Brownstown Speedway
Mills perfect in amazing Brownstown debut
By Bryan Ault
DirtonDirt contributing writer
Trey Mills celebrates a victory in his first-ever start at Brownstown. (Ryan Roberts)
BROWNSTOWN, Ind. (Sept. 5) — It typically takes drivers more than one try — way more than one try — to reach victory lane at Brownstown Speedway, but 18-year-old Trey Mills of St. Augustine, Fla., proved it can be done in just a single shot.
At a track that has often frustrated some of the sport’s best racers, the youngster’s debut appearance on Saturday night was sheer dominance. Mills set fast time, won his heat race and Dash for Cash, and led all 50 laps of the Northern Allstars Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned John Gill Classic to collect $12,725 in total earnings. | RaceWire
Mills’s record at the quarter-mile oval situated on the Jackson County Fairgrounds? A perfect 1-0.
Just a phenomenal achievement for the teenage World of Outlaws Late Model Series rookie, who debuted a brand-new Longhorn Chassis and promptly piloted it to glory over two established national standouts in Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., and Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn.
“The car was just really, really good,” Mills said. “I didn't even have to be perfect behind the wheel tonight, and it just shows how good the car really was. My crew gave me an awesome car.
“We’ve just gotta qualify … we’ve been struggling recently, but I feel like no matter what race we go to, if I could put myself starting up front, I can race with them. Tonight, that showed that if we can qualify and figure it out, the speed in the feature’s there. And it was my first time here, but the racetrack was awesome, so I’m looking forward to coming back.”
The wire-to-wire win was Mills’ second victory of the season, the other coming in a 25-lap Prairie Dirt Classic semifeature on July 24 at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway. Above all, it gave Mills, who has taken his lumps on the WoO tour, a big and well-timed boost of confidence heading into the World 100 week at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, which starts Sunday with the Baltes Classic.
Brownstown’s holiday weekend show was part of the regional Northern Allstars Late Model Series, but that shouldn’t diminish his accomplishment.
“Obviously, no matter what race you go to, the guys here are really good,” Mills said. “Nowadays, there’s no such thing as cherry-picking. All these guys are best of the best. I mean, Hudson O'Neal’s here — he’s top five in the country. It was just a really, really good night for us, and yeah, we’ll definitely build momentum off of it and we'll go to Eldora tomorrow.”
Mills ran all but one circuit of the 50-lapper unchallenged. With 11 laps remaining, O’Neal was able to pass Mills off turn two and take a brief lead down the backstretch before Mills beat O’Neal to the corner in turn three, regaining command from the Brownstown fan favorite and then going on to complete his sweep of the evening.
“I saw Hudson slide me, but he kind of drove it in there too deep just to make sure he could clear me in and that lapped car, which gave me enough time to get a run down the hill and throw it back at him in three and four,” Mills said. “I didn’t throw it in there as hard and just kind of floated up the racetrack, and from then on, the lapped cars moved at the top, thank goodness, and I was able to run my line that I had been running whenever I was out front. And once I got clear of them and I saw the two to go, I was just holding on from there.
“Hudson’s really, really good here, so to come here for our first time and outrun him and Mikey is definitely pretty cool.”
Winning at Brownstown is a tall task for any driver, especially for a first-timer. To pull it off, Mills relied heavily on watching videos of previous races at the bullring. He combined notebooks of two tracks he’s more familiar with in his native southeast: Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway and Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Miss.
“You look at the past and just watch video on the track before we even come and see what kind of racetrack is compared to it, really, and just try to judge off the best you can,” Mills said. “But really, there’s no way to tell what you actually need. It’s an educated guess, I would say, just because you’re looking at racetracks with similar characteristics and stuff like that.
“My crew did a good job with it, and we had a really good car. The bottom kind of reminded me of Swainsboro a lot, and then kind of Whynot with how you can get momentum through that middle.”
Mills raced at Brownstown under the watchful eye of veteran Dirt Late Model racer and crew chief Jason Fitzgerald of Middleburg, Fla., who has served as a mentor to Mills throughout his budding career. Fitzgerald, 50, works closely with Mills’s family-owned team but doesn’t travel to every race; he flew up earlier in the week to join Mills and his crew, who worked at Tye Twarog’s shop in Coshocton, Ohio, since last weekend’s WoO action in Iowa, to prep the new car for Brownstown and will remain with the team through the World 100.
Just three months ago, of course, Mills started on the pole of Eldora’s Dream and led the first 24 laps of the 100-lap finale before fading to to a 17th-place finish. He’ll return the Big E feeling much more confident and prepared heading into the sport’s biggest crown jewel.
“I feel like we can adjust the car a little bit to more of my liking,” Mills said. “I feel like we were just a little tight across the center the last time we were there, but hopefully we can just qualify good and put ourselves in a good position in the race and I feel like we can make the right adjustments. That was my first time ever being in a 100-lap race at Eldora, so it was definitely a learning curve, but now I know more.
“Still got a lot to learn, though, but hopefully next time we can be in that same position and I can do a little bit better job and give us a better chance at it.”
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