street car and I don't know it was pretty crude and when I closed

the doors and rolled up the windows and stuff like that on the 366 I said and I looked at the price

it was $4,200 out the door brand new. You can imagine that. I said the Porsche is the one I

want because of the build quality of the car and of course I went to some of the imported car races

and got interested in the Porsches that were driving there and one day it was in Palo Alto and

there was a FW Porsche dealer on El Camino Real in Palo Alto and they just rolled this red 356

out into an aerated city you drove down the road you couldn't miss it and it was like some power

that I had no control over turned the steering wheel in the car and drove me up into the dealer's

lot right there so the I looked at it and sat in it drove it so forth and it's a time I was making

$550 a month and I guess that when I get make $600 a month I'm going to get that car and coincidentally

just maybe a week or two later I got a raise to $600 a month called the dealer and said you

still have that car and says yes he says I'm taking it then I joined Porsche Club and got

involved in that they had their own autocrosses and stuff like that the same goes the rest of

history I just got my 60th year name tag membership tag for Porsche Club of America

oh you've probably you're probably in panorama because they've started putting

the names of people that have been there for a long time in the magazine mine was in there in

that section I'm glad to see you you read it yes okay um so you bought the 356 and then you just

kind of showed up at one of the autocrosses well at first autocross I ran was at the 65

Porsche Parade in Santa Barbara and I'd never autocrossed or anything like that before I tried

it and I wouldn't like to last so that's when I started autocrossing those days you got found

somebody's parking lot and you got permission to put pylons out and one of the members of the club

had a one of the new newer high tech companies there and they had a pretty big lot so we that's

where I started autocrossing was in that lot in Mountain View California when you showed up for

that first autocross where you think oh I've done some carding like I'm going to go see what I can

do or you were just kind of like I haven't really you were saying you hadn't driven the car in anger

so you were just showing up like I'll give this a shot it was the Porsche Parade and they had

a competition events and they collected points for the autocross the rally of the concor I think

were the three and this is my first year in Porsche Club so I did pretty well in the concor

miraculously did well in the rally and I won my class and I ended up third overall

in this big Porsche Parade and I thought hey I'm a hot shot man you know so because I did so well

the local club I was in was just called Gate Region the next dinner meeting I was at they made

mention of the fact that I would have finished third and the ego went off the charts I think

something like that can I add something right here yeah I have never tried or attempted to

use any kind of illegal substance including marijuana cigarettes I think I tried two marijuana

cigarettes didn't like them but you know what I found out that when you win a race and you do well

it's like the combination of adrenaline and ego is right in the vein it is very definitely

I can't think of the word right now but you're hooked you're hooked and I did well and I was

hooked for many many many many years how long did you have the 356 before you went to a the next

was the speedster right let's see yes let's see I bought it in 63 and I think I started racing

in 68 then I think I kept the 356 probably until early 70s something like that there was a time

when I had both the 356 and this and the racing feature in fact my wife it was my wife's go to

work car for a while not the race car the 36 the coop okay so I was interested we kind of talked on

the phone I had dropped a name I don't remember what the name was but I had written an sorry I'd

read an article recently about a man a guy that used to race back in the 356 days because I mean

you see these old like pictures and stories about you know the speedsters and how everybody had them

and they have the hay bells and they're like at airports and whatever land they could find

and so that's always been kind of intriguing to me and so I read this article on this one person

and I can't even remember the guy's name but I was like you know I would like to know about like

some of those 356 speedster racing days and I mentioned the guy's name and you're like oh he

wasn't really that big a deal I was much faster than him well in those days in SCCA he raced against

some models of Alfa Romeo MGV the British the British Leyland had a factory team

Jill Huffaker you'd probably remember the name Jill Huffaker and he ran a British Leyland team

and there were some well supported dealers supported 356's a lot of them out of Southern

California and let's see oh there is oh god what was that team back east anyway there's another

British Leyland team back east that came out and raced at some of the big races in Laguna

SCCA there in those days up to all these 16 group 44 that was it so group 44 we competed against

the Huffaker group we competed against there are some pretty darn good independents in there

in two and zero times when we ran a race and we were not the fastest class and it usually was

all e-production but there are times that we're going to say and particularly with the Canaan

races where we had like everything up to a through e-production competing in my speech

here against Corzettes you weren't going to win overall you just win the class cars were pretty

crude at the time you pretty much run what you're brung so to speak so did you like travel all over

California because I know there was there's a lot of tracks that I mean obviously like big ones

people know like Riverside but there was also tracks like Torrey Pines that a lot of people

haven't even heard of it did not go to Torrey Pines I did drive at Riverside many times and

Southern California was SCCA and there's also a Cal Club and one time Cal Club held the races

and eventually they joined together but Cal Club had more liberal preparation rules than SCCA did

I raced in both of those there was going to say of course Sears Point was just coming out and I

