WOMEN OF POWER • 2025 KALLEE MILLS

BY NATE VAN WAGNEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICK BELDEN, TARA BOWKER, KYLE CHRIST AND LUKE NIEUWHOF

KALLEE MILLS grew up going to some of the most significant small-tire races in the history of drag racing. Her father,“ Big Daddy” DeWayne Mills, was a pioneer in Radial vs. the World, making headlines and taking flight in his turbocharged“ Golden Gorilla”’ 68 Camaro. But the headlining drag radial category wasn’ t the pinnacle— the dream destination— for Kallee. Instead, she wanted to go Pro Mod racing. And while her father primarily raced twin-turbocharged machines, Kallee was drawn to angry, screw-type superchargers. Today, she’ s right where she wants to be, driving a screw-blown’ 68 Camaro in her rookie season in Mid-West Drag Racing Series Stroud Safety Pro Mod.

“ Pro Mod has been the dream for me since the beginning,” Mills confirms.“ As a kid racing Jr. Dragsters, we had a lot of Pro Mod races out at Tulsa Raceway Park— Throwdown in T-Town being one of them. The stands were packed. I always thought running Pro Mod would be the end goal for me.”

After a successful Jr. Dragster career, Mills moved up to X275 driving a single-turbo’ 68 Camaro known as“ Golden Panda” that mirrored DeWayne’ s“ Golden Gorilla.” She gradually proved she could handle a turbocharged small-tire car, and in 2020, she started making passes in the twin-turbocharged“ Golden Kong”’ 68 Camaro, which was one of the hottest cars on the Street Outlaws: No

Prep Kings scene at the time. With all the different classes, shootouts, and formats at NPK events over the last few years, Mills notched victories in numerous final rounds. She then made her Pro 10.5 debut at the 2024 Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod, and with the turbocharged“ Golden Gorilla” already in PDRA Pro Street trim, she ran the last three races of the PDRA season.

Between WSOPM and the PDRA events, Mills admits her interest in Pro Mod developed into“ Pro Mod fever.” She started to take a serious look at moving to Pro Mod, which was getting hotter and hotter just as the No Prep Kings scene was cooling off.

Discussions with one of the team’ s biggest supporters, Paul Hayden of American Pride Golf Cart Services, quickly escalated the Pro Mod move. Building on his sponsorship of several race teams, Hayden decided to buy a Pro Mod that Mills family friend and chassis builder Larry

Jeffers put together for DeWayne a few years prior. Health concerns prompted DeWayne to sell the car to Texan Paul Brandt before he ever raced it, but in a full-circle moment, the car is back in the Mills circle with Hayden owning it and Kallee driving it.

“ I really didn’ t believe it,” Mills says of the moment she found out she’ d be competing in Pro Mod this season.“ I knew eventually it would happen. When it started coming together, I’ m like,‘ Man, I’ ve got everything now. It’ s just up to me to perform,’ essentially. But at the end of the day, it was really a dream come true.”

Mills made her first passes in the Pro Mod during a pre-race test session leading up to the Mid-West Drag Racing Series season-opening Xtreme Texas Nationals at Xtreme Raceway Park. She quickly realized how her past experiences, especially racing in No Prep Kings, helped prepare her for the Pro Mod.

“ The passes that I’ ve made in the Pro Mod have been easier to handle than the No Prep Kings stuff on a no-prep surface,” she says.“ There’ s been some passes where I’ ve had to drive the car pretty good and get it down through there. People are like,‘ Dang, Kallee, you’ re a driver.’ I’ m like,‘ That used to be every single pass at No Prep Kings.’ For me, anyways.”

When DeWayne and tuner Lee White were setting up the Pro Mod for Kallee, they designed everything to largely replicate the components in the other cars she’ d driven to make

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