Gold Rush Star Mitch Blaschke's Career All Started With A Passion For Kart Racing
Between the expansive mainline show and its handful of spinoffs, Discovery's gold mining reality show franchise "Gold Rush" has featured a large cast of colorful personalities since its premiere in 2011. Among its recurring characters, mechanic Mitch Blaschke is a "Gold Rush" staple, with more than 175 series appearances under his belt starting with Season 3 in 2012 and continuing through Season 13 in 2023. Inevitably, given its length, Blaschke's tenure to date has been plenty eventful, including a moment where Blaschke went too far on "Gold Rush." In short, at one point during Season 10, Blaschke instructs a tractor operator to navigate a narrow path in order to speed up a mining operation. While he does so successfully, the maneuver is plenty dangerous, though it makes for compelling viewing.
Similarly, in a Parker Schnabel Moment that went too far on "Gold Rush," Schnabel and Blaschke ride a jet boat together during some leisure time. Unfortunately, they crash, and Blaschke breaks his arm. Meanwhile, on an entirely different note, in Blaschke's most pause-worthy "Gold Rush" moment, he encourages Schnabel to hire new workers regardless of their level of experience, only to later criticize the workers Schabel hires precisely for their inexperience.
Viewers who enjoy Blaschke's dangerous or otherwise memorable moments throughout "Gold Rush" have his interest in kart racing to thank, which it turns out led Blaschke to his eventual career in the gold mining industry.
Mitch Blaschke learned the ropes of mechanic work for the sake of his kart racing hobby
On "Gold Rush," Mitch Blaschke works as a mechanic, ensuring that the technologically complex wash plants necessary for modern day gold mining work properly. According to his biography on the Discovery website, Blaschke lacks formal training in his field, having learned his mechanical skills on his own and on the job. Blaschke first began working professionally as a mechanic when he was only 14 years old, as his bio notes, in order to earn money to pay for a kart racing hobby.
Furthermore, this first job was in a collision repair shop, meaning that the skills Blaschke was utilizing to repair cars were at least somewhat relevant to kart construction, such that his hobby and work seem to have benefitted from one another.
Blaschke even maintains his interest in kart racing to this day. For example, in February of 2021, Blaschke shared a couple of photos to his official Facebook page in which he's putting together the skeleton of a go kart. Then, in October of that same year, Blaschke shared a photo to his Instagram account of what appear to be two separate, completed karts. Not only did kart racing lead Blaschke to his eventual "Gold Rush" role, then, but it seems to remain a significant part of his life outside of his profession decades later.