Hillary Will

With all apologies to Chuck Dickens, it's the best of tracks; it's the worst of tracks. That dichotomous statement sums up the feelings of third-year Top Fuel racer Hillary Will about The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Will, the fastest female in the history of NHRA Drag Racing (334.65 mph), has a clearly defined love-hate relationship with the quarter-mile of concrete and asphalt that's carved into the desert just a few miles from Sin City's other well-known strip.

“It really depends on my mood when someone asks me about it,” said Will, who recently celebrated her 28th birthday, with a laugh. “I don't know. Sometimes I think about The Strip and smile, and other times it kind of makes me a little sick to my stomach.”

The best of times
Before Will was given the opportunity to drive her KB Racing LLC nitro-fueled rail, owned by Las Vegas businessman and one of drag racing's biggest benefactors Ken Black and managed by straight-line racing icon Connie Kalitta's Kalitta Motorsports, she competed in the Top Alcohol Dragster ranks in a blown alcohol entry for her dad, Steve Will, and tuner Bucky Austin. In the spring of 2005, the native of Fortuna, Calif., and her team traveled to Vegas in hopes of sharing the city's shimmering spotlight in The Strip's winner's circle at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals and saw that shiny wish come true with a close final-round defeat of Joey Severance, 5.44 to 5.49.

“That was our first win, and we were on top of the world. That was such a great feeling. We were a fairly new team, and that was a big, big accomplishment for us,” Will recalled. “The Strip instantly became my favorite track because of that. It stayed that way until, well, the crash.”
 
The worst of times

(David Allio photos)

Less than two years after her triumphant trip to The Strip, Will walked away from a horrifying testing accident that certainly tested her affections for the racetrack that she once thought about so fondly.

“It was a really nice Saturday in Vegas, but it was a little warm. We were struggling that weekend. We'd been there for a couple of days and had not made it down the track, so my crew chief, 'Jim O' [Oberhofer], told me that he was going to back the car down quite a bit just so we could get down the track and get some data. He said it should run a 4.6, which it did, but that was about the time everything went way wrong.”

Just before she crossed the finish line in the left lane at The Strip, Will's dragster disintegrated at more than 300 mph. 

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘This is bad, but I'll be okay; just hang on'. It all really felt like it was in slow motion. I can still remember bits and pieces of it, but nothing really sticks out in my mind after the car turned toward the wall.”

Safety crews and Will's team, including Oberhofer, rushed to the top end and hoped for the best. “My brother [Jon Oberhofer, co-crew chief on the Mac Tools Top Fueler driven by Doug Kalitta] and I stole Dexter Tuttle's van,” Oberhofer admitted. “I was just looking for anything that had keys in it. Unfortunately for Dexter, that was their van. We hopped in and got down there pretty quickly. By the time we got there, she was already out of the car and was not at all like the emotional wreck that I was. I apologized later to Dexter in Pomona. He completely understood.”

Thanks to the safety of her high-velocity vehicle that is the foundation of NHRA, Will came away from the carnage with a couple of scrapes and bruises and a knot on her arm, but her soft spot for The Strip was tarnished. Will lamented, “After that day, my best and worst memories of driving a race car were at the same track.”

Up and down and a far better thing
Last fall at The Strip, Will experienced another low at one of NHRA's premier facilities. After qualifying for her first 44 consecutive events, she was on the sidelines for Sunday's eliminations after barely missing the 4.59 bump spot to land in the dreaded No. 17 final qualifying spot with a 4.62.

"That was so disappointing for my KB Racing LLC guys. I felt so bad for them. They work as hard as or harder than any team out there, but now we're going back to Vegas, and it's time for a new memory. I have a good one in mind.”

The Strip is an adopted home track for Will and her team. Team owners Black and Ken Black Jr. are based in Las Vegas. Will surmised, “We always want to do well at The Strip because Ken and Judy Black and Kenny Jr. have done so much for me and my career that I will never be able to repay, but giving them a Wally at Vegas would be a great thank-you. It's one of the best tracks we race on, and the whole place is just incredible. I hope all of my bad memories of The Strip will be replaced by the memory of it being the place where I got my first Top Fuel win.”

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