Championship Drag Racing

Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals
Sonoma, CA
(July 27-29)

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Driver Profile

Hillary Will KB Racing dragster

Sonoma, Sunday: Hillary Will advanced her KB Racing LLC-owned, Kalitta Motorsports-managed Top Fuel Dragster to the second round before falling to the  U.S. Army dragster during today’s eliminations at the 20th annual NHRA FRAM Autolite Nationals. 

In the opening round Will, who was in the final pair, saw tire smoke from most of the Top Fuel cars before she ran.  Against Whit Bazemore she went straight down the right lane, while the only smoke she saw was from Bazemore’s dragster.  Recording a pass of 4.656 seconds at 321.58 mph, the cheers she heard at the finish line were for her, as the Fortuna, Calif., driver took the win light in front of the hometown folks and moved to round two.

In round two, Will was paired against Tony Schumacher, who ran the quickest and fastest pass (4.542/327.82) of the weekend in the opening round.

It was a good drag race as Will gave Schumacher a scare staying within striking distance the entire race.  Will left first but Schumacher crossed first in 4.537 seconds.  Will had the KB Racing dragster close behind with an elapsed time of 4.688 seconds.

Except for getting the win light in the second round, Will’s crew chief Jim Oberhofer was happy with the outing.  His move to make the car less aggressive to combat the tire smoke of both yesterday and today seemed to have done the trick.  As a result, his driver had a good outing in front of the hometown folks.

“Satisfied is a good way to describe our day,” said Will.  “Winning first round was huge because I feel that kept us in the hunt for a spot in the Countdown.  We got down the track both times when a lot of the teams were having trouble.  We gave (Tony) Schumacher a run for his money.  If they slipped, we were right there to take the win light.  They laid down a pretty stout number and you’ve got to give them credit for that.

“Naturally, being in front of the hometown fans we would have liked to have won four rounds obviously.  But all-in-all we put on a good show for the hometown crowd.  I appreciate the support they gave me this weekend.

“In closing, I want to thank our newest associate sponsor Jolt Energy Gum for joining KB Racing and Kalitta Motorsports.  We look forward to a long and successful marketing partnership.”

In the Countdown to the Championship, Will unofficially picked up some points and now trails her Kalitta Motorsports teammate David Grubnic, who is in eighth in the point standings, by 64 points with two races to go in the first segment. 

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