Bristol: Hillary Will final summary

Will turned back in a nail-biter

BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 30, 2006) -- The opening round during eliminations is always a nail-biter. The first round match up between Hillary Will, driver of the KB Racing LLC-owned, Kalitta Motorsports-managed Top Fuel dragster, and Morgan Lucas was no exception.

Lucas got out first at the green, while Will used the whole Bristol Dragway quarter-mile to chase him down -- coming up 12 thousandths of a second short. At the finish line Lucas took the first round win light at the sixth annual NHRA O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals in 4.612 seconds. Will crossed just a tad behind with an elapsed time of 4.568 seconds.

"My team worked really hard giving me a good car throughout qualifying and again today," said Will following the opening round. "I hate to let down my team like that. I've got to get better. Since we have no down time between races, I can get better next weekend."

Will and her crew, led by crew chief Jim Oberhofer, won the NHRA Full Throttle Pit Crew Championship program award for the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals. The program awards bonus money utilizing a point system based on a combination of qualifying position and elapsed time. Will accepted the $3,000 check on behalf of her crew and team owner Ken Black. Currently, Will's team is leading the point standings for the season-long Full Throttle Pit Crew Championship which pays $25,000 to the winning team.

-kbr