The recent propensity within NHRA POWERade drag racing for female racing success continued during the O’Reilly Summer Nationals when Hillary Will became the latest event champion. Will, who is in her third year in the Top Fuel category, won her first ever NHRA Pro title when she drove her Ken Black-owned dragster to victory recording a final round 4.744 secs at 304.53 mph to upset event low qualifier Larry Dixon.

Will’s win made her the 11th female to win a Pro title in NHRA competition and complimented the impressive wins in Funny Car eliminator in recent times by Ashley Force (Atlanta) and Melanie Troxel (Bristol).

Will, who had previously won a national event in IHRA competition (at Norwalk in 2006) scored at Topeka from the #11 qualified position. Under the guidance of her crew chief Jim Oberhofer, she outgunned Doug Herbert, Morgan Lucas and Cory McClenathan while advancing to the final round.

Larry Dixon, driver of Don Prudhomme’s US Smokeless Tobacco entry, did enter the final round favored. He had qualified #1 with a low ET and top speed effort of 4.527 secs at 325.30 mph.

John Force scored a hugely popular win in Funny Car eliminator, the 126th of his incredible career and the first since his serious crash at Dallas last season. Force overcame the overall NHRA POWERade points leader, Tim Wilkerson in the championship final running a winning 4.996 secs at 266.66 mph, driving the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang.

Force, who qualified 9th beat his daughter Ashley in round one on a holeshot (4.890 secs to 4.880 secs) and then took the measure of Gary Densham and Ron Capps.

Low ET and top speed of the meet in Funny Car was set by Canadian native Frank Hawley who ran 4.849 secs in round one driving Mike Ashley’s Dodge Charger, but still fell to a quicker leaving Tim Wilkerson. Hawley had rolled to a 311.63 mph speed during qualifying.

Ron Krisher ended a long winless streak in Pro Stock when he drove the Valvoline-sponsored Chevy Colbalt to victory lane. Krisher prevailed in an all Ohio-state final round beating the Lucas Oil Dodge Stratus driven by Larry Morgan. Morgan moved first but when his machine developed tire shake, Krisher cruised to an easy 6.758 secs at 204.70 mph victory.

Krisher’s win came from the #2 qualified position and included earlier round wins over Todd Hoerner, Rickie Jones and Kurt Johnson.

Kurt Johnson’s semi-final round finish vaulted him into the #1 position in NHRA POWERade Pro Stock points standings, 20 points in front of Jeg Coughlin.

Morgan’s runner-up finish marked a nice comeback for his team which had failed to qualify at all previous NHRA POWERade events this season coming into Topeka.

Pro Stock racing produced the event’s most harrowing moment when popular Pennsylvania-based driver Ken Koretsky had a nasty wreck during the 3rd qualifying session on Saturday. Koretsky’s NitroFish Pontiac GXP collected both guardwalls and landed on its roof. Thankfully Koretsky received only minor injuries to his back, leg and elbow and will likely not see any class action this coming weekend at Joliet.

Top Alcohol Funny Car racing featured a 2nd national event title for Australian Steve Harker who rode his Chevy Monte Carlo to a truly dominating display. Harker qualified #1 and ran four straight 5.6’s including low ET of the meet a 5.625 secs while enroute to victory lane. His final round 5.644 secs at 256.65 mph (top speed) beat Sean O’Bannon’s 5.691 secs at 255.73 mph.

The TAD title went to Arizona’s Mark Niver who drove his injected nitro car to a final round 5.490 secs at 263.41 mph to beat the supercharged car of Chris Demke.

British Columbia’s Shawn Cowie starred in TAD eliminator earning his first pole at the NHRA national event level. His 5.335 secs in qualifying was the quickest for the breed. Cowie went on to a strong semi final round finish.

Alberta’s Roger Bateman matched Cowie’s finish in TAFC when he drove the Ford Mustang owned by Brian Friesen to that class’s “final four”. Bateman qualified 4th and recorded a pair of 5.69’s while winning his first two rounds before being on the receiving end of Harker’s aforementioned 5.625 secs low ET run in the semi-finals.

The Bateman/Friesen Noble Biocare-sponsored Mustang, brand new to the circuit this spring, was awarded the event’s prestigious “Best Engineered” award.