During the years that Mike Mitchell raced I don’t what he did that caused more controversy, skirting the rules in the AA/GS class, wearing his hair really long or displaying the bumper sticker that he had on the back of his fuel funny car. Whatever it was, for a guy who never really distinguished himself on the national level he certainly gained national attention and everyone involved with the sport of drag racing knew who was the “World’s Fastest Hippie.” Like many racers Mike began his official drag racing career after a less than successful stint at street racing. His early cars were modest in every sense of the word, a ’34 Ford followed by a B/Gas car and later a more sophisticated piece of equipment that ran in the BB/G class and could, on occasion, race in the top of the line AA/G category. Competing with a topless Chevrolet Corvette that was built by Ron Scrima, Mike’s car ran right with all of the big names in the class but his car was often the subject of a little speculation that it was breaking the rules just a bit, but then it seemed that everyone was doing that in the supercharged gas classes in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s. Mike’s Corvette was called “Revolution,” in honor of a song by the “Beatles” of the same name. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, or maybe getting the word from some Mahareshi, Mike took his long hair and his hippie attitude out of the gas classes and he moved to the fuel funny car ranks in the mid 1970’s where he competed with a Plymouth Barracuda that was built by chassis guru Woody Gilmore. And even though the car had all the good parts, it was never a threat on the national circuit although Mike did have moderate success with it at a handful of divisional races. Unfortunately for Mike the car met a terrible fate when it burned to the ground in an accident at Irwindale Raceway at the end of 1974. Still, besides the classic pictures of his car in ashes at the end of the strip, Mike may be remembered most for the bumper sticker that he had on the back of the car, a bumper sticker that simply read, “Impeach Nixon.” Hey, this was the 1970’s and it was the Watergate era and this was Mike Mitchell, the world’s fastest hippie!! – Bob Frey
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