IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series Races 1-2 Winner — Quick Rod: Mitchell Harkey

Mitchell Harkey overcame multiple obstacles to win the Quick Rod class at the IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series season opener at Darana Motorsports Park. He then doubled up at Virginia Motorsports Park.

It started the race prior to his visit Benson, N.C., track. Harkey had a 615 motor with 20-degree heads in his 2009 Racetech dragster. But, he blew out the head gasket at the previous race in Florida. It meant changing to a new motor, a 598 with 12-degree heads.

The rough times weren’t over for Harkey, a 29-year-old businessman from Salisbury, N.C. He broke a driveshaft on his second timed run down the drag strip at Darana, and ended up borrowing a driveshaft from IHRA Hall of Fame racer Anthony Bertozzi.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Then his battery kept dying, so he had to get a starter and battery from Jeff Kundratic who he ended up facing in the finals. It was the old adage of racers helping other racers. 

Once he got to eliminations, he faced Troy Barton, a champion Junior racer who is transitioning to the adult classes, in the first round. It didn’t get any easier in round 2 as he took on Lauren Freer, a record-breaking racer, who won in Super Rod at Benson last November.

He posted the better reaction time in all, but one rounds throughout the day, although he was Harkey credited his race car.

“I wasn’t so great. It was the car that pulled me through every round,” Harkey said. “Lauren and I are good friends, and I knew I had to be on the game for that one. I messed up the next round, but still won. The final, the car was trying to dive when I was staging. Luckily, I hung in there, and then I saw the red light come on.”

Harkey is referring to Kundratic, who triggered the red light -.013 too early. Mitchell left the tree in .011 seconds and cruised to the win. He was thrilled to win the prestigious IHRA Ironman trophy as it was a great payoff after putting so much time and effort into the sport.

“It’s been a hard last two years,” he said. “All I’ve been doing is working on my race cars and getting back to where I was in 2015 and 2016 (when he was IHRA Division 9 champion). My bread and butter has always been 5.70 (Index) racing, and I was so excited to see it come back.”

At Virginia, he defeated Barton in the semifinals and then dispatched of Corey Manuel in the final round.

Harkey thanked his father, Larry, for all his support. Mitchell started racing Junior Dragsters when he was eight years old. He won four championships at his home track before moving up to the bigger cars. He talked about being back with IHRA.

“I’ve always loved IHRA, and IHRA has a great community,” Harkey said. “Everybody checks on everybody to make sure they’re all good and if anyone needs anything.”