Hillary Will first visited an IHRA eMax Drag Racing Series national event earlier this season in Milan, Mich. She came to support teammate Doug Kalitta, who was driving cousin Scott Kalitta’s Nitro Funny Car at the Suzuki Motor City Nationals.

She had so much fun she decided to try her hand at IHRA racing as well, so when the series came to Norwalk, a couple of hours from her home in Ypsilanti, Mich., Will went racing. At her first IHRA event, the Skull Shine World Nationals presented by ACDelco, Will took home her first national event victory in any series by knocking off Doug Foley in the Knoll Gas-Torco Racing Fuels Pro Nitro Top Fuel final.

Will ran a 4.624 at 314.75 mph in the final to become just the third woman in IHRA history to win a Knoll Gas-Torco Racing Fuels Pro Nitro Top Fuel Ironman, joining Shirley Muldowney and Rhonda Hartman-Smith in the exclusive “girl’s only” club. The last time a woman won a Top Fuel Ironman was in 1998, when Muldowney defeated Luigi Novelli in the final at the Parts Pro Summer Nationals in Morocco, Ind.

“I didn’t realize that,” Will said when she was told she was just the third woman to win a Top Fuel event on the IHRA side. “That makes me really proud…especially since I know that Shirley raced here.”

Muldowney, a legend and pioneer in the sport, is from Ypsilanti, Mich. as well.

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