Hillary Will, driver of the KB Racing, LLC Top Fuel dragster

The World's FASTEST Female

Hometown: Fortuna, California
Residence: Ypsilanti, Michigan
Birth Date: April 1, 1980
Years Drag Racing: 12
Hobbies: Running and kickboxing

Top Fuel Wins/Final Rounds: 2 - 1 NHRA, 1 IHRA/4

Best Elapsed Time: 4.502 (quarter-mile); 3.799 (1,000 ft.)

Best Speed: 334.65* (quarter-mile); 315.49* (1,000 ft.)(*Fastest female driver in NHRA history)

Car owner: Ken Black
Crew chief: Jim Oberhofer (Kalitta Motorsports)

The first drag race Hillary Will drove in was at a local track near her hometown of Fortuna, Calif., the Samoa Dragstrip in a 1973 Dodge Challenger. Once she took that first trip down the drag strip, Will loved everything about it and has been drag racing ever since.

After making the final round in Sonoma, Calif., in 1999 in the Super Street Will began moving up the ladder to quicker and faster classes and jumped to Super Gas and Super Comp. Will took time off from racing after graduating from Eureka High School to attend Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., where after four years she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics.

In 2004, Will acquired her Top Alcohol Dragster (TAD) license and quickly established a new TAD team with her father, Steve. In 2005, Will won one divisional event in two final-round appearances. She finished sixth in NHRA points nationally, winning the spring NHRA SummitRacing.com national event in Las Vegas and finishing runner-up at two others – the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., and the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. She finished No. 2 in points in Division 6 in ‘05.

Will moved up to the quickest and fastest NHRA professional class, Top Fuel, in 2006 behind the wheel of a newly formed team owned by Las Vegas businessman Ken Black and managed by Kalitta Motorsports, the multi-car team founded and owned by drag racing icon Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta. She won her first Top Fuel event trophy in Norwalk (IHRA) in ’06 and made her first NHRA final-round appearance in Memphis. She finished the season in tenth place in Top Fuel championship points.

The 2008 season was the best of Hillary Will’s three-year career as a professional driver. Will became the fastest woman in the world when she posted a 335-MPH lap down the quarter-mile race track at the first event in the 2008 NHRA season. Will then powered her 8,000-horsepower, Nitro-fueled KB Racing dragster to a fourth place finish in championship points after scoring three final-round finishes and five semi-final round finishes. She picked up an emotional first NHRA national event title in Topeka, Kan., June 1, 2008.

© 2008 Kalitta Motorsports