Drag Illustrated Issue 117, January 2017 | Page 72

THE CHAMPIONS ISSUE car , great track conditions , and good driving ,” he joked . In the third round of qualifying , Mills made history with his 4.087 at 194.91 mph hit . “ If the same record stands for five years , that just means people aren ’ t working hard enough .”

Hauling the heavy , 3,050-pound car to a stop at the end of each run is just as mission-critical as setting the records themselves , and a set of Strange Engineering brakes can be found in the front and rear of Mills ’ s Camaro . He relies on Stroud Safety equipment to keep him in one piece , and the choice came in handy when he did his best imitation of an airplane taking flight while racing at South Georgia Motorsports Park in February of 2015 .

During the third round of PTC Radial vs the World qualifying at Donald “ Duck ” Long ’ s Lights Out 6 event , Mills ’ s muscle car lifted into a massive wheelie and the situation quickly spiraled out of control . “ It actually all started in the first round of qualifying when the top of the manifold went through the hood ,” said Mills , who missed the second qualifying session to make repairs . “ So , we went up for Q3 with the same tune-up we had been running and thought we had it covered . I pulled the front wheels up a bit and pedaled it . I felt it pull timing to make the shift , so I put the pedal back down and thought we ’ d be good to go , but the problem was it was in second gear instead of high gear , so it ran the timing back in and jerked the front end up again . I came off the gas trying to set it back down and I felt it take off . I felt it get quiet , and I knew I done took off , and I was sailing through the air . I reached up to throw the ‘ chutes and didn ’ t know where I was at , rotated around , saw the wall coming , and I knew it would hurt .”

With all four wheels off the ground for an uncomfortable amount of time and Mills precariously perched on his parachutes , he miraculously touched back down to the ground without flipping . “ The takeoff wasn ’ t bad , but the landing was terrible … although it was better than Stevie ’ s !” joked the driver , referring to Stevie “ Fast ” Jackson ’ s own wreck which took place last fall at SGMP ’ s No Mercy 7 . “ I was hanging onto the ‘ chute lever when it landed , and was trying to keep it out of the walls , but the steering linkage and rack and pinion were torn off so I was just along for the ride like a little kid in a car at the carnival with no

control .” Mills smacked both retaining walls , but miraculously walked away without major injury .

The Camaro was quickly sent to Larry Jeffers Race Cars for repairs after Mills ’ s acrobatics , and the entire front half of the chassis was rebuilt . New doors , quarter panels , parachute mounts , and a seemingly endless list of parts were replaced due to the carnage . “ The one thing I was really proud of with that car was that it still had a VIN number , but the VIN plate popped off the car during the wreck and I couldn ’ t find it afterwards ,” he lamented of the one thing he couldn ’ t put back to normal on his beautiful ’ 68 .

Although the visible and mechanical damage was easily undone , the accident changed Mills ’ s mentality when it came to racing . “ Basically , I tried to save a run that should have been aborted . I tried to be a good driver , but at some point in time you have to make up your mind that if it wheelies , just set it down and be done . You may be able to get back in it after it sets down , but if you try too hard , it ’ ll catch up with you ,” said Mills , who would now rather play it safe than risk his life , whether it ’ s qualifying or eliminations , and knows when to say enough is enough .

It wasn ’ t just his mindset that changed after the incident , but his driving style , too . “ I used to race on some sketchy tracks back in the day , and I would unintentionally run closer to the wall . People would ask why I ’ d do that , and I ’ d say ‘ Because if something goes wrong , you don ’ t have as far to go to hit !’ In the dirt truck world , you ’ d want to stay close to the wall for that exact reason . But now , I ’ ve broken myself of that habit and I stay in the middle of the track ,” said Mills , who aims for the groove , where traction is paramount .

It didn ’ t take long for Mills to get back in action , and he continued racing without skipping a beat . Back in his comfort zone of winning and setting records , he focused on each race as its own entity rather than worry about the what-ifs .

Later that year , while racing at the 2015 YellowBullet . com Nationals over Labor Day weekend at Maryland ’ s Cecil County Dragway , Mills moved forward when he made his first-ever three-second pass . “ We had a CO2 leak while racing earlier at the Shakedown at Norwalk and only ran 4.00 , so we knew it was possible ,” said Mills with his trademark do-or-die attitude . “ We went to YellowBullet and Jamie [ Miller ] wasn ’ t

with us because he was working an NHRA Pro Mod race , so he was helping us and Josh Ledford over the phone .”

With the combined efforts of the group , Mills qualified number one on a 4.01-second run , then hustled down the track to post a 3.98 at 202.24 mph pass on the boards during the final round of eliminations to take the win and add a new milestone to his racing résumé . “ Jamie gets all the credit for tuning , but it was really sad he wasn ’ t there for our first three-second run . We couldn ’ t do it without him , that ’ s for sure ,” Mills added .

In 2016 , Mills focused his energy on winning the NMCA Mickey Thompson Radial Wars championship , and , true to form , he made it happen . “ We ’ ve got the attitude of ‘ refuse to lose ’,” he noted of his motto . Mills started his NMCA season with a runner-up finish at the first race in Bradenton , Florida , and was the number-one qualifier at the next event in Atlanta , Georgia . Then , incredibly enough , Mills swept the remaining four races of the year with wins at Bowling Green , Kentucky ;

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