Erica Enders - Age: 21 Races: NHRA Pro Stock Series What’s so special: This former NHRA dragster champion started drag racing at nine and moved to Pro Stock for ’05. She is the youngest-ever National Event finalist, and Disney based its movie Right on Track on her life. Last year she became the first female to reach a Pro Stock final round when she advanced that far at the fall Joliet race. Erica Enders, the first woman to advance to a Pro Stock final, has parted ways with Victor Cagnazzi Racing and will drive a Dodge Stratus for Schumacher Racing next weekend in Denver. The plan then is to compete on her own while running under the DSR umbrella. Enders set for rebound in Brainerd Enders, from Houston, drove her Slammers Ultimate Milk Chevy Cobalt to a runner-up effort at Chicago to become the first woman in NHRA history to advance to a final round in Pro Stock eliminations. Last weekend at Dallas she posted a semifinal finish. She is only the fifth female to ever compete in the 200 mph category. Having qualified for 11 races, she has recorded career-best performances of 6.670 seconds and 206.48 mph, with a top qualifying effort of fifth. EMP Stewart Components racer Erica Enders (left) made history when she became the first woman to reach the Pro Stock finals of a National Hot Rod Association event Sunday at Route 66 Speedway in Joliet, IL. Unfortunately, Enders, who had engine problems in her semi-final win over fellow EMP Stewart Components racer Warren Johnson, fell to Jason Line in the finals. Enders piloted her Slammers Ultimate Milk Chevrolet Cobalt to wins over Ron Krisher and Mike Edwards earlier in the day to make the final. With rain on the horizon, Line waited at the starting line for Enders to arrive after her team did a full engine swap prior to the final match up. "There was no way I was going to win with a single," Line said after the show of sportsmanship. "I was going to wait for her no matter what. There was never a doubt about waiting for her and we all agreed on that while we were up there. She's great and she deserved to race, so we waited.” Line then took the meet title when Enders red lighted at the tree. He closed out the event with a solid 6.719-second, 205.88 miles per hour pass while Enders turned a 6,772, 203.77 effort. I should be so lucky - 7/5/2006 Now let me preface this column entry with a disclaimer: I do have a personal relationship with Erica and Gregg. I once did her PR when she was a Junior Dragster racer. We all live in Houston and I see them quite a bit. At the same time, I would admit to having a personal relationship with a majority of the Pros on tour. It's pretty hard not to when we live, eat, and work together 24/7/365. Back to the Enders story; I laugh out loud when I hear people say that Gregg is a soccer dad. In fact, I kid him about that all the time. The truth is, and this is gonna hurt the curmudgeons out there, Gregg has gone a long way to make sure that both of his daughters are totally independent. And they are. If anything, Gregg is a bit neurotic and he's constantly worried about dying young and leaving his girls unprepared for the big, bad world out there. Believe me, he's made sure that isn't going to happen. Both of his girls attend Texas A&M University and are happy to get away from dear ol' dad on occasion. But they never go a day without calling him (not the other way around.) I sure hope I'm burdened like that once I release Sara into the great unknown. Here's another stinger some people are going to hate to hear -- Gregg isn't loaded and he didn't bring any money at all to buy Erica the seat in Victor Cagnazzi's car or the one she's moving to at Don Schumacher Racing. Zero dollars. Gregg has bought and sold a few companies in the 10-plus years I've known him and he's certainly not poor, but I can tell you it would take less than one season on the NHRA tour to deplete his bank account. He loves to race, especially with his daughters, but he likes to eat too and he's not dumb. Darn, there goes that theory. I went out to eat with Gregg and Erica in St. Louis and they each paid for their portion of the bill by themselves. Did Gregg leave the silver spoon in his pocket for my benefit? Here's a novel concept that is really going to ruin some people's already miserable day -- Like any other business, if Gregg and Erica can't fund their program, they won't be racing for long at DSR. Oh the horror! They're just like the other teams out there. If the parting with Cagnazzi Racing was so terrible, why did Victor get choked up when I talked to him about it? If the sponsor is somehow getting shafted by the move, why are they still with Cagnazzi and Enders? Bottom line, some times things don't work out and no one can really put their finger on a reason why. It's like many divorces, there isn't one big reason why it happens, as much as it's 1,000 little things