I’ll try to keep this short but I have a thing for running on and on…
I’m Jim Mistick. I currently work at Speednation as the Operations Director which is a fancy way of saying I pretty much run the place. We’re currently in a non-commercial location in McDonald but we just dropped some serious cash to buy a crappy little building in Castle Shannon that we need to strip to the walls, totally remodel and put an addition onto. At least it’s across the street from the Sunoco that sells race gas at the pumps…
In the past, I’ve been the service manager for a GM dealership, a parts manager for a Honda/Mitsubishi dealership, and a store manager for Autozone. I’ve also spent a lot of time working in radio as a DJ, program director, news reporter and eventually I owned my own radio station and did consulting for other radio stations as well.
At one point in my life (before I got married), I’ve had up to eight cars at once including a supercharged '88 Mustang GT, a stock 29K mile '77 Old Cutlass, a low mileage Merkur XR4Ti that won a lot of awards at Carlisle, some Capris, a couple old RWD Mopars, lots of CRXs and other Hondas along with various pickups and SUVs. Right now I have a '75 280Z that I’m finally gonna start restoring, an '83 Starlet that I’m going to put a 4AGE into, a '86 AE86 that I’m going to cut in half with my sawzall and take the motor out of for the Starlet (screw Initial D), a 1965 Beech formula car, a '97 Sidekick Sport, and my daily driver/beater Civic wagon.
I started street racing and drag racing my Mustang back in 1992 and eventually got into the 11s before I decided I needed a vehicle that hauled plywood instead of hauling ass. I took some time off from racing to remodel a 100 year old house in Punsxutawney and then to buy and build up a radio station north of Johnstown. When I sold both of those, I had more money than I knew what to do with and I started autocrossing in a totally cheater CRX Si. I sold that CRX to buy a supercharged one from a friend (since sold to another friend) and have been continuing to autocross for the last 6 years in a variety of different cars. In fact, I’m the novice coordinator for the Steel Cities SCCA autocross program and I’m also on the board of directors at the North Hills Sports Car club. I haven’t been drag racing or street racing in years but I do continue to drive like a maniac on the street whenever I can.
I’ve also been doing Solo 1 hillclimbs which is kind of like a legal street race combined with autocross and the threat of death or dismemberment thrown into the mix. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had in any form of motorsports that I’ve tried so far. You feel like a real racecar driver when you put on your fireproof underwear in the morning and than again when you look at the results at the end of the day and see that you were the fastest driver that didn’t crash into the trees.
Unfortunately for me, racing may be taking a backseat again this summer since I’m in the market for another house and I’m sure I’ll be spending lots of time and money fixing up whatever I buy. It was funny to tell the real estate agent that I wanted a six car garage with a two bedroom apartment attached…
I probably won’t be posting here too much because the only way I’m going to get all my project cars completed is to stick to a schedule of spending at least an hour in the garage every day (except for race days). Then again, I do work on the internet all day so I guess I can sneak in a few minutes ever hour when I’m at work.
The car she sold in '77 to buy the Olds was a triple black Buick Skylark GS stage 2. Too bad I was only in 5th grade or I would have been able to buy that one. She told me that the Buick was MUCH faster than the Olds ever was.