Will Is on the Money in Her Debut as a Pro

Hillary Will stepped on the gas Thursday at Pomona Raceway and blew away all remnants of a career as a financial analyst.

The rookie driver of Ken Black’s top-fuel dragster made her professional debut with a solo run, and though it didn’t put her at the top of the speed chart, the 25-year old former gymnast, collegiate springboard diver and financial analyst served notice at the Carquest Auto Parts Winternationals.

Will clocked a 4.613-second, 317.57-mph run, good for a provisional fifth, fitting in nicely after the first of four rounds of qualifying in the season opener of the National Hot Rod Assn.’s Powerade Drag Racing Series.

Only Clay Millican, who led the top-fuel field at 4.528 and 312.86 mph, Doug Kalitta, rookie J.R. Todd and Doug Herbert were faster.

With qualifying for Sunday’s finals continuing today and Saturday, John Force stood first in funny cars at 4.742 seconds and 326.63 mph in his 2005 Castrol GTX Mustang. Pro Stock was led by Jason Line, in a Pontiac GTO, at 6.743 seconds, 205.10 mph.

But much of the focus was on Will, who is mentored by three-time champion Shirley Muldowney.

“It’s nice to be doing it now,” said Will, who emerged from among about 30 candidates as the new team’s driver. “All winter I would lie awake thinking about it. Now that I’m in the middle of it, I feel I can relax and do what I’m supposed to do.”

Still ... scheduled to be first down the track, she said she went to the restroom three times after pulling into the staging lanes.

Her crew chief, Jim Oberhofer, said Will’s time allows him to get aggressive through the remainder of qualifying.

“It was important for her to go from A to B, and nothing dumb happened,” Oberhofer said.

A native of Fortuna, Calif., Will moved from Huntington Beach to Ypsilanti, Mich., home base of her KB Racing LLC team, which is managed by Kalitta Racing. As a child, Will attended races with her dad, Steve, who let her race her 1973 Dodge Challenger when she was 16.

“I loved the speed, and then I started winning,” she said. “There’s nothing like seeing the win light come on and going faster than the guy in the other lane.

“Most people have a job and they can’t win. I have a job where I can go out and win. I sat at a desk every day for two years and stared at spreadsheets, and it was two years too long.”

Her drag racing career was supposed to have ended after she went to Wheaton College to study economics, but she returned home after her freshman year for a final summer of racing.

“I went to the finals in super-street, and I probably had to win seven races to get to the finals,” said Will, who won once last year in a top-alcohol dragster. “I loved it, and knew then that I would be a racer forever.

“I didn’t necessarily think it would be my career, but I knew I’d have to make enough money to support drag racing as my hobby forever.”

Today, it’s no hobby. And it’s no desk job.