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Hillary Will, driver of the KB Racing, LLC Top Fuel dragster, enters this weekend’s, Sept. 18-21, annual running of the O’Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas, just a few miles south of Dallas, with one of the five best Nitro-fueled, 8,000-horsepower, 315-plus mph dragsters on the planet.
After a strong semi-final charge at the previous NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event in Charlotte, Will and her team moved up two positions in POWERade championship points and in the NHRA Countdown to 1 from 7th to 5th. Will is now only 117 points away from the points lead.
“The KB Racing, LLC dragster driver’s seat is my favorite place on Earth,” Will, a 28-year old native of Fortuna, Calif., said. “Our car has been running great and I see absolutely no reason for that to stop. My crew chief, Jim Oberhofer, has got our car out there running numbers that are capable of winning every time we get on the track. I’m really excited about these last five events of the season. I think we have a great chance of winning this weekend in Dallas and to keep moving up in the points.”
Also in Charlotte, Will became the fastest female in the history of the NHRA to cross the 1,000-ft. track timers at a booming 315.12 mph.
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.
