Mitchell Pehrson likes to use his racing in the same way NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Joey Gase uses his: to raise awareness for organ donation.
Organ donation is something near to Pehrson; in 2005 he received a kidney from his brother-in-law.
Pehrson was active duty in the marines at the time, and his brother-in-law was active duty in the army. But the procedure didn’t stop Pehrson from pursuing racing. He got back behind the wheel in 2010, and has been running full-time at Magic Valley Speedway, a quarter-mile semi-banked asphalt oval in Twin Falls, Idaho, ever since.
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Pehrson grew up around racing. His dad was a crew member for a team when Pehrson was a kid, and got the chance to get behind the wheel during a rookie race that let crew members drive the team’s car.
Pehrson said his dad got the bug from doing a heat race, and the next year built his own car to drive.
That same bug hit Pehrson soon after.
“My mom used to get mad at me because she’d get me all cleaned up and ready for bed and she’d tell me to go say good night to him and I’d be out there changing a tire or helping him with the car getting all dirty again,” he said.
Pehrson got his own opportunity to drive during his senior year of high school, racing in the hornets division at Magic Valley for two seasons.
“I actually flipped a car the night before I graduated,” he said.
After two years, Pehrson left the track to join the military, and stayed active duty for two years before being diagnosed with kidney failure.
In the years after his surgery, Pehrson spent some time as a crew member at Magic Valley while watching the track’s street stock division grow.
“I was like that seems like a fun class so I decided to do it,” he said. “And my brother decided to do it too.”
The younger Pehrson spent 2010 racing against his brother, while their dad ran in Magic Valley’s Division I late model class, though Pehrson said it was a struggle at first.
“I had some mechanical failures that didn’t quite make me competitive and I struggled a bit the first year. He ended up finishing second in the points, I finished if I remember right sixth in points,” he said. “It was kind of tough but it was a good, humbling year.”
Three years later, Pehrson’s success would match his family’s. In 2013, his dad was the Division I late model state champion in Idaho, and he and Pehrson’s brother finished first and second in the points at Magic Valley. That same year, Pehrson also won the track’s Division III championship, and he had three nieces who also raced.
The Pehrson’s still all race at Magic Valley. Racing, for Pehrson, has always been about family.
“We have such a close family, that now it’s just more family time that we get spend with each other,” he said
“The camaraderie between fellow competitors, fellow racers in the pits, our great track promoter Eddy McKean, it’s just that second family feeling that you get in the pits when you show up and everybody is just ‘hey how are you, good to see you back,’ kind of feeling.”
Pehrson briefly moved up to the Division I late model class at Magic Valley in 2015 to try to run for rookie of the year. He finished second. The next year, he was back down to the street stocks, where he feels he belongs.
“I wanted something I could run and have fun with and something I see myself excelling in,” he said “So finding the right car and the right class was the hardest part.
“There’s something about running a 50-year-old car, it’s kind of a nostalgia feel. Seeing these 50-year-old cars out there running at 3300 pounds, just banging bumpers and everybody just having a good time, getting out high-fiving each other and talking and joking about how much fun they had.”
Pehrson plans to run another full season at Magic Valley, and has a couple of second place finishes in three races so far in 2019.
While he says he’s struggled a bit out of the gate to get used to changes they’ve made to his car, he’s ready to get some more wins under his belt soon.
“The biggest thing I’m looking forward to is getting back in Victory Lane. I’ve had a pretty good streak with my car,” he said.
“It’s just a fun-filled addiction.”
Magic Valley Speedway will host Whelen Night on Saturday beginning at 5 p.m.
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