A month after the conclusion of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing season, Erica Enders is wondering what slogan rhymes with “six.”
As she chased her fifth NHRA Pro Stock championship last season, her motto was “Drive For Five.” Having earned that title, her attention has turned to clinching a sixth championship. But despite her recent domination of the Pro Stock winner’s circle, the 39-year-old driver remembers how it feels to walk away from a season without a single victory.
The first seven years of Enders’ NHRA career were winless. While she made her presence known during her debut year — 2005 — by becoming the first woman in Pro Stock history to reach a final round, an event victory eluded her for six more seasons.
During that stretch between 2005 and 2012, the Texas native became familiar with cold calling potential sponsors, searching for the money necessary to go drag racing and trying to prove her worth both on the track and in the board room. But now, as she says, the tides have turned.
Enders has essentially built an empire with her Elite Motorsports team over the last 10 years.
She completed her first successful run at the championship in 2014, her second title came the following year, a third arrived in 2019 and the fourth was earned in 2020. Enders capped off her decade of dominance this year, joining an exclusive club of five-time Pro Stock champions. Bob Glidden, Warren Johnson, Jeg Coughlin Jr. and current competitor Greg Anderson are the only other Pro Stock drivers who have secured five titles.
“This championship stands out, because I feel like it sets us apart from the rest,” Enders said.
She has also earned her place on a second significant list. Enders is one of three Pro Stock drivers to collect double-digit wins in a single season — Anderson and Darrell Alderman are the remaining two.
After stacking up a career-best 10 victories in 2022, Enders has 44 wins to her name.
“I’m really proud of the scorecard we handed in,” Enders said. “That was a really cool accomplishment. I feel like the sky is the limit. Definitely, we will not get complacent with our goal setting and going after it.”
Enders takes goal-setting very seriously. She’s made a habit of beginning each year with a blank sheet of paper and a long, sit-down discussion with her family. Following her dad’s lifelong instruction, Enders divides her life into seven areas and creates benchmarks for each one.
“Obviously racing is the most significant part of my life, for this time, and this year, I wanted to win at the tracks that I hadn’t won at yet,” Enders said.
She opened the season by checking the first box off her list, earning the 900th Pro Stock win at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif., during the NHRA Winternationals. Her luck continued at a second California facility when she recorded a summer victory at Sonoma Raceway — a feeling of triumph that had eluded her for 18 seasons.
The third facility on her list was Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., which also signaled the opening round of the six-race Countdown to the Championship. Though her past runs at Maple Grove had been disheartening, Enders finally conquered the Pennsylvania strip and successively launched her playoff campaign as points leader.
Though she retains pride at the thought of the new tracks in her win column, the top two moments of her season were experienced elsewhere.
“The cherry on top for me was being able to win in my hometown of Houston,” Enders said.
The NHRA series made its final visit to Houston Raceway Park in April, which left the Texan with a bittersweet taste as she triumphed through the tears of her goodbye.
“It’s where I made my first passes behind the wheel of a Jr. Dragster 31 years ago, so it holds a lot of really fond memories for me and it’s sad to see it go,” Enders added.
But in the end, the one moment from this season Enders is certain she’ll never forget involves a pass on KB Racing’s Kyle Koretsky in the semifinals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. As she shot down the track at 206 mph and flipped the win light, Enders solidified her spot among the greats of the sport and moved into the territory of five-time titleholders.
As the Pro Stock powerhouse will tell you, the feeling of becoming a champion never changes.
“It still feels the same as the first one, the nerves are the same,” Enders said. “Trying to put all of that behind you to get in the car and be able to welcome the pressure and thrive underneath it, instead of being afraid of it. Those are more things that I’ve learned throughout the years.”
But in many ways, Enders has changed since her debut in 2005.
For one, she no longer shyly begs her little sister to be the one to ask for ketchup at McDonald’s. Two, she no longer pays attention to what’s being said about her as the only woman in Pro Stock competition, and at this point, the female presence in the pits has doubled with rookie Camrie Caruso joining the ranks.
And lastly, Enders has rightfully earned the full respect of her competitors, sponsors, fans and media alike for her myriad of accomplishments.
This season will be her 19th season in Pro Stock and her 10th year with Elite Motorsports.
“I feel like we’ve accomplished quite a bit here together at Elite Motorsports,” Enders said. “We have 43 wins and five world championships, and Greg (Anderson) has five world championships and 100 wins. I think it says what we’ve done in a short period of time, to be able to mentioned on the same level as him.”
While she may not have plans to reach win No. 100, Enders certainly intends to fight for a sixth title and further her drag racing legacy.
Watch SPEED SPORT’s full interview with Erica Enders, covering her “Drive For Five” accomplishment, her history in Pro Stock and the only reason she’d ever step away from drag racing.