Mitch Cobb: the Track Prep Expert Birmingham Has Been Waiting For

Not many people can say their racing résumé includes a personal mentorship from Bill Elliott, driving a world championship-winning Formula One car at one of motorsport's most prestigious events, and spending over a decade restoring priceless vintage race machines — but that's exactly the background Mitch Cobb brings to Birmingham Performance Center.

Mitch's path in motorsports started in the early 2000s in Colorado, where a trip to a drag strip with his father turned into a lifelong obsession. While his dad was checking out the muscle cars at a drag strip in Denver, Mitch wandered over to the go-kart track in the parking lot — and never really left. What began as a way to kill a Saturday quickly became serious. Within a couple of years he was competing at the state level, then nationally, running shifter karts in the Stars of Karting series and making multiple trips to the Supernational in Las Vegas, one of the premier national-level karting events in the country.

From karting, Mitch transitioned to Formula BMW — a feeder series on the path to Formula 1 at the time — and traveled to Valencia, Spain for the series' licensing course and scholarship shootout. He was on a clear trajectory toward professional racing when a chance encounter changed everything.

Mitch Cobb (far right) pictured with Bill and Chase Elliott in 2008

Bill Elliott — "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville," NASCAR's all-time fan favorite and still the holder of the Talladega closed-course qualifying record at 212.809 mph — had retired and moved to Colorado. He and Mitch crossed paths, and Elliott took him under his wing with a specific plan: start on dirt late models to learn car control, move to asphalt late models, then step into an ARCA car and eventually the Craftsman Truck Series. When someone like Bill Elliott maps out a road to NASCAR for you, you listen. And Mitch did, racing dirt and asphalt late models for several years and even getting to compete in a couple of Grand Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge events along the way.

The 2008 financial crisis slowed those plans, and Mitch found himself back in Birmingham — where he landed a job at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. What could have felt like a detour turned out to be one of the most remarkable chapters in his career.

Over the next eleven-plus years, Mitch worked on some of the rarest and most historically significant racing machines on the planet. Ferraris. Can-Am cars. Factory Lotus race cars. Formula One machinery spanning multiple eras. He describes the experience as being forced to become an expert on each individual car — spending six, eight, sometimes ten months on a single restoration — before moving on to the next one. A 1938 BMW motorcycle. A Dan Gurney Lotus IndyCar with a 289 Ford engine and four 58-millimeter Weber carburetors. Each project required a completely different knowledge base, often tracking down the one person in the world who knew how the thing went together.

Mitch Cobb warms up the 1964 Ferrari F-158 driven by John Surtees to the F1 driver’s world championship.

And it wasn't just wrenching. Mitch got to drive these cars. He's piloted the museum's 1964 Ferrari 158 — the car John Surtees used to win his Formula One World Championship, the only man ever to win world titles in both Formula One and motorcycle Grand Prix racing — up the famous hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Twice. He described the experience vividly: a cigar-shaped torpedo with zero aerodynamic appendages, a 1.5-liter dual-overhead-cam 90-degree V8 spinning to 12,000 or 14,000 rpm, making around 200 horsepower — but producing a sound, he said, worth ten thousand. On another trip to Goodwood he drove the museum's Dan Gurney Lotus IndyCar, a car he described as going from absolutely nothing to full throttle with no in-between — on cold tires, on a dirty surface, in front of a crowd. Just another Tuesday for Mitch Cobb.

Check out the Ferrari 158 being driven at Barber Motorsports Park!

That depth of experience — across disciplines, across eras, across every level of the sport — is what makes Birmingham Performance Center different. When Mitch looks at your track car, he's not guessing. He's drawing on over two decades of motorsport knowledge that most shops simply cannot replicate.

Mitch Cobb driving a Lola Can Am racecar.

At Birmingham Performance Center, that translates into professional alignments, corner weighting, and track-specific setup work tailored to your event, your car, and your driving style. On the street performance side, the shop offers exhaust upgrades, intake systems, and precision tuning. And regardless of what you're building toward, Mitch applies the same foundational mindset he's developed across his entire career: brakes first, always bleed your fluid. Do a thorough nut-and-bolt check before every event. Keep the car clean so you can spot a two-drop leak before it becomes a two-gallon problem. Reliability isn't glamorous — but it's what wins.

Whether you're heading to your first HPDE at Barber or chasing a podium in a competitive race series, Birmingham Performance Center is the resource the local track community has needed. Call us today to book your consultation.

Watch the interview with Mitch this blog is based on here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXuDIC8xK6c