Drag Illustrated Issue 141, February 2019 | Page 69

GARRETT MITCHELL BLAZING A TRAIL Mitchell got his start at 1320Video, but has carved out an impressive path with his Cleetus McFarland persona. He now has more than 1.2 million subscribers on YouTube. February 2019 and the video got a million views and everybody loved it. It was just a cool story. People obviously want to see the cars, but it seems like personality and storytelling have really made the difference. How has that been apparent to you? It’s not only about the car, it’s about the story. You can find the coolest cars in the world and bring them to the channel and people will like it, but man, when you get a good story behind it, that is priceless, man. The red Corvette and Leroy are two perfect examples of top-notch stories. People want to see you go fast, but I think I could be going a lot slower than we are and still have a big following. Leroy is extremely fast, no doubt. Does he need to be that fast? No. Could we have set our goals a little lower and done well? Yeah, I think so. I think people are there for the journey, man, and the good stories that go along with that. I know that’s what we’re there for and that’s really important to us, finding good stories and showing everything about them, just totally real-life things that a drag racer goes through on a day-to-day basis. It’s almost like you’re bringing fans to life, mak- ing them love something they didn’t even realize existed or they knew they wanted to be part of. In looking at that, do you feel like there’s a significant young fan base that wants to be part of this sport? Yeah, I think there’s a huge fanbase from people who want to do what I do. I think there’s a big fanbase for the car culture in general. It’s a way to make a living now and it’s a way to do what you love and I think there’s a growing fanbase in that. In that same aspect, I think people who do what I do and are respectful and kind, and show the fun of drag racing while we’re at it, I think it helps grow the fanbase of drag racing. One of the things I do on my channel, we try not to have any hard language so that dads and grandpas can watch with their kids. We let stuff slip here and there when you’re really pissed off or it’s getting really crazy, but when we keep it clean it allows the younger audience to get into the videos because their parents let them watch. How much is being relatable a part of your success? It seems like someone could watch this and decide they want to build a car and take it to their local dragstrip. That’s 100 percent the case and it is relatable because, really, all we’re doing is building a car and racing it. It started in a garage and I’m still using the same tools and I’m still going to the same dragstrip right by our house. They’re all parts you can get online and not a single part is proprietary to my car. These are all attainable things and there are no secrets. My car is what it is and my tuneup is out there and online for people to see. The tuning changes are all online. Every part of it is reachable. It would take time and money, but I definitely think it’s attainable. It seems like there’s a segment of the drag rac- ing community who continuously long for the “good ole’ days” or think the sport’s in trouble when that’s really not the case. That’s a mindset we’re really trying to change as well, but do you see a different perspective of the sport? There’s definitely a crowd that frowns upon the way that I do things because we’re very headfirst even if we don’t know what we’re doing. We’re doing something different. You know, we don’t even have a body on our car (Leroy) and that pissed a lot of people off. But I gotta tell you, and the drag racing community has a lot of hate sometimes, but there’s so many good people in the sport. The competition is good, it’s fun, it’s respectful and it’s good for ev- erybody. Even if you frown upon the way the next guy is doing something or faster than you, who are you to say something? The sport has to evolve and you just have to do your thing. The sport’s going to evolve no matter what and whatever path you take, so be it, man. The sport is going to evolve no matter what, so you just have to be able to adapt. At the events you’re at, whether it’s Cleetus and Cars or the Street Car Takeover, there’s definitely a young fan component there. How is the sport evolving, based on what you see? I think it’s evolving in a very positive way. There’s so many street cars that people bring out. You go to a Street Car Takeover and there’s 400 street cars there drag racing in 15 different “We’re just doing what any other guy would do. I try to keep it as pure as possible and I don’t feel like there’s any pressure because it’s real life to me.” DragIllustrated.com | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 69