Mike Mittler-Blue Collar Hero

I recently wrote about Larry Phillips and what a profound impact he had on my life but there is another guy that stands out as well, and that is Mike Mittler. There are few people in this world that have left their mark on as many people as Mike Mittler did and I am thankful to have received his friendship and guidance over the years until his untimely passing last May after a valiant battle with cancer.

Mike’s longtime journey to build Mittler Bros Machine & Tool and his awesome background in bringing up racers from the short tracks to Daytona have been pretty well documented. I don’t think of myself as anything other than another driver he helped get to where I wanted to go. This is my story.

I had the privilege to work with Mike in many facets including on custom industrial projects at my job at Epoch Composite Products, as a crew member of his Mittler Bros. Motorsports NASCAR Truck Team and even as a contract employee for Mittler Bros. Machine and Tool so we really were able to connect on so many levels.

The first time I remember meeting Mike, Bill Don Willard had asked me if I wanted to go to Gateway International Raceway in Illinois to watch upstart Jamie McMurray drive the MB truck. I really didn’t know much about MB at the time but Jamie was kind of the hot-shoe in Missouri and had driven for the Willard family in their late models. I remember getting up very early on a Sunday morning and driving up to St. Louis with Bill and hanging out in the garage all day at Gateway. I don’t remember a lot about that day as far as the race or anything but Mike made a lasting impression on me from the start. As busy as he was, trying to prepare his race truck and get ready for the race, he took time out to stop, shake me hand, welcome me to the garage and just made me feel like a million bucks. That is something I will never forget and as we crossed paths later, that initial impression stayed with me.

Fast forward a few years, I was a Project Engineer working at Epoch Composite Products (Tamko Roofing Products) in Lamar, Missouri as I helped set up and start a large Injection Molding facility there as they moved into the composite shingle business. The original line of products that were produced there was composite decking but I really wasn’t involved in that although that is how I crossed paths with Mike again. Tamko was looking to add or update some machinery with more automation as it was a very manual process at the time. They had brought in several companies to bid out the work and Mittler Bros Machine & Tool was one of them. I casually ran into Mike as he was in the plant that day and we just caught up as to basically who each of us were as we hadn’t really had any interaction since that first visit at the truck race.

I’m not sure exactly how it happened but Mike invited me and a friend of mine, Dick Laverty from Chicago Mold & Engineering to be his guest at I believe the Kansas Truck race that year. Dick had built many of our injection molds and he would eventually build a lot of the molds that Mittler Bros used in the new composite decking machines that they built together. After that first trip, Dick, Mike and I hit it off and before I knew it we started pitting for MB Motorsports. If the races were close enough like Gateway, Kansas, Kentucky, Memphis, etc. I would drive up to Foristell, Missouri to the race shop and ride in the team van or if Dick was available, we would take his car and road trip. Dick and I loved going to Texas Motor Speedway and did several times to watch races even if we weren’t helping Mike. If the races were farther away like Las Vegas or Homestead, Mike would fly me out to the races to work on the pit crew.

I was able to work with several drivers with MB but the majority of the time was spent with Chris Wimmer and Justin Allgaier. Chris and his family were wonderful people. Justin was such a talent and a great kid. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know his father “Gator” as we all know him and we just really all enjoyed each other’s company. Justin was still driving his family’s ARCA car also at that time and a lot of the events had both the trucks and the ARCA cars. Through that relationship, I was able to meet and spend time with racing legend Larry Moore so that was an interesting by product of helping Mike. Fun times indeed.

Eventually, my work got to be so busy that I was really just unable to go as much as I wanted so I stepped back from helping MB as much and started just staying home more. I stayed in touch and was always just a phone call away from Mike as we chatted often.

While I was working in Lamar, eventually it just got to be a job I didn’t enjoy. The product we were making had issues with the formulation and it was hard for me to support something that I really had no control over. I didn’t enjoy the hour plus drive to Lamar anymore, I didn’t want to work in a factory any more and so I just started looking for a way out. It took me a solid year, don’t tell anyone but I went to work literally for a year and drank coffee and looked busy but I was mentally checked out. I wish I had a step tracker back then!

