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Beauty queen trades in crowns to become drag racer

"You can tell on their face, they're like wow I just got beat by a little girl," The beauty pageant turned drag racer said. "But it's fun for me!"

Mooresville, N.C. — MOORESVILLE, N.C. (WFMY) -- You take one look inside Kallie Potter's bedroom, you will see a cabinet full of crystal-studded crowns earned over the years.

"I would always tell my mom I want to do what all those little girls are doing," Potter said. "I think it would be fun to walk around in a pretty little dress, and that's how I got started with it."

Potter started competing in beauty pageants when she was just 4 years old, even being crowned Tiny Miss North Carolina just months after her first show.

"I'm just shocked at how many pageants I did win," The Wingate University Junior said. "But I am glad at that young of an age, I was so confident."

Potter's mother, Sheila, is a makeup and hair stylist within the beauty pageant business and knew exactly how to give her daughter a leg up on the competition.

"We never pushed the issue to get her into beauty pageants," Kallie's mother said. "So I never put her in a pageant until she decided she wanted to, but when she asked I was excited."

As a young child, Potter was extremely shy and her parents figured these competitions would allow her to find more confidence on stage throughout the beauty pageant process.

"They learn a lot about themselves," Potter said. "They learn to be outgoing, how to sit in an interview and so I think that helped a lot to help bring her out of the shell she was in."

Potter competed up until high school when she decided she was ready for a change; a very different challenge. So she went from the pageant stage to the racetrack to compete in drag racing.

It's a lot of fun to go out there and prove to the guys that yes you can do it," Potter said. "And you can be just as good if not better than they can.

Despite taking part in beauty pageants for the majority of her life alongside her mother, Potter always watched her uncle and grandfather drag race. Until one day, she made the decision to compete despite what other people thought of her.

"They were like, uh, what now?" Potter said. "You're doing what? Like driving a car and how fast you are going? They were definitely shocked by that."

And finally, a chance for her father, Keith, to work on something he knows best; cars.

"I always worked on them and tuned them but I never raced," Her father said. "Of course I liked it better than Mom did, but the family element where we can all get involved, has made it all worthwhile."

While Kallie may get the credit for her victories, it's her father who does most of the heavy lifting and preparation.

"Dad definitely is excited about it, because he gets to be a part of it, and he is the one that does most of the stuff for the race car," Potter said. "While I just get in it and do my thing and he's the one that gets it all together."

I knew the first trip down the track, I created a monster," Kallie's father said.

Potter reaches speeds up to 150 miles per hour on an 1/8 mile track in a matter of seconds. She has already won twice and posted several runner-up finishes.

"You can tell on their face, they're like wow I just got beat by a little girl," The beauty pageant turned drag racer said. "But it's fun for me!"

In fact, it's fun for the entire family. For years, Dad patiently watched from behind the scenes during the countless beauty pageant competitions, but the wait was well worth it.

"It's fun for me, if she wins I win," Her father said. "It's different and it'll make you tear up. That's my girl."

Just more proof you can do anything you set your mind to, regardless what others may say.

"Do it for you, don't do it for anybody else but yourself," Kallie said. "And just be confident in yourself that you can do it."

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