Madison: Hillary Will Saturday summary

With four consistent runs, Will qualifies No. 6

Faces Troxel in opening round of eliminations

MADISON, Ill. (June 24, 2006) -- Saving her best run for the last, Hillary Will drove her KB Racing LLC-owned, Kalitta Motorsports-managed dragster to the No. 6 position on the final Top Fuel qualifying ladder for this weekend's 10th annual NHRA O'Reilly Midwest Nationals, at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.

With four consistent passes, Will covered the quarter-mile track in 4.605 seconds in her fourth and final qualifying session.

"The biggest thing during qualifying was that we went down the track all four times," said Will, following her final pass. "That's very cool. It gives me a lot of confidence going into tomorrow. My team is awesome. They gave me a great car every time."

Heading into tomorrow's eliminations, Will faces Melanie Troxel, who leads the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel point standings, in the opening round. Troxel qualified No. 11 with a best pass of 4.692 seconds at 315.27 mph.

Will begins her quest for the O'Reilly Midwest Nationals Top Fuel title on Sunday, June 25, with eliminations for all professional classes beginning at 3 p.m. All times are local St. Louis time (CT) and subject to change at anytime.

-kbr