Through a chance request, I went to the Tulsa Shootout one Saturday with Mel Kluhsman and through that ride and relationship, I accepted a position with KRC Racing Components and finally got out of making shingles that weren’t going to last. (The product line has since been discontinued, the plant has since been shut down and the equipment sold off as I understand it).

I was finally able to take my first full time job in the racing industry since my early days of helping Larry Phillips but things just didn’t work out there with KRC. I am still good friends to this day with Mel and would help in any way I could, it just wasn’t meant to be so I took a job in Springfield to work on a new plastic molding project to make a living and to earn enough to feed my family. It was a job I hated from the start, it was dangerous, it was dirty, it was hot, the people for the most part were awful and I hated every day of it. One day there I had enough and I quit that job with no job on the horizon. I was at a very low point in my life at that time and I didn’t even realize we were about to experience the crash of 2008. Shortly after I quit that job in Springfield, an employee was killed in the exact same injection molding machine I worked on daily. I hated to see that happen but I was thankful it wasn’t me.

I know that sounds like a lot of rambling and has nothing to do with Mike Mittler but this is where life’s paths can take some interesting turns. I of course needed a job and there just weren’t many prospects at that time. I had a young family and I didn’t have anywhere to turn. As Mike and I had kept in touch throughout this time, he was looking for somebody to help him with some projects, trade shows, etc. and I needed money so Mike allowed me to work as a 1099 employee at Mittler Bros. Machine & Tool while I still lived 3-1/2 hours away. I basically went to Wright City every other week to the office and I worked the off weeks at home on websites, catalogues, etc. I did quite a few trade shows with Bill Politsch as I learned the sales side of things although I didn’t really have a metal working background. I was fortunate enough to go to the Oshkosh Air Show, the air show in Lakeland, Florida, Hot Rod shows in Illinois and Indy, and even got snowed out once at a manufacturer trade show at Lefthander Chassis.

I was really enjoying my work but this was during the economic crisis of 2008. It had taken a real toll on Mike and his business but Mike was a fighter and persevered through it all. He kept his employees working, he gave up whatever he needed to do for the good of the company even parking his race team when he had to but most of all for me, he kept me working. It eventually became hard to continue as a remote employee for both of us. I just never felt like I connected with his team like I was used to and I just didn’t have the stability I needed. I pushed for months for him to either let me go or hire me full time is what I was holding out for and finally in late ’09 we had to mutually agree to separate so I began looking for work. I continued to work for him until I found something and I couldn’t have ever known what was about to happen in my life but Mike would once again play a crucial part of it.

I had been working for Lucas Oil Speedway since early 2007 operating the computer scoring system and doing some PR work so things weren’t terrible. I was a part of two of the most American Made, owner built companies in the United States who were both as patriotic and hard working as there could be. As the speedway went through it’s growing pains, the first few years there was quite a bit of turnover at the top. I think expectations were high, it was new people from different parts of the country trying to gel, it just was difficult for awhile.

Towards the latter part of 2009, after Mike has told me it was OK to seek alternate full time employment, I sensed a change was in the air in Wheatland. I had worked there for a couple of years part time but I didn’t really know anyone on the Lucas side other than Gary Hubert who had built the speedway and who was very close to Forrest Lucas. I talked to him about the position and I am sure he was reluctant to take a chance on me as I had never run a track full time or had that kind of experience but I did have a lot of background in racing. There was one thing that I firmly believe made the difference in me getting hired at Lucas Oil Products, and that was a call from Mike Mittler to Gary Hubert. I never could have known what that one phone call would mean to me but I don’t underestimate it.

My final and fondest memory of Mike, was presenting him the Pioneer Award at the Ozarks Area Racers Reunion alongside Ken Schrader and Carl Edwards. Mike was so honored to be there that night surrounded by friends and family. His wife Bev was originally from Springfield and Mike spent a lot of time at the Fairgrounds back in the day helping out many area racers. It was a special night that I will never forget.

Shortly before Mike passed a good mutual friend of ours, Kenny Wallace went to visit him in the hospital. As sick as Mike was and tired as he must have been from fighting a terrible disease, he posed for a picture and smiled as only he knows how. I had hoped to go see Mike later that week but he passed before I could make it. He will forever be in my memories and my heart as having a tremendous influence on my life.

RIP My Friend

DR