PHOTO: DEVIN DEES |
In the Groove Scares in his personal life and on-track have led DeWayne Mills to make changes in the way he approaches a race, be it one of Donald“ Duck” Long’ s prestigious biannual events or an NMCA Radial Wars race. The result has been a safe, consistently quick race car capable of winning any time it hits the track.
Indianapolis, Indiana; Joliet, Illinois; and Norwalk, Ohio.
Along the way, Mills earned three more number-one qualifiers, set the class elapsed time record of 3.871-seconds, and even got a prestigious win for Team NMCA at the NMRA vs. NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing on his way to taking the overall title for the year.“ Having the pressure on me pushes me to do my best,” Mills explained of his attitude, not anxiety.“ It was really great winning the championship after everything else that had happened, especially
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since this was the first year we were able to run all the NMCA races in a season.”
Although he made winning the championship look like child’ s play, there was a lot of work going on behind the scenes.“ Every single time we took the car to the track, we brought it back and rebuilt the motor afterwards,” Mills openly shared.“ We would lean on it hard, and that took a toll. If you want to win, that’ s what you’ ve got to do. You won’ t run as fast if you want to save parts. Jamie [ Miller ] did a great job managing the tune, but it was used up after each race with bent rods or hurt bearings.” When they’ re not at the track, crew chief Davis is had at working keeping the miracle machine up to date on maintenance, or working full-time at Mills’ s business.
Last October, less than two years after his jaw-dropping flight, Mills went back to South Georgia Motorsports Park and found redemption at the same track that almost cost him his life. While racing at No Mercy 7, he once again made history but did it shiny side up.
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The race offered up an astounding payout of $ 60,000 to the winner of the Radial vs. the World class, and Mills knew he had a shot at the prize.“ I was tickled to be able to go back,” said Mills.“ I had surgery coming up to remove cancer from my neck, and I didn’ t know what the future held for me – if it was never drag racing again or whatever – but I wanted to win this race more than anything.”
Putting his mind to the task, Mills made sure that every single nut and bolt on the car had been checked and that Davis and Miller had it in its prime condition.“ I wasn’ t stressed at all to be racing there again,” he bravely admitted. Although he shook the tires in the first round of qualifying, by the third session Mills was on top in the number one spot with a 3.793 at 208.88 mph despite the 40-mph headwind.“ I told Jamie [ Miller ] and Tim [ Davis ] that I wanted to step on it one time, and we did. They turned it back down to save parts after, and I felt really good going into the race.”
Mills powered through eliminations, and his hot rod was on point. He advanced over Brad Edwards in round one, and round two’ s 3.837 at 209.07 mph run earned a win over Frank Soldridge. Mills moved on again in round three in a bittersweet victory over Stevie Jackson, whose catastrophic wreck was reminiscent of Mills’ s own. Fortunately, Mills was not caught up in the melee, and took out Alan Pittman in the semi-finals.
As he lined up against Joe Albrecht in the final round, Mills knew he could go the distance. It wound up being the quickest side-by-side pass in radial tire history, and Mills was the quicker of the two as his 3.765 at 209.72 mph run outpaced Albrecht’ s 3.781 at 200.00 mph effort.“ Big Daddy” had done it, and it would be his name that was to be inked on the $ 60,000 paycheck to prove he was the baddest of the bad.“ Getting the win was really incredible, but it was absolutely a team effort and I couldn’ t have done it without my family and my guys,” said Mills, always quick to give credit where it’ s due.
Mills didn’ t keep the money for himself, however, and instead chose to share it with those he loved.“ We gave about half of it away to various children’ s charities, and then I gave Tim and Jamie family vacations to Florida in July. It’ s tough enough to be out here racing and to be away from your family, and I’ m fortunate that mine can come with me, but not everyone is lucky enough to be able to do that,” he candidly shared of how the cash was spent. Perhaps it’ s his generosity and his eagerness to reward and recognize the hard work of those who surround him that plays into Mills’ s success.“ If you can’ t have fun doing it, it’ s not worth doing.”
The post-race celebration was short-lived, though, as Mills had been battling cancer and had to go in for a round of radiation“ and some other junk” just one month after the race. Although he was declared cancer-free and in remission over the Thanksgiving break, the ordeal was never far from his mind.“ That was a bigger win than
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January 2017 |
DragIllustrated. com | Drag Illustrated | 73 |