Dave Mitchell: The Right Man at the Right Time
Dave Mitchell may be 84 years old, but he remains active in the workforce and possesses an agile mind. Born in 1940 to Gilbert and Ruth Shields Mitchell, he had at least an arms-length relationship with the Historic Bloomington Speedway from birth. “Jim Mitchell, on whose property the track was built was my great uncle,” he says, “he was a brother to my grandfather and was from a family of twelve boys and one girl.”
His father didn’t catch the racing bug, but his first recollection of the racetrack came when he was around five or six years old. “My dad had stopped over at Uncle Jim’s,” he recalls, “and I looked over the hill and was amazed at what I saw.” Nonetheless, his first visit to the track came years later. “I think the first time I went to the races was about 1954,” he says, “I was working at a little restaurant and root beer stand on the corner of Fairfax called the Polka Dot. Then my cousin Ray Mitchell bought the place, and it was called Speedway Grill. I started as a car hop but later moved into the kitchen. At that time, the track was run by my cousin Geroge Mitchell, Cy Gyger and Cliff Snell. Gyger had a wrecker service and Snell had a GMC dealership on the northwest corner of Highway 37 and Church Lane at what we called Becks Corner.”
Mitchell would first move into sales peddling kitchen products in organized parties before a lengthy career with Lawson Products. In many ways it was the nature of his work that brought him closer to racing. “I didn’t get more deeply involved until 1962 or 1963,” he says, “Jerry Shields who was a cousin of mine had the #56 car and I started hanging out in his garage and going to the racetrack He moved to a place in Smithville and Galen Fox was doing his engines. It was Galen who taught me how to set my first crankshaft in an engine. He was a master.”
After Mitchell was established at Lawson Products it was easy to bring his vocation and avocation a bit closer together. “I was starting to make a little money,” he says, “and my company handled a lot of things you used in race cars. So, I started supplying those to Jerry in order to put our name on the racecar. Bob Kinser was driving at the time. I knew Bob because his mom and dad lived about a half mile from me, and his grandpa lived right across the field from us.”
By now Mitchell had the itch, and he was fortunate enough to be witnessing history. “It was an exciting time,” he notes, “We were winning, and everyone likes to win. Jerry was having me do more things all the time. I enjoyed it because I was always mechanical, but not to that extent.”
Then things began to happen. Galen Fox moved on to work with New York owner Dick Hammond and Shields hired Taylorsville, Indiana driver Bobby Black. Needless to say, replacing Bob Kinser was a tall order. Black and Mitchell became good friends, but beyond that it was a tough time. “Jerry wasn’t having the kind of success he was having with Bob Kinser, “Dave says,” and Jerry’s wife didn’t like Bobby very well. Then one night they went to the races and put someone else in the car.”
Black’s tenure with Shields was over, but when he accepted a ride with owner Bob Thompson, he found that Dave was prepared to follow him. Mitchell had moved up the ladder at Lawson’s and wanted to do more to help. “I was making a little more money then,” he says, “and Bob didn’t have a lot of excess money to put into the racecar. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. So, I started buying engines. I had a neighbor who had been involved with go-karts and who worked as an engineer at Westinghouse named Jack Brankle. He started helping with the engines and made them run a little faster.”
While the car’s performance improved there was trouble just around the bend. “Bob Thompson) was the kind of guy who would change the car and not tell the driver he had made changes,” Mitchell says, “and Bobby didn’t like that. I didn’t think it was fair either. We had varied success and then there were words. He fired Bobby and that pissed me off.”
prepared to act. Remembering the time Mitchell says, “I started looking in Speed Sport News for cars that were available, and I found a Trostle for sale in Omaha. So, Bobby, Danny Anderson who was a helper, and I drove out there and bought it. We replaced about everything on it.”
