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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