In just her first season of Top
Fuel racing, 26-year-old Hillary Will has made a name for herself in the drag
racing world. Nearly one year after earning her top fuel license, she is
positioned to finish in the top ten of the NHRA point standings.

Will recently announced she’ll make her IHRA eMax Drag Racing
Series debut August 24-27 at the Skull Shine World Nationals presented by
ACDelco at Norwalk Raceway Park, the legendary track southwest of Cleveland,
Ohio. Will, who now resides in Ypsilanti, Michigan, after growing up in
California, is looking forward to competing and gaining some valuable “seat
time” at Norwalk.

“I attended the IHRA race in Milan (Michigan) to watch and support
Doug (Kalitta, Will’s teammate). It was a fun event and I was wishing that we
were racing too,” said Will. “Norwalk is only two-and-a-half hours from our race
shop, and this being my first year, I can never have enough time in the car.
It’s hard to pass up a race that is so close.”

Rookie Top Fuel sensation J.R. Todd
is going bowling for dollars and is calling on fans, friends and some of his
fellow NHRA drag racing drivers to help him raise money for Team RFC Racers For
Christ.

“We’re going to have a bowling tournament – Wednesday, August 30,
at Sunset Bowl, 10809 E. US Highway 136, in Clermont – that, we hope, will bring
in a lot of money for a good cause – Racer’s for Christ.” said Todd, a native of
Lawrenceburg, Ind. now living in Avon, Ind.

Sources have confirmed that a Sox & Martin
car is forthcoming and the car is currently at the paint shop. The tribute car
(with the blessings and involvement from Buddy Martin) will be the new Mopar of
Bob Panella, Jr., that was built by Jerry Haas.

Our crack, and we emphasize the
term crack, progrosticators each year predicts the champions. We thought we'd
take a look back at who we went with. Current leader in parenthesis.

What better way to make your Pro
Stock GTO stand out than to adorn it in the colors of the legendary Pontiac GTO
nicknamed "The Judge."

That's exactly what Jerry Haas will be doing this week in St.
Louis testing and then in Norwalk.

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories
following the 19th annual O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals presented by Pennzoil at
Memphis Motorsports Park, the 17th of 23 events in the $50 million NHRA POWERade
Drag Racing Series -

John Force is a bit tired and weary from
filming a television show on A&E as well as an unpublicized battle with
animal activists for dropping the family’s cat two-feet to the ground on the
television show.

“I was on a plane and I was dead tired, and the guy next to me
said he watched my show on A&E,” Force said. “The guy reminded me about
dropping the cat and I cut him off. I said you can drop a cat 40 feet and it
will land on its feet. I only dropped it two feet and got a ton of letters from
the animal activists. A&E was event looking at pulling the scene from the
re-runs.”

Force should have stopped when he was ahead.

Whit Bazemore was involved in a
nasty fire following his second round loss to John Force. Bazemore took a tumble
at the top end when he exited the car through the hatch. The car was still
rolling at 30 miles per hour.

According to an NHRA official, Bazemore was transported to the
hospital to be checked for potential injuries associated with the fall.

At 7:30 PM, the announcement
went out over the PA system, “Please take shelter, we have bad weather coming
through the area and it’s severe.” That announcement was made within five
minutes that our lead photo was taken.

Ten minutes later the announcer came back on and proclaimed in a
somewhat puzzled voice, as lightning strikes lit up the dark sky, “I have been
told that we are just fifteen minutes away from running. Can I have the two
remaining Pro Stock bikes and Top Fuel to the staging lanes.

In the interest of fair reporting, one bike showed up, along with
a Top Fuel crew chief, who was scratching his head.

Whit Bazemore confirmed that Jack
Beckman will make test runs behind the wheel of his Funny Car during next week’s
Indianapolis test session.

Rumors had surfaced indicating that Bazemore might be at the end
of his deal with Don Schumacher Racing, but the veteran driver is confident of
his status and isn’t intimidated by the situation.

“I really don’t care one way or the other about Jack driving the
car,” Bazemore said. “It doesn’t mean anything to me. The relationship that I
have with Matco Tools is very strong. The relationship I have with Don and Sarah
Schumacher is strong. Don has told me repeatedly that I am the second best Funny
Car driver out there, which a tremendous compliment. Given that and my
relationship with the sponsor, I’d have to say Jack Beckman isn’t driving this
car to replace me.”

Bazemore did say there is room to expect the unexpected.