2025 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Golden Isles Speedway

Trey Mills Has Ambitious 2025 Dirt Late Model Plans In New Ride

Trey Mills Has Ambitious 2025 Dirt Late Model Plans In New Ride

Landing a ride for fellow Floridian Brandon Catto, teen standout Trey Mills is intent on taking the next step in his Dirt Late Model career.

Jan 18, 2025 by Kyle McFadden
Trey Mills Has Ambitious 2025 Dirt Late Model Plans In New Ride

Trey Mills is beginning to feel the pressure of growing up as a Dirt Late Model racer.

The high school junior who turns 17 in May knows that he can’t rely on his family’s financial backing forever, so this winter, the St. Augustine, Fla., driver put together a deal with Brandon Catto to race the Florida-based car owner’s black No. 59 Longhorn Chassis during Georgia-Florida Speedweeks.

“I’m 16 turning 17, so this is kind of the age where I’m starting to be seen as an adult, and I’m not really a kid anymore, looking at (other racers) younger than me,” Mills said Thursday before Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series practice at Golden Isles Speedway. “This is a make-or-break year. We’re going to hit what we can and have the best runs possible.”

It’s the first Late Model ride that Mills has occupied outside his family-owned No. 14jr operation. He’s not willing to call the deal with Catto, a family friend of the Mills’s who wanted to invest the 16-year-old’s ambitious racing pursuits, full time because he’ll still compete in his family-owned car occasionally. But Mills is certainly hitting the ground running in 2025 with plans to compete in as many Georgia-Florida Speedweeks races as possible, 22 total races barring rainouts.

His busy winter action begins Friday in Lucas Oil's Super Bowl of Racing opener at the high-speed 4/10-mile oval in southern Georgia.

Between Catto’s brand-new fleet of Longhorn Chassis and the driver's family-owned operation that has also purchased fresh Longhorns while keeping its Black Diamond Race Cars from years past, Mills has plenty of resources at his disposal for an ambitious schedule.

“That’s the goal, is to keep racing and keep getting better,” said Mills, who’s entering his third season in the Super Late Model class. “I feel like, if you want to eventually be the best, you have to race against the best. That’s why we’re here. Just have to keep practicing, keep working, stay consistent, really.

“We focus on quality over quality races. We don’t want to be behind and keep showing up in a bad spot, or have something break or something stupid happen. Right now, we have 93 races on our schedule.”

While he's spent two seasons on the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series, posting a single victory and finishing fifth in points in 2023, Mills doesn't plan on a season-long tour in 2025. Instead, the centerpiece of his season will the five-week DIRTcar Summer Nationals June 11 through July 13. Mills ran 10 Summer Nationals features in 2024 with three top-five finishes including a runner-up showing to series champion Tyler Erb in July 14's finale at Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio.

That marked one of Mills’s two runner-up finishes last year, along with his second-place to Ethan Dotson on Oct. 4’s Hunt the Front event at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala.

Finishing sixth in last year’s Hunt the Front points behind some of the Southeast’s finest drivers — Brandon Overton, Ashton Winger, Sam Seawright, Zack Mitchell and Joseph Joiner — Mills is eager to travel a little more outside the Southeast this year, including major events at the legendary Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

“(Catto) wanted to give me the opportunity to race something different,” Mills said. "I’ve raced Black Diamond my whole career, so he wanted to give me the opportunity to try a different chassis out. Longhorn is what he wanted.”

Mills actually started his new partnership with Catto, the owner of Twin’s Farms in the St. Augustine, Fla., area, in two Crate events late in 2024: Nov. 29 at Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway where he finished fourth in the $10,000-to-win Turkey 100 won by Brandon Overton and Dec. 14 at Florida’s All-Tech Raceway where he finished 18th in an event that drew 101 cars.

Counting Thursday’s practice, Mills has tested four times in Catto’s Longhorn, including Golden Isles on Dec. 18 and Jan. 7 as well as Jan. 9 at All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville, Fla., another track on the Speedweeks schedule.

“I like it. I have high hopes for it,” Mills said. “So far, I tested with some great guys, and I’ve been right there with them, if not faster in times. We just have to make good setup calls, I have to give them the right feedback, and we have a good piece to go out and compete.”

With Colton Blair, now in his fifth season as crew chief, by his side, Mills’s primary objective this Speedweeks is qualifying for every feature and landing some solid performances.

“To make every race would definitely be the main goal,” Mills said. “Maybe if I can get some top-10, top-five runs, I definitely feel like we have the capability with my team and the car. We’ve been testing here and we have some pretty good speed. I feel like we have a pretty good shot.”

Considering his aggressive 2025 schedule, nearly double the 50 features he logged last year, Mills has switched to online learning through Florida Virtual School.

Even if Mills leaves Speedweeks in a scenario similar to Clay Harris’s last year (the fellow Floridian wasn’t planning on following the Lucas Oil tour, but did so because he was inside the top-10 in points before March), Mills likely won’t consider a national tour run.

“Maybe if something extraordinary happens and we’re in the top-five, then maybe,” Mills said. “But definitely not top-12, no. It would have to be like something where we’re in contention.”

With his single Super Late Model victory coming in June 2023 at Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Miss., on the Hunt the Front tour, Mills wants to add to that victory total.

“I wouldn’t say this year (is) 100 percent (make-or-break), but this year and next year are important,” Mills said. “My parents can’t be in racing this much forever. They eventually have to retire. Right now, we’re pretty much spending every dime they have. I just have to go out there and give it 110 percent every time I’m out on the track.

“This is what I want to do for a living,” Mills added. “They’re just trying to give me the best opportunity I can get. I just have to take full advantage of every moment.”