door slammer in the five second zone. He turned the trick back in 2003 at Darlington Dragway. He was a big force in the Pro Mod ranks through the 1990s and early into the 2000s. Then, like lots of guys, the sponsor money evaporated and he was without a ride. I got to know Mitch a little back around 2005 when he was working with Tom Lipar’s pro mod team and I was doing PR work for them.

I lost track of Mitch from that point on, but apparently he’s moved on to an interesting business venture. His company is building electric landing gear setups for those large by huge “model” planes guys fly. There’s lots of neat precision machine work by the looks of it and since those planes are worth mucho bucks, we’re guessing that the systems are pretty reliable. If they are not, the company would never get off the ground. (See what we did there with the flying reference?)

This video was shot at what looks to be a big convention for these R/C planes and Mitch does a good job of explaining exactly what it is his company does. We don’t ever really think about what race car drivers do after they are done with their racing careers. Well, here’s but one example!

Press play to see the first ‘slammer pilot in the 5’s talk landing gear!

Thanks to the dudes at MSD for the tip!