Will upbeat despite first-round exit in Pomona

Her Tom Conway-owned and tuned Dragster had been impressively consistent throughout qualifying for the final event of the season, and Will was clearly the favorite in her matchup against Brian Smith, having blasted to a 5.268 at 273.05 mph. Will and all the other Top Alcohol Dragster teams were in the staging lanes around 2:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon, ready to make their only appearance for the day, when excessive on-track delays forced the postponement of the round until the end of the day, completely changing the track and atmospheric conditions from what they had expected to run with.

Will explained, "I knew we were going to be turned around when (Alcohol) Funny Cars had their problems and caused such long delays, and I also knew that would completely change Tom's setup on the car. We just had to head back to the pit and wait - something that makes the day excruciatingly long. We didn't know when we'd run."

Ultimately, the round that was scheduled for 1:00 p.m. was run at 6:45 p.m. - with the track temperature dropping from more than 83 degrees to less than 62. As she lined up against in Smith the last pair of the session, the difference proved to be a key factor for Will, as her car started to lose traction at the 330-foot mark, giving Smith an easy win, her 6.284 at 221.45 mph to his 5.519 at 253.56 mph.

"I think we just got bitten by the conditions. It's not that we didn't know how to tune it, it's just that the temperature dropped so quickly that we wanted to be safe, but it ended up biting us. It's disappointing, for sure, but I'm still really pleased with the way the last three races have gone. It's so fun to be back in a car, and this is such an amazing team, every one of them are just great," she said.

Beginning with the Las Vegas Nationals and running through the World Finals this weekend, Will has been sponsored by Get Screened America. The races were her only events for the season and marked the first time she had driven an A/Fueler.

"I want to thank Roger Burgess (CEO of Get Screened America) for the opportunity to come out here and represent his company. I've loved being a part of the GSA team, and have really learned a lot about screenings and have been able to talk about the importance of health screenings with a lot of fans and teams.

"There's so many things that can be kept in check if they are identified early, and that's really the main message here. I'm looking forward to learning more and hopefully continuing working with them in the future," she said.

Will has also been racing to bring awareness to Operation Holiday Hope, a charity whose goal is to raise money for children in the inner city who live in poverty. All funds raised buy gifts for kids whose parents are not be able to afford to buy them Christmas and holiday presents.

"I'm working on some things so I can hopefully be out here full-time next season. We’ll see if we can get everything together to make it happen," Will added.