Mills’ nerves quickly calmed down. With guid-
ance from DeWayne and help from tuner Jamie
Miller and crewman Johnny “Drama” Maguda,
Kallee made a series of clean, straight passes
at Emerald Coast, as well as Orlando a couple
weeks later. She even nailed a .005 reaction time
on one lap.
“As soon as I started making passes down the
track and getting more comfortable in the car,
the pressure was off,” she says. “But I still think
there’s a huge, huge X on my back with all these
people, you know? ‘Oh, well her dad ran it. He
did good, but see if she can...blah, blah, blah.’”
“But I think it’ll be fine,” she continues. “I’m
not really pressured a lot now. I was just ner-
vous more about me getting in the car and being
comfortable and being able to handle it than
what others would say if I couldn’t, you know
what I’m saying? I just think I wanted to make
everyone proud of me, like my parents and my
family and my friends mainly. But as far as oth-
er people adding pressure? I don’t feel like I’m
super pressured.”
The next step for Mills is to start racing. She
planned on attending the No Prep Kings season
opener at Tucson Dragway in March before it was
postponed to late July due to the coronavirus. As
for whether or not Mills will appear on the actual
TV show, that’s to be determined.
“Well, right now we’re not really sure,” she says.
“[The producers] want to see my abilities, which
I do not blame them at all because it’s a TV show
before it’s a drag race. I’m not really sure if I’ll be
on the TV show yet. For right now, no, we’re not
on the show. We’ve not gotten an invite. That’s
all I can say.”
Mills hopes she’ll make it on the show in the
near future as a part of the next wave of new no-
prep stars, some of which are bringing in new
audiences to the series and the sport.
“I think that I bring a lot of different people
into racing,” Mills says. “We’ve also got Justin
Swanstrom making a big push in No Prep Kings.
Me and him are really good friends and I think
he brings a good side, and I also bring a different
side. We’re both really young. I’m a girl, he’s kind
of crazy. That would add to the show.”
Mills grew up watching NHRA professional
drag racing on TV, cheering for and idolizing driv-
ers like now three-time Pro Stock world champion
Erica Enders. Mills hopes she can similarly in-
spire young fans watching No Prep Kings to get
involved in the sport.
FROM WINNING JR. DRAGSTER TRACK
CHAMPIONSHIPS AT TULSA RACEWAY PARK TO
PURSUING THE NEXT STEP IN NO-PREP RACING,
MILLS HAS ALWAYS COUNTED ON THE SUPPORT OF
HER PARENTS, DEWAYNE AND TARA.
“I think that younger generations need to be
out there, and bringing in more young people,
like me when I was young and wanting to get
involved, is important,” she believes. “We need
to bring those people to our sport because that’s
the future of our sport. If we don’t have a future
to our sport, it’s not going to be here much longer.”
As for Mills’ own future in the sport, she’s ea-
gerly waiting for the COVID-19 pandemic to re-
lease its grip on the country so racing can resume.
However, the break in action has given DeWayne
plenty of time to heal up.
“He actually got released by his doctor,” Kallee
says. “He called me as soon as he got released and
I was like, ‘Hey, how was your doctor’s appoint-
ment?’ He was like, ‘Oh good. I’m taking back
over the car.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t think so!’
“But he’s a really good, he got the all-clear,” Mills
adds. “It was all contained in the prostate and he’s
good to go. He tends to overdo himself. That’s the
only issue we have.”
Like his daughter, “Big Daddy” DeWayne is
ready to get back to racing. He may have been
joking when he said he’s taking back over “Golden
Kong,” but there’s no doubt he’ll be back in a car
as soon as possible. Until then, he’ll test his limits
in small steps – or with small wheels.
“We went to Oklahoma City a couple weeks
ago,” Kallee begins to explain, “and he’s like, ‘Oh,
I’m good, I can do this, I can do that.’ So he gets
on one of those Lime scooters and we’re riding
down this brick road, and he’s like, ‘OK, no, I’m
not good.’ So he’s not good to get in a race car
yet, but his time will come soon and we have a
lot of big things coming for 2020 if all this stuff
will allow DI
it.” DI DI
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