{"id":90732,"date":"2023-12-22T15:18:30","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T15:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/di-30-under-30-2023-garrett-mitchell\/"},"modified":"2024-01-20T23:50:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T23:50:37","slug":"di-30-under-30-2023-garrett-mitchell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/di-30-under-30-2023-garrett-mitchell\/","title":{"rendered":"DI 30 Under 30 2023: Garrett Mitchell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garrett Mitchell, also known as the YouTube sensation \u201cCleetus McFarland,\u201d was influenced by his dad and his involvement with cars.<\/span><\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #185, the 30 Under 30 Issue, in Nov\/Dec of 2023.]<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a couple cool cars, but he worked at a taxi company when I was growing up, so I was always around Crown Vics,\u201d explains Mitchell. \u201cThen he owned a used car lot as well, and so I saw a lot of cool cars going in and out growing up. His [love for cars] was more of a work passion, but for me, it just became a life passion to work with cars kind of automatically just by being raised by him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

At 16 years old, Mitchell found himself working with 1320Video, an internet-based automotive media company, and soon after, his path intertwined with the rise of social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI owe my whole career to the internet and social media,\u201d he explains. \u201cYou know, I\u2019m one of the extremely rare, lucky cases where I\u2019m able to make money doing car stuff and just having fun. Social media and YouTube are the only things that made that possible, so it\u2019s huge for me \u2013\u00a0 it\u2019s pretty much everything for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Little did Mitchell know that when he attended Rocky Mountain Race Week in 2015, his life would change. It\u2019s where \u201cCleetus McFarland\u201d was born \u2013 a literal overnight sensation \u2013 after Kyle Loftis, founder of 1320Video, posted a montage of Mitchell to Facebook being goofy, touting being \u201cmade in America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But before the viral video, Mitchell loved building cars, and it was Rocky Mountain Race Week that got him hooked on the drag-and-drive scene. He even took home a win in 2022 at the event.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other memorable moments in his career are being the first driver to run 7s in a GM car with a stick shift, being the first driver to clock in the 6-second range in a Corvette, and winning at the World Cup Finals: Import vs Domestic in \u201cMullet\u201d \u2013 a 1986 Chevy El Camino with a 9.3L twin-turbo V8.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a really good racing program at the McFarland Racing Shop,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re putting out our most high-quality vehicles ever, and we\u2019ve seen a lot of success in our builds. Now we\u2019re on the quest for 5s. It seems like all of our cars are getting into the 6s now, and eventually, we want to move into having a 5-second car that\u2019s really competitive across the board.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Most recently, Mitchell has found success on the track. He took home the win in Grannas Racing Stick Shift at the 27th Annual Haltech World Cup Finals Import vs Domestic in November, earning him back-to-back championships at the WCF in two different classes with two wins. In addition to his on-track performance goals, the 28-year-old has hopes for success off the track.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to bring a lot of people into drag racing,\u201d says Mitchell. \u201cI think at my events [\u201cCleetus and Cars\u201d], we have a really strong crowd of people who\u2019ve never even been to a racetrack. So we\u2019re just trying to get as many people involved as we can.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mitchell isn\u2019t quick to forget where he came from and those who helped him get there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really thankful for Kyle Loftis from 1320Video for helping me start my career,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m also really thankful for Texas Speed and Performance \u2013 it\u2019s one of the first companies that really believed in me and got me started with company relationships and sponsors. Also, I\u2019m really proud to be a part of Motion Raceworks. I own part of that company, and I think Motion Raceworks and TBM Brakes are on a huge trajectory to be insanely large businesses, and I\u2019m pumped for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After all of the success that Mitchell has had, he\u2019s shares what keeps him motivated and not resting on his laurels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would say 90% of my motivation comes from wanting to win races and competitions,\u201d Mitchell explains. \u201cThen the other 10% comes from my love for cars.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The post DI 30 Under 30 2023: Garrett Mitchell<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garrett Mitchell, also known as the YouTube sensation \u201cCleetus McFarland,\u201d was influenced by his dad and his involvement with cars. [Editor\u2019s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #185, the 30 Under 30 Issue, in Nov\/Dec of 2023.] \u201cHe had a couple cool cars, but he worked at a taxi company when I was growing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,78117,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-race-pages","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91123,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90732\/revisions\/91123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}