COMMERCE, Ga. – This weekend, at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga., a few miles northeast of downtown Atlanta on I-85, KB Racing, LLC Top Fuel dragster driver Hillary Will, the fastest female in the history of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series (334.65 mph, Feb., 2008 – Pomona, Calif.), is hoping to continue her climb up in the POWERade championship points standings and to see even more vaulting and jumping in her trip to one of the original 13 colonies of the United States of America.
“We just keep inching our way up in points,” Will, a 28-year old native of Fortuna, Calif., said. “We want to go out and win every round and every race, but in the big picture, points are critical and it’s never too early to start thinking about that. We’re up to 6th place now, so hopefully we can continue to keep moving up this weekend.
“Atlanta is a special race for us because one of our best supporters, Summit Racing Equipment, is the title sponsor of the event. Summit has been with our team as an associate sponsor for my entire career in Top Fuel and with my KB Racing, LLC teammates Greg Anderson and Jason Line (Pro Stock) as a primary sponsor for several years as well. It would certainly mean more to me for us to get our first win at a Summit-sponsored event. Hopefully, that will happen Sunday.”
Will, a gymnast in her childhood and a current resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., is excited for another reason to be in the Peach State this weekend because of another event that is taking place just a few miles down the road from Atlanta Dragway.
“I’m a big fan of the University of Michigan gymnastics team, and I’ve gone to about five of their meets this year. They had a difficult season last year but fought back to a 28-2 record so far this season. Being a former gymnast, I understand their hard work and dedication. They are an inspiration to me. A lot of what I know and learned from gymnastics can be applied to driving my dragster. I’ll be rooting for them at the NCAA Gymnastics Championships this weekend in Athens, Ga. Since our race in Commerce is not far from there, I’m going to try to drive over and see some of the competition when I’m away from the race track.”
A former standout in the Top Alcohol Dragster class, Will moved up to the quickest and fastest NHRA professional class, Top Fuel, in 2006 behind the wheel of a newly formed team owned by Las Vegas businessman Ken Black and managed by Kalitta Motorsports, the multi-car team founded and owned by drag racing icon Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta. She won her first Top Fuel event trophy in Norwalk (IHRA) in her rookie season and made her first NHRA final-round appearance in Memphis. She finished the season in tenth place in Top Fuel championship points in ‘06.
The Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals is the 6th of 24 national events in the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
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