The Final Time Control - The Passing Of Shane Mitchell

By Neil McDaid

In the historic St Patrick's Chapel, which looks out over Donegal Town, family and friends gathered to bid a final farewell to a son, brother, friend and great motorsport champion.

Just three days earlier Shane Mitchell's life came to a sudden and tragic end at just 34-years-old.

As the news of Shane's passing trickled through to his many friends in the rally community here in the U.S., we struggled to come to terms with what had happen to this person who almost always greeted us with a great big smile.

Although Shane did not compete much in Ireland, for many here in the USA, it will be his great ability behind the wheel of a rally car that we will reminisce on as time passes. In the days following Shane's death many would post to his Facebook page to share their thoughts and memories. Among the many messages, one from fellow rally competitor Otis Dimeters touched me as most fitting. Otis wrote, "While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil, rally on to the infinite stages."

Most of us would first see Shane in action in 2000 at the Maine Forest Rally-ProRally. In those early days of his all too short rally career, he was driving a fairly basic Production GT /Eagle Talon. Although a bit rough around the edges back then, Shane did show some great speed and car control on those early events. These were driving skills I am sure he honed on the narrow, twisty, bumpy roads around his home in southern Donegal.

Shane would soon find that the PGT Eagle Talon was at its max; and looked to Andy Brown of Techsport/AVSport to build a car that might take him to the next level. Andy built a GPN Subaru Impreza for Shane. In one of his first outings in the new car, Shane would take 2nd in GPN and 11th overall at the 2002 STPR rally in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania.

Shane would suffer a few DNF's in his next few events, but would again find form out west in Olympia, Washington at the 2002 Wild West ProRally. Shane edged out the vastly experienced Mark Lovell for 4th overall by just six seconds, the podium was in sight. That battle must completely live on in our memories as Mark has since passed on too soon, as well.

Heading into the 2003 SCCA Pro Rally season Shane was clearly on a mission for the GPN title, but stiff competition would come from a very quick Mark Utecht in another Subaru. The epic battle would last throughout the year with Shane trailing Mark by just 2 points heading into final rally of the year, Lake Superior ProRally. Shane would take an early lead as Mark struggled in the opening stages with gearbox issues. In a last ditch effort to try and reel Shane back in, Utecht pushed a little too hard and rolled his Subaru. Shane would push on to claim the 2003 GPN ProRally Championship.

Utecht express his feeling on Shane's passing with a post on Special Stage forum this week, "Put simply, I am shocked. RIP Shane I will always remember our battles on the stages."

Andy Brown, who has since moved to Perth Australia, shared some memories with me this week on Shane, as a friend, a person and a competitor. "It is still hard to believe Shane has gone, I initially met Shane in 2002 when he asked me to build his rally car. We hit it off straight away... I was lucky to share with him his success in winning the 2003 SCCA ProRally GPN championship, as well as his outright rally wins. Taking the GPN championship in 2003 was a measure of his determination to succeed, as well as skill at pacing himself, and in turn matching that with blinding speed.

Shane was a natural rally driver. His car control and confidence in his own skills are attributes that few drivers master It is a measure of how highly he was thought of, when struggling with the costs for the championship, the Irish community in New York had a collection to make sure he could make all the events.

As well as on the rallies, I spent time with Shane in New York, and saw how incredibly hard working and conscientious he was. I know the lads that worked for Shane thought very highly of him, and obviously had a great respect for him.

The world has lost not only a great driver, but also an amazing person, loyal, honest, hard working, and always with a smile on his face, I consider him to be one of my most loyal and trusted friends".

Shane would open the 2004 rally season with his first overall podium finish, snatching second from fellow Donegal man, veteran driver Seamus Burke. With lack of sponsorship Shane would be forced to run a very limited program in 2004, but for many, including myself, the 2004 STPR Rally will go down as his finest moment in motor sports.

I had decided rather than cover STPR in 2004 that I would lend my support and volunteered as recovery sweep. SS4 was our first assignment of the day and we set up at the start of the stage. I recall conditions were especially tough that year with all the rain leaving the stages a muddy mess. Pat Richard, who was running first on the road, would arrive at our staging location a little beat up from an incident on the prior stage. Pat had spun and hit a tree at the end of SS3 and was quickly out of the car to survey the damage.

As Richard frantically worked to straighten out a mangled exhaust on his Subaru, Frank Sprongl arrived followed shortly thereafter by Shane. Walking back to see how

Shane was doing, I believe it was maybe the only time I ever recall seeing him minus the trademark smile; the game face was on. Shane seemed less concerned with Sprongl, who at that point had opened an 18 second gap on him, than he was focused on Richard.

Richard would loose time to Mitchell on SS4 and Shane would go out to take the stage victory on SS5, despite having to navigate around the retired Mitsubishi Evo of Sprongl. With continued pressure from Shane, Pat Richard would overshoot a junction on SS6, which may have decided the outcome of the rally.

Pat Richard posted his recollection of this epic battle at STPR that year to Shane's Facebook page this past week. Pat wrote "Shane, I am so sad. It's only a few weeks since we reminisced bout the battles and what needed to happen. Despite us losin our brakes, (cuz u made us push so hard)!) You won STPR fair and square in the mud fest that was 2004. You would have beaten us anyways and a few people (like Doug) recognized that. You were a talent and I was always worried about what u were gonna do. I was always p***ed off u didn't get many more rides... Now u never will... Argh"

As Pat mentioned, Shane did battle on through the mud that year and took the overall victory at STPR in 2004 in his GPN Subaru. I missed the overall podium champagne spray that year as we were delayed extracting several cars from the stages, but I am glad I stayed around to capture a few moments and congratulate Shane the following morning at the prize giving.

Shane, thanks for the many great memories you provided us rally fans along the stages and how proud we were to see the Irish tricolor held high on your victories. So as you pass through the final time control in this life may you rest in peace, my friend. Although sadden by your passing I am glad to have meet you along the way.

This life we are given can, at times, be challenging to manage, but there is always hope and someone to reach out to in our darkest hour.

The Mitchell family has asked that those wishing to remember Shane in some way can donate to www.stopsuicide.ie