Commerce: Hillary Will Saturday summary

After qualifying No. 5 Hillary Will's focus now on winning

COMMERCE, Ga. (May 6, 2006) -- Of the 18 dragsters that attempted to qualify, Hillary Will, 26, from Fortuna, Calif., who now lives in Ypsilanti, Mich., placed her KB Racing LLC-owned, Kalitta Motorsports-managed Top Fuel dragster in the No. 5 qualifying position in the 16-car field.

Will's best of four qualifying runs setting the field for the 26th annual NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac was a 4.552-second pass in Friday's second session.

"We're pleased to have qualified in the top half of the field again," said Will, as she focuses on tomorrow's eliminations. "Each race this year we've proved that we have a good car, but when eliminations begin tomorrow I'm more determined than ever to win. I'm confident that we can get this KB Racing dragster to the winner's circle and we're going to try our best to make it happen tomorrow."

Today's air temperature was around 80 degrees and track temperatures hovered around 125 degrees. Advance weather predictions for tomorrow are calling for rain and cooler temperatures. Will's crew chief Jim Oberhofer talked about the weather.

"If it's cooler tomorrow, we'll go back to our notes for Friday night," said Jim O. "If it stays warm, we use our hot weather notes, especially those from the two runs today. If it rains, we'll all be watching it rain."

In the opening round of eliminations, Will squares off against Scott Weis, who qualified No. 12 with a 4.608-second pass.

The rookie Will is No. 12 in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel point standings with 243 points, just 16 points out of the top ten.

Will begins her quest for the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac Top Fuel title on Sunday, May 7, with eliminations for all classes beginning at 11 a.m. All times are local Atlanta time (ET) and subject to change at anytime.

-kbr-