By Pete Wickham
Photos by Tim Marshall and AutoImagery
2/8/05
Erica Enders has seen the world go upside down, set her world
on its ear and even had her own world premiere. All before
she has taken her first baby steps towards the ultimate prize,
a world championship.
Those first steps started February 5 when the 21-year-old
Texas A&M student made her formal debut in the Cagnazzi
Racing Chevrolet Cavalier in the 13th Pro Stock Super Bowl
at her home track, Houston Raceway Park.
Enders, only the fifth woman to compete in NHRA POWERade
Drag Racing’s Pro Stock category, will line up against
current and former world champions Greg Anderson, Warren Johnson,
Jeg Coughlin and Jim Yates in the one-day exhibition shootout.
It’s the final tune-up for the following weekend and
the CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals in Pomona.
SAY
HI
TO DAD
Gregg
Enders remembers he was fitting a new torque converter
on his race car when his 8-year-old daughter Erica slid
under the chassis on a creeper and started reading an
article about the birth of the Junior Dragster class
. . . followed by one of those “Please, Daddy
can I, huh?” spiels that only daughters can lay
on their father.
What happened to the next 13 years is still something
of a mystery.
“The way she read
the article, and looked at me . . . I told her if she
wanted to race, I’d quit and be her crew chief
and from there sort of lost our mind,” Gregg Enders
said. “There are times I’m sure my daughters
thought I was the local ATM machine . . . but I’ve
never spent a cent on bail, therapy or rehab for any
of my children, and they’ve made me as proud as
can be.”
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“We’ve been testing so long, I want to race something,”
Enders said with a chuckle. “I’ve been racing
for 13 years, I’ve met all these people or watched them
race, and now it’s kind of surreal. Next week in Pomona
I’ll be racing them, the fifth girl in the class in
31 years and all that . . . really cool.”
That word probably describes Enders pretty well. She announced
her presence with authority (to borrow a phrase from Bull
Durham) with a 6.620-run (followed by a 6.623 and a 6.639,
during a lengthy testing session in Gainesville, Fla.
“The best part about it was that the engines we used
were the first of our new in-house engine program (headed
by former Cagnazzi driver Stevie Johns, Nick Ferry and Carl
Foltz),” Enders said. “We have radios car always
telling me ET mph turning off the track just ran a 6.620/207
mph you’re joking . . . 6.62 everybody so excited all
high fiving. To get those from the first engines we’ve
worked on (modified blocks bought from the Coughlin family)
gives us a lot of confidence.”
Between runs, Tommy Utt and his crew have been giving the
youngster the basic training program on the mechanics of the
1,300-horsepower pro stock car.
“During each test session I’d work with a different
person on a different part of the car,” she said. “I’ve
learned a lot about what it takes to get the power and to
get down the track – but I don’t want to, or need,
to be like a Warren Johnson or someone who builds the car
as well as drive it. I need to know what’s there, in
order to give some feedback – but my job is cutting
lights, hitting my shifts and winning races.”
Welcome to the New Age – and one of its earliest practitioners.
Along with the likes of Richie Stevens and David Connolly,
Enders is the first wave from the NHRA’s 12-year-old
Junior Dragster program to reach the pro ranks. And they bring
the kind of youth that draws potential sponsors like a magnet
to NASCAR’s Nextel Cup.
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