A Racer From Down Under

Glenn Mitchell next to his legends car at Sheyenne.

If they gave out a nightly long-tow award at the region’s race tracks, Glenn Mitchell would win it. By a landslide.

Mitchell is from Picton, New South Wales, Australia — which is a rural area located outside of Sydney. He’s raced the #41 INEX Legend car at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo and at Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon during the month of may.

With not much racing happening in Australia with the Covid-19 pandemic, and after selling his equipment rental business, Mitchell, 56, decided to venture to the United States.

“There wasn’t much racing happening back home,” Mitchell said. “We owned an RV, so it made sort of sense to come back here and do a bit of racing and have a bit of fun rather than sitting home with a blanket on my lap.”

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Mitchell and his wife purchased a legends car in the United States and has been in the country for about five weeks, living in their RV. The plan is to be in the U.S. through the end of January.

“It’s been great. The people have been great,” Mitchell said. “The people have been fantastic. Everyone offers to help us out. There’s always offers for help wherever we go. Everyone has been very accommodating that way.”

When asked where his home base is locally, he pointed to the RV that pulls his race car trailer.

“That’s home,” Mitchell said.

The Mitchells plan to travel across the country to race this year, with trips to Indianapolis and Charlotte coming up in the next few weeks.

It’s been a quick learning curve to learn about racing in this area.

“These guys are hard to crack. They’ve been around here a million times,” Mitchell said. “They know their way around.

“In all honesty we didn’t expect to come here and beat these guys,” Mitchell said. “We expected to come here and make a good account of myself.”

He’s done just that, one heat win and five top five finishes in eight feature starts. He finished third at RRVS on Friday and third at Sheyenne on Monday.

“You’ve got to keep getting better. You can’t ever rest on your laurels,” Mitchell said of why he enjoys racing. . “There’s always that little bit better you have to be next week.”

Mitchell said meeting the racers, and the camaraderie developed, has been what’s enjoyable so far.

“It’s fantastic,” Mitchell said. “Just like the way the racing community should be.”