Topeka: Hillary Will final summary

Hillary Will, team continue to eye Countdown as they move to Chicago

TOPEKA, Kan. (June 3, 2007) -- With the addition of long time crew chief Dick LaHaie (Dick-O) as a consultant to all Kalitta Motorsports teams the timing couldn't be better, as the push is on for one of the eight spots in the first segment of the Countdown to the Championship.

In the case of the KB Racing LLC-owned, Kalitta Motorsports-managed Top Fuel Dragster driven by Hillary Will, Dick-O joins Will's crew chief Jim Oberhofer (Jim O) as the second-year team tries to move into the elite eight in points.

In the opening round of eliminations at today's 19th annual NHRA O'Reilly Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka (HPT), Will's race against Brandon Bernstein started out promising. Will gained a starting line advantage at the green light but it was Bernstein who turned on the win light at the finish line.

Will discussed the run after the round. "It was a big race for us because we brought Dick LaHaie in to help us and we were running his daughter and son-in-law (Kim and Tim Richards), who are the crew chiefs on Brandon's (Bernstein) dragster, so there's a little bit of rivalry there," said Will. "Dick-O's past (history) here (at HPT) has been great. When he was with Scott Kalitta they won here six times. So I liked our chances today.

"But unfortunately our car dropped a cylinder, which is just one of those things that happen. We just have to keep our chins up and look to Chicago."

With a dropped cylinder, Will covered the HPT quarter-mile in 4.775 seconds. Bernstein recorded an elapsed time of 4.578 seconds.

"Having Dick-O has been good for both me and the team," said Jim O. "He's one of my mentors. It helps to run things by him. We're trying a lot of new things since he's been on board. Those things seem to be working but we just have to be patient. We're looking forward to going to Chicago and need to make a move there because we are running out of races and we definitely want to be in the next segment of the Countdown to the Championship

-credit: dbr