I drove the race in the inaugural Sears Point track and Vacaville raced up where they had the

air races at Reno Sacramento had a track road track one time didn't work very well

stopped and had road races going going back in my memory here

now that was pretty much it I might on this one but early on there was races in Golgi Park

and I went to watch them but by the time I was racing they didn't have them anymore

and there were races in Carmel they had races down there too but that when a guy got killed they

never had races there and I had a chance to run there that was before my time

okay um did you run I know a lot of like racers that became pretty well known started

you know back in the days when they were just racing speedsters and all the cars you mentioned

did you ever race against some of those some of those names that became kind of famous

it depends upon famous there was a fellow who raced in a sports racer but we sometimes

ran the same class but I think we ran the Lewis and he ran Indianapolis a few times never did

anything but Elliot Forge Robinson you may remember that name racing at the gym I did

better against him when we were in in our 9 and 14s and he and I ended up becoming fairly good

friends right now I can't think of uh there's a lot of local names that were well known locally

in the San Francisco Chronicle writer and sports page by the name of Gordon Martin and he did a

once a week race on club racing and stuff like that so I got my name in the San Francisco Chronicle

a number of times on articles on races that I had one that was written by Gordon Martin

I don't know where these where these names are coming out of the past but they're just

you're popping up so um I'm trying to like make this so it's not like we're jumping around

I know that like you went from go karting to autocross to sports car racing back to autocross

then to sports car racing you kind of jump back and forth throughout your that that's correct

and we were privileged to drive for the northern california portion of the dealers

in 9 14s and uh we were at the time that we thought boy we do everything we were hot

well found out that we didn't know everything and uh so there was some trials and tribulations

with that car I lost my train of thought for a second the part of the reason of that is I

eventually with my wife we started an independent Porsche repair shop in Sacramento

and I got deals where I would do the preparation for cars from my customers and then instead of

charging the money they let me drive the cars so I had two or three clients where I was

autocrossing my own car but I quit doing that because I got an officer to drive other people's

cars uh the last car that I had that I own that I rode race was actually the speedster after that

the the next car was the 9 14 and then there were a number of 9 9-11s 9 14 6s but no the only other

people that I sort of helped them when they were driving and I I was able to race the cars instead

of charging the money okay there was a point where I think it was the uh early 80s that we had had

done a 9 14 6 program reasonably successful we looked at what was gonna we were gonna have to do

next year for the same car and we figured that was gonna cost $200,000 to do it and that was

embracing an IMSA and under two and a half liter we looked at the budget and said $200,000

the guy that owned the car said no I don't think still I'll sell it so I still had a few rides

occasionally but never one more it was a complete program okay so do you want to tell the story

that you told me before the last race in 3056 at Laguna Seca and turn two that was in this the

speech sure I got my license in 1969 I rode 69 and 70 and I never got through turn two going

flat I didn't do it anyway I can't think of the gentleman's name right now but he went he went

like all the e-production stuff and he said why you got to learn how to go through turn two flat

out anyway there was a big race it was just all there's no canam or anything like that

so the SCCA started and I think they call it the old Olympia spreads and I said to myself okay

I'm going to go through turn two flat out or die trying and this is even before slicks these were

brand I think some kind of semi street street tire anyway in qualifying I about six times

six laps I went through it qualified on the front row and then I was walking around my

chest stuck out and so forth and it was a big field and I was on the front row with another

Southern California guy named Bob Kirby I believe his name was and I was walking around in the

paddock area and I bumped into the so I can't remember his name he said how's it going I go

man great I finally got turned two flat out he goes you did I said yeah he said Christ

Mars I know nobody's ever done it I was just bs in you and had he not told me to go to turn

two I don't know if I would have tried it but of course the next year six came out everybody

went through turn two flat out I actually won that race got interviewed was broadcast on the radio

really big deal and I set a new life record in that race too so I was very proud of that and

got written up in panorama and that was one of the things that kind of got my name out there

nationally I was winning that particular race oh and there's a part of it the group 44 part was

there and I can't see his name they had an mgb and I beat him and they interviewed me they did the

card did not go to impound it went directly to the winner's circle and the the next was there

his interviews and so forth and the next morning the guy who was driving the mgb started making

accusations that although the scrutiny never looked at the car and the car was obviously illegal

that's why it didn't win and the chief scrutineer that year happened to have been

the man who was my instructor when it went through driver's school his name was Frank Schultzkeis

and we got to be good friends and because I was winning races I was concerned about getting

protested and he was too so he on so somewhere during the week before the race when I was putting

my engine together he would come over with the engine partially assembled measure everything

and then I would put a couple of pieces back on it and he would put a seal on it and all he had to

do is go down lift the deck that up look down at the seal and he said like this thing is legal and

so you don't need to go to impound and Schultzkeis went out found the group 44 guys and they had them

apologize to me and Schultzkeis who was the chief scrutineer said I guarantee you that car is legal

so that was pretty exciting

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the cars and the people

Dwight Mitchell Part 1

About this episode

autocross

SCCA

Porsche 356

go-kart

karting

Triumph TR2

out the door

Porsche Club of America

Porsche Parade

adrenaline

Porsche Speedster

Alfa Romeo

British Leyland

Group 44

e-production

Riverside

Cal Club

sports car racing

Porsche 914

Porsche 911S

IMSA

slicks

flat out

Panorama

MG MGB

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