Zack Mitchell
Zack Mitchell has for several years been considered an up-and-coming driver in the world of Dirt Late Model racing and in 2017 those predictions came to fruition. The 21-year-old racer captured the Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series championship along with scoring four series feature victories.
Mitchell attributes much of his success to those who helped him throughout the season. And further, the Spartanburg, SC driver believes the equipment he had at available to him proved to be a difference maker in 2017.
“We’ve had some good help this year and had some good stuff, the best I’ve ever had anyway, and we’ve made some good calls,” Mitchell declared in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “Like I said, it’s all about the good people I’ve had helping me. We had some momentum there at the beginning of the year and were able to carry it on through the season and we hope we can finish it off on a good note.”
According to Mitchell, his team was able to get off to a fast start at the beginning of the season which allowed them to overcome a somewhat unproductive summer. Later, they would again find their earlier speed with their Longhorn Chassis and Clements Racing Engines which allowed them to finish the year in a strong way.
“We kind of slowed down and lost a little bit of speed there in the middle of the year but here lately we’ve been pretty good and pretty consistent,” Mitchell explained just before the final Carolina Clash race at Cherokee Speedway. “That’s the way we were at the beginning of the year but we kind of lost our track there. But now we’re coming back around a little bit.”
Mitchell admits that taking on the task of chasing a regional series title requires a great deal of dedication on the part of a race team. And more, some non-series events that might have previously been on the schedule of the No. 57 organization had to be missed so that points paying races on the Carolina Clash would not have to be sacrificed.
“It’s a lot of commitment,” the young driver said. “We’ve missed a lot of races we had on the schedule this year. That’s the thing about running a series because you’ve got to be so committed to it. But we’ve still raced a pretty good bit this year and I’ve had fun doing it. You’ve got be 110% when you go to one of these points races. You want to make sure you can run every lap and finish good. A lot of time goes into preparation but we’ve had a good piece this year.”
Zack Mitchell in his No. 57 machine
Mitchell has been pleased with his team’s overall performance despite not having the resources of some other racing organizations at their disposal.
“With the amount of time and the resources we have I feel like we do pretty decent,” he insisted. “We’re not a Scott Bloomquist or anybody like that, of course. I feel like we do pretty decent with what we’ve got and the help we’ve got.”
So how does Mitchell and his team plan to take advantage of this season’s success in the upcoming campaign?
“We’ve been talking about it but we don’t really know what we’re going to do as far as following a series or if we’re just going to kind of hit and miss. We’ll definitely be full-time next year, but we just haven’t made our minds up yet as far as what we’re going to do.”
