Hillary Will, who drives an 8000-plus horsepower Top Fuel dragster, is in the
Denver area this weekend for the 28th annual NHRA Mopar Mile-High Nationals, a
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event being run at Bandimere Speedway in
Morrison, Colo.  But while her focus will be on racing, she plans a side trip
tomorrow (Thursday) with her Grandpa, Dad, and brothers, to Greeley to visit her
heritage.

Along with her brothers, Hillary’s guide will be her Grandpa,
Connie Will, who was born in Greeley, Colo.,  in 1930 and raised in the area
before leaving at age 17 to join his father in California.  Her Grandpa was
actually, Connie, Jr. and was known during his childhood and teens as “Chipper”
or just plain “Junior.”

Chipper’s grandfather came to Colorado from
Germany in the late 1800s to work for Coors as a head brew master.  His dad
followed his dad to the USA in 1903.  In 1910, they left behind the city life,
rounded up the cows, and headed in horse and buggy about 50 miles north to what
is now the Greeley area to homestead.  Twenty years later the third generation
of the Will Family in America – Connie, Jr. or Chipper – came
along.

With additional time needed to regroup and get things up and running at his new
team shop in the Florida panhandle, NHRA Pro Stock driver Tom Hammonds has
decided to forego racing at the next three events beginning with this weekend's
Mile High Nationals in Denver.

"This is the best direction for our
team," said Hammonds. "Obviously it would be nice to continue to keep running
the season and running the races, but we have bigger fish to fry, so to speak.
We have a brand-new race shop we have to get finished, and we could continue to
keep running up and down the track, and across the countryside on the NHRA
POWERade circuit, but you know, at the end of the West Coast swing we'd be in
the same position. We wouldn't have our shop totally functional and we wouldn't
have our dyno totally functional.

"I sat down with Jimmy Oliver, Harry
Turner and Jerry Eckman, and we came up with what we feel is the best plan, and
that is taking one step back so that we can take two or three steps forward.
That's what we're doing now. We also consulted with Fred Simmonds at GM Racing
and he agreed that this was the best thing for us to do. We've come back to
Holt, Fla., with the goal of getting our shop and dyno totally functional so
that we will have a chance to compete at a high level."

Rowdy Gaines was once the fastest man in the pool. Now, the three-time Olympic
gold medalist will see the fastest racers in the world compete when he attends
the 28th annual Mile-High Nationals at scenic Bandimere Speedway on Saturday,
July 14. Gaines will be a guest of Tim Buckley and the David Powers Motorsports
team.

Gaines was a standout at the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles when
he dominated in the pool earning three Gold medals (100 meter freestyle, 4x100
meter freestyle, and medley relays). Known as the voice of swimming, Gaines has
called swimming action for CBS, TNT and ESPN. He worked his fourth Olympics on
NBC during the ’04 Athens games. Gainesville was named World Swimmer of the Year
in 1980 and ’84. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in
1995 and the Olympic Hall of Fame in 2005. He now serves as the CFO for USA
Swimming and resides with his family in Colorado Springs, Colo.

If you think the management of Bristol Dragway had a
tough time back in May with the postponement of the event, roll back the time
machine to 1971 when, in the middle of a national event, an exhibition jet car
removed the asphalt in chunks with the rap of the afterburner.

What can you expect from a
car called the “Super Cyclops?”

Track owner Larry Carrier
knew the car was a big draw when it reeled off the sport’s first five-second
run with a 5.96 elapsed time at over 280 miles per hour. It was the encore that
caused everything to go all to hell.

The powerful J-79-powered
(the same as the Bob Motz Kenworth) blew large chunks of the asphalt through
the ground floor windows of the control tower.

Race over? Not hardly if you
know Carrier.

Throughout Bristol Dragway's long history, which dates back to its
opening in 1965, the greatest names in drag racing history have made
their marks in Thunder Valley.

This year four remarkable men have been selected as the inaugural class
of inductees into the Legends of Thunder Valley. They are NHRA founder
Wally Parks, Larry Carrier, who built Bristol Dragway, "Big Daddy" Don
Garlits, named the best driver in the history of NHRA, and Rickie
Smith, who has more Bristol wins than any other driver.

"I honestly don't think we could have a finer group of men inducted as
Legends of Thunder Valley this first year," said Bristol Dragway
president Jeff Byrd. "All four of these gentlemen are legends in the
sport of drag racing and each of them has a special place in the
history of Bristol Dragway. We're extremely proud to be honoring them
in this way."