that add up and finally break the union. In my opinion, Victor and his team will survive and prosper and Erica and her dad will too. I sure hope that's the case because you'd be hard pressed to find a better guy than Victor Cagnazzi, and for that matter Gregg Enders…just ask his daughter Enders in the History Books Now The 21-year-old Houston resident drove her Cagnazzi Racing Chevy Cavalier to a 6.789-second pass at 203.40 mph to qualify in the No. 16 spot. It is her second professional race and first qualifying effort. Enders will face Richie Stevens in the first round. Enders and Stevens are the first two former Jr. Dragster drivers in NHRA history to graduate to Pro Stock. "We may have qualified 16th, but we're still racing on Sunday and that's what matters most," Enders said. "We have Richie in the first round and that's going to make it even better because we used to race together for a long time." Career Stats 2000-Present – NHRA Championship Drag Racing (Super Comp Dragster and Super Gas Corvette) Career Stats 1992-1999 – NHRA Junior Drag Racing League Highlights Erica Enders is comer in NHRA Pro Stock A: You bet she can, Samantha. In her first professional race, she just missed qualifying in the toughest division in NHRA racing: Pro Stock. With only 16 spots to fill at each race, the list of non-qualifiers often numbers 15 or more pro racers who pack up and go home. Specifically, Erica drove her Cagnazzi Racing Chevy Cavalier at the season-opening 2005 Winternationals to a 6.786-second run at 202.67 mph and finished 18th best, just missing the 6.671 qualifying bump spot. If she wins, and I believe eventually she will, she’ll become the first female to win in the Pro Stock division. Only four other women have ever competed in the class since its inception back in the early ’70s: Shirley Shahan, Judy Lilly, Lucinda McFarland and Shay Nichols. Of those four women, only Lilly and Shahan earned a win at the national level, but they did so in the lower Super Stock and Stock classes, respectively. No female racer has won or qualified No. 1 in Pro Stock’s 31-year history, with McFarland posting the category’s lone female round win before losing in round two. Earlier this season, Enders, who was born in Houston, Texas, claimed the Super Gas crown at the NHRA national event in — you guessed it — Houston. The Walt Disney made-forTV movie entitled "Right on Track" was based loosely on Erica and sister Courtney’s life story as Junior Drag Racers up to Erica’s rookie season in 2000. Beverley Mitchell, noted for her role on "7th Heaven," played Erica in the movie, and was at Erica’s pro debut as a team member to cheer her on. Following her graduation from Cy Springs High School, where she lettered in both volleyball and golf while racing and maintaining a straight "A" average, Erica was accepted and is now a full-time student at Texas A&M University. She plans to graduate as a Business and Sports Marketing major in 2006. Erica is only 21, and has lots of great years ahead of her. Q: Greg, I just watched the Budweiser Shootout on a high-definition television and was thrilled with the picture. Why did it take so long for racing to come to HDTV? — Lisa P., e-mail from Pennsylvania A: Lisa, I also enjoyed the Budweiser Shootout and all of the FOX/NBC/TNT racing events in high definition, and can only say hold on for a great racing season! I did notice that not all of the cameras used were high-definition capable, but the main cameras were, and it looked just like it would if you were at the track. I feel the main reason it took so long for auto racing to move to high definition for the full season was costs, as many more cameras are used in auto racing than in other sports. Mark Cuban’s HDTV Net presented the very first high-definition broadcast, a CART race on a road course a few years ago, if my recall is correct. NBC/TNT did a few HD NASCAR races in 2004 to whet fans’ appetites, but with NBC/TNT/FOX all onboard for the complete 2005 season in high definition, all I can say is sit back and enjoy. I expect many high-definition television sets to be sold based solely on racing’s popularity in America.
I hope that when my 4-year-old daughter Sara (pictured) is 22 that she wants to spend time with me, work with me, and look up to me the way Erica Enders does with her dad Gregg. Isn't this the ultimate dream? To get along with your kids so well they end up wanting to be best friends with you when they're adults?
Pro Stock rookie Erica Enders became just the fourth woman in NHRA history to qualify for a 16- car elimination round today at Firebird International Raceway.
Q: I was really happy to see that Erica Enders, who had a Disney Channel movie made about her drag-racing abilities, is now running in Pro Stock in NHRA. Can she win? — Samantha P., e-mail from California
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