They had instant success. On April 18, 1976, Easter Sunday, they signed in for the first Spring race at Paragon Speedway and won. They also knew they could be better. Black had raced extensively with USAC, first with owner Paul Mead in 1962. One of Mead’s associates was famed engine builder Glen Niebel. In a hard tumble Black destroyed the rear end of his car, and he convinced Mitchell to turn to Niebel for assistance. “Glen put in a rear end like Steve Stapp built them,” Dave says, “and he rebuilt everything else. We went back out there and started winning even more.”
Black was particularly tough at Bloomington finding victory lane often. in 1978 he outdistanced Randy Kinser for the track championship and Mitchell was the top owner. In response, the team headed to Des Moines, Iowa to purchase a new car from Bob Trostle. In Mitchell’s mind they never succeeded in getting the car dialed in. Then in a flash, everything had changed. They were back at Paragon on May 30, 1979, for what was reported as a 79 lap feature race. On the 17th circuit, as Mitchell saw it, “Pat Corsi stuck a wheel in on him on the front straightaway and Bobby flipped end over end over end and we sent him the hospital with a coma.” Incidentally, the feature was won by a kid named Steve Kinser.
The racecar was obviously destroyed so the old piece was cobbled back together. The problems ran deeper than that. “He was never really the same,” Mitchell says, “we stuck with him, but I tried to get him to retire but he was stubborn. At some point I just had to say, Bobby, you don’t have a job anymore. That was hard.” Mitchell tried to soldier on as well, and Bernie Graybeal for one offered hope of getting back on top once more. “When we got Bernie, I had never seen anybody drive the car that hard,” he says, “ but we had some mechanical issues, mostly with power steering so I just decided at that time I was finished racing.”
It turns out that racing wasn’t quite finished with Mitchell.
Bloomington promoter Bob Taylor ran the racetrack as late as 1970 but sadly the facility was closed in 1980 and 1981. Dave understood what may have happened. “The track and the surroundings were not very sanitary,” he says, “The people quit coming and it was no longer a viable business.” That was unacceptable. It was here that he stepped up. “George Mitchell still owned it,” Dave says, so I worked out a buy/lease deal.” As one might imagine the facility was in horrendous condition. “We put in a sound system, we put the light poles in the infield which are still there, we put new wood on the bleachers and new concessions. We also ran new water lines up the hill to the toilets. Basically, we spent a lot of money before the track was reopened.”
He did everything in his power to make it work, including having a relative at every gate and in key positions. The bottom line was predictable. “Oh yes,” he says with a laugh, “we lost money. Everyone else thought the money was just rolling in.” Even losing some cash for the short run could have been acceptable, but the walls of the real world began to close in. “I had a couple of promotions in my job,” he says, “and I was gone all week, and I didn’t have the time to spend on it. Then the racetrack started interfering with my job and they called me into Chicago and said something has to change here.” He was forced to approach an understanding George Mitchell and explain the he had to back out of the deal. The money just didn’t add up. The good news? Mike Miles and Dennis Richardson were ready and willing to take over and keep the ship afloat.
Today Dave and Glenda Mitchell live in the Camby area, and their daughters Beth Durrett and Leah Mitchell are nearby. Dave works for Sweet and Savory Catering company which also manufactures Lucky Lou’s dog food. In his role he takes care of a fleet of trucks and vans, builds risers for food displays, and makes runs to the grocery store. He has nothing but fond memories of his time in racing including his tenure at Bloomington Speedway. “I would do it again even though I didn’t make any money,” he says, “but I was so pleased when Mike and Dennis took it over.”
The story of the Bloomington Speedway includes dark days, and moments of doubt. In fact, some were concerned that the 2023 season was the last. That said, there would never have been a 100th anniversary celebration if Dave Mitchell had lacked the courage to step up and breathe life into a racetrack that may have been on life support.
It is for that reason that we salute this Bloomington Speedway legend.
The Historic Bloomington Speedway - - Rooted in Tradition – Focused on the Future.
- administrator on Apr 18, 2025
- Article Date: 4/18/2025 by Patrick Sullivan