Hugh Scott gets out of shape during the ADRL Independence Drags at
Motor Mile Dragway. He emerged from this tangle with the retaining wall
uninjured. (Roger Richards Photo Sequence).

The NHRA POWERade series begins the traditional three-race Western Swing this
weekend starting with the 28th annual Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway
nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The GM Racing contingent of
quarter-mile competitors is in the middle of what has already been a grinding
string of consecutive weekend events that began in Englishtown, N.J., on June
22-24, and will reach its conclusion in Sonoma, Calif., on July 29.

A
pair of Chevy Cobalt competitors who seem to be getting stronger as the summer
heat intensifies are Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Dave Connolly. In the last six races,
beginning with the O'Reilly NHRA Nationals at St. Louis in May, at least one car
in the tandem that makes up the Cagnazzi Racing juggernaut has advanced to a Pro
Stock final round, and collectively, Coughlin and Connolly have rolled to four
national-event victories in seven final-round appearances.

Since the
beginning of May, the 37-year-old Coughlin has driven his Jegs.com Chevrolet to
the winner's circle twice, posting victories at Chicago and the just completed
O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., to go along with
runners-up at St. Louis (to teammate Connolly), Englishtown, and an April
runner-up performance in Las Vegas. At the season's halfway mark, the two-time
NHRA Pro Stock champion has now moved within 86 points of first-place Greg
Anderson and virtually erased a points deficit with the Summit Racing Pontiac
driver that just a month ago, many thought was insurmountable.

Current NHRA Top Fuel points leader Rod Fuller
will pilot the yellow-and-black Wagner CAT dragster during the 28th
running of the Mopar Mile-High Nationals. David Powers Motorsports and Aurora,
Colo.-based Wagner CAT have partnered for the Mile-High Nationals, July 13-15,
at Bandimere Speedway near Denver, it was announced today. This is the
fourth time that David Powers Motorsports and a Caterpillar dealer group have
joined to back Fuller’s car.

The
relationship between David Powers Motorsports and the CAT dealer groups is
designed as a pilot program to increase technician recruiting. Caterpillar
dealers are experiencing a shortage of technicians and NHRA drag racing offers a
technician-rich recruiting environment to find qualified candidates with
experienced mechanical backgrounds. Wagner CAT needs to fill 70 technician
positions immediately. Wagner CAT is the authorized
Caterpillar dealer for Colorado, New Mexico and far west Texas. Wagner International also serves
Mongolia and southern
Siberia. David Powers Motorsports partnered
with Houston-based Mustang CAT during the Houston
race and Fabick CAT for the St. Louis and
Joliet, Ill. races.

For the fourth year in a row, Bristol Dragway will host the
National Hot Rod Association’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Junior Drag Racing League
Eastern Conference Finals.  The 2007 edition, which will take place July 11-14,
is expected to attract more than 700 racers from all states east of the
Mississippi River.  

The first Junior Dragster National Finals, held in 1994, was
a one-day event at Indianapolis Raceway Park.  The popularity of the Jr.
Dragster series led to the creation of two finals, the Eastern Conference Final
in Bristol and the Western Conference Final at Bandimere Speedway in Denver,
Colo.  The competitors in these two events will race for a combined $100,000
purse in savings bonds. 

Bristol Dragway officials have put together a number of 
special offers and activities for families visiting Thunder Valley for the
Eastern Conference Finals.

The always-popular movie night returns with “Night at the
Museum” on Thursday.  Dragway officials are working hard to create an all-new
kid’s area with a beach theme.  Participants will be able to cool off in the
swimming pool, play on the inflatables, test their video game skills at the
gaming trailer or play a game of basketball. 

You hear all the time about Aussie racers coming to the United
States to run professional categories, but one racer from Down Under
has his eyes on sportsman racing. 

Veteran Australian racer
Graeme Cooper will race at the World’s oldest and most prestigious drag
race, the 53rd Annual NHRA Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis in
September.

Cooper, 49, will contest Stock Eliminator, driving a 1968 Chevelle
Malibu Station Wagon owned by Canadian Norm Lapointe and powered by a
327ci V8 engine.

“Racing in America is every Australian drag racer’s dream, especially
at the U.S. Nationals – it is the ‘Big Go’. There’s nothing bigger or
more special,” Cooper said.