“ Having the pressure on me pushes me to do my best .”
THE CHAMPIONS ISSUE
DeWayne Mills
The Golden Gorilla ’ s Golden Rule By Ainsley Jacobs
PHOTO : JEREMY PATTERSON
They say that power corrupts , and absolute power corrupts absolutely . In radial tire racing , “ Big Daddy ” DeWayne Mills , 46 , is widely considered the man to beat . His relentless string of record-setting passes , major money wins , and his recent championship title consistently reiterate that he ’ s a hell of a driver with a hell of a support team to back him up . Yet through it all , and despite his wealth of power , Mills is one of the most downto-earth guys on the scene and is still as humble as the day he started racing . He ’ s the exception to the rule , and proves the statement wrong .
Based out of Sand Springs , Oklahoma , it hasn ’ t always been drag racing that piqued Mills ’ s interest , though . It was his mother who took him to his first race , and he got his start crewing for a sprint car team . Later in life , Mills married his beloved wife , Tara , and the two had their first daughter , Kallee . “ Me and the wife traveled doing the sprint car thing for five or six years , but we decided to have a kid and I wanted to stay home and be a good father ,” he explained of his decision to quit life on the road and instead start his own business , Mills Truck and Tractor Service , in 1996 . “ It all grew together , and I have no regrets staying out of the circle track deal .”
Mills couldn ’ t abstain from racing altogether and eventually decided to give drag racing a shot . The self-employed , self-made man purchased a ’ 68 Chevy Camaro in 2000 as a 30th birthday gift to himself and started on a journey that would far exceed his wildest dreams .
That car , which eventually transformed into the infamous powerhouse now known as “ the Golden Gorilla ” actually began as a street car . “ I started off running around the scene here in Tulsa , but I had a dump truck business and I couldn ’ t jeopardize losing my CDL over drag racing on the street , so we went to the strip ,” he openly admitted of his less-than-legal early days . “ We started running in the MAKO Outlaw 10.5 series and actually did pretty well ! It was all quarter mile back in the day and the car had a nitrous setup at the time … the fastest cars were in the 9.70s and we were running 9.50s . It progressed from there and it was scary because I only had a six-point cage in the car – it was horrible .”
Knowing that he needed to step up his game if he wanted to continue racing , Mills made a plan to take his racing program to a whole new level . What initially started out simply as a safety necessity progressed
“ Having the pressure on me pushes me to do my best .”
over the past 17 years , and the steel-bodied car has gone through a continual transformation . “ We ’ ve cut the body off three times , and it looks like we ’ ve got a dune buggy under there ,” laughed Mills of the car ’ s SFI 25.2 chassis , which was managed by Rob Matheis at Matheis Race Cars . “ It ’ s actually just a nine-year-old Limited Street car chassis that ’ s been updated .”
In its present state , the “ Golden Gorilla ” hides a 572 ci Pro Line Racing 481X power plant under its hood . The Alan Johnson blockbased bullet is stuffed with the aftermarket ’ s finest , including a Bryant Racing crank and Bill Miller Engineering connecting rods and pistons , and is topped with Alan Johnson heads which feature matching Alan Johnson valvetrain components . In order to ensure the engine is able to produce over 3,000 horsepower , a set of twin Precision turbochargers are sized to meet the rules of whatever class Mills happens to be racing in at any given weekend and are bolted to a set of stainless steel exhaust manifolds .
Mills is fiercely loyal to brands that work well for him , and , as a result , he has a longstanding history with both ProTorque and M & M Transmission for his EV1 converter and three-speed TH400 transmission , respectively .
Running on VP Racing Fuels ’ M1 methanol fuel which is supplied via a set of Billet Atomizer fuel injectors , Jamie Miller of Pro Line Racing manages the critical calibration of the FuelTech engine management system . Every ounce of power possible is coaxed from the combination and transferred to the ground via a set of sticky Mickey Thompson 315 pro drag radial tires . To keep the car firmly planted to the pavement , Mills runs a Strange Engineering rear end with Santhuff struts and Menscer Motorsports four-way adjustable rear shocks .
With all the variables in his equation adding up to one seriously badass Camaro , Mills made history in April of 2014 when he set a new Outlaw Drag Radial world record . While racing at the Shootout at the Springs , Mills ran an unprecedented 4.105 at 196.25 mph pass in the eighth mile . “ Tim [ Davis , crew chief ] had completely rewired the harness and we rebuilt the engine before that event , and we only got about four hours of sleep the entire weekend ,” he recalled of the dedication required to make the record happen .
Although Mills lost the record shortly after , he quickly reclaimed it in July of 2014 while racing at the Radial Revenge event at Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park . “ We had the right combination of a great
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