Quarterfinal Finish For Hillary Will At Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS – Hillary Will, driver of the 8,000-horsepower KB Racing, LLC Top Fuel dragster, continued to impress NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series fans and peers with another solid effort and a trip to the quarterfinals of Monday’s final eliminations of the world-renowned Mac Tools U. S. Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.

Will, the No. 3 qualifier (3.854 seconds, 314.53 mph), defeated No. 14 qualifier (3.914 sec., 302.41 mph) Steve Torrence in a great drag race in the opening round, 3.914 sec., 310.13 mph to 3.948 sec., 305.91 mph.

In the quarterfinals, Will and the KB Racing, LLC team matched up against the Alan Johnson-tuned dragster. The race to the 1,000 ft. finish line was close until the tricky track conditions on the very hot drag strip at ORP caused Will’s rocketing rail to begin losing valuable traction near the end of the lap and that let her opponent get the win, 4.130 sec., 232.23 mph to 3.897 sec., 314.31 mph.

“I really thought today was going to be our day at Indy,” Will, a 28-year old native of Fortuna, Calif., said. “My KB Racing, LLC team gave me a tremendous car all weekend long, and we were very confident going into today’s eliminations. It was beautiful, clear day in Indianapolis and the sun just kept beating down on the track, and it was really challenging to get the right tune-up. We just barely missed it, but it was a great event for our team. We qualified really well and won the Full Throttle Award (an award given to the most consistent Top Fuel team during qualifying). We’ll get regrouped and go get ‘em in Charlotte.”

Will is in 7th place in POWERade championship points and in the Countdown to 1, which begins at the next event in Concord, N.C., just a few miles from Charlotte.

Beginning with the 13th event in Denver, the NHRA instituted a new racing distance for the nitro-fueled classes of Funny Car and Top Fuel dragster to 1,000 ft., as opposed to the traditional distance of 1,320 ft., or a quarter of a mile, as a temporary safety solution to help the drivers of the world’s quickest and fastest racing safely bring their cars to a stop more efficiently. The unprecedented action, which will be observed for the remainder of the 2008 season, is in response to the tragic death of Kalitta Motorsports’ Scott Kalitta, who died in a high-speed Funny Car qualifying accident in Englishtown, N.J., June 21.

Will became the fastest woman in the history of NHRA drag racing when she posted a 334.65-mph lap down the quarter-mile race track at the first of event of the 2008 season in Pomona, Calif. She became the first driver of either gender to go over 300 mph at the new 1,000-ft. finish line in Denver with a 302.21-mph mark in qualifying.

Will is currently the only female driver competing in the Top Fuel class.

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 later that year. She finished the season in 10th place in Top Fuel championship points in ‘06. Will picked up an emotional first NHRA national event title in Topeka, Kan., June 1, 2008.