DALLAS – Two-time NHRA Pro Stock world champion and proud native Texan Erica Enders, driver of the bright red Melling Performance/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro, raced to a second-round finish today in eliminations of the AAA Texas NHRA Fallnationals at the Texas Motorplex.

With only two events remaining in the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series in Las Vegas and Pomona, Calif., Enders is optimistic she’ll visit the winner’s circle again this season, but she also laments on a very close loss to Greg Anderson Sunday.

“The car’s running better,” said Enders, who recently turned 34. “That was my round to win for sure. I gave it up on my end, both at the Christmas Tree and with my lapse in driving skills. It’s just one of those deals. Sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug, and today I’m the bug. I’m disappointed in myself because my guys gave me a really great car that was capable of winning the round and capable of fighting for the event win.”

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DALLAS – Ever since her Elite Motorsports race team began to experience a performance downturn a few months ago, two-time Pro Stock world champion Erica Enders has been testing the wheels off Richard Freeman’s Melling Performance/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro.

It appears all of that extra work, along with some reconfigured parts dreamed up by car builder and crew chief Rick Jones, are paying off big for the 22-time national event winner.

Enders posted four very competitive runs during qualifying for this weekend’s 32nd annual AAA Texas NHRA Fallnationals — a 6.651, 6.634, 6.652 and finally a 6.629 at 207.72 mph — to qualify a lofty fifth on the elimination grid. It’s her best qualifying effort since the Seattle race, which was six national events ago.

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DALLAS – Two-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders scratched a huge entry off her personal bucket list during her 2015 visit to Texas Motorplex when she won the annual AAA Texas NHRA Fallnationals, thereby completing a sweep of the races in her beloved home state of Texas.

As is tradition at the event, Enders was outfitted with a cowboy hat in the winner’s circle and she picked a black one for a very specific reason.

“We were bad hombres that year and that win in Dallas went a long way to locking up our second straight championship,” Enders said. “We were taking no prisoners and kicking a lot of butt and it seemed fitting that I put on a black hat that day.”

Should Enders return to the winner’s circle this time through, she has a different plan, one that once again would reflect her mood.

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ST. LOUIS – They may be good friends off the track, but two-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders is getting tired of meeting up with current points leader Bo Butner on race day.

For the second playoff race in a row, Butner eliminated Enders in the quarterfinal round of competition. This time it was at the sixth annual AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway
Motorsports Park.

“We encountered an all-too-familiar issue against Bo — tire shake,” Enders said. “I did my best to drive through it but got it a little out there on the edge. I guess the positive out of it is I still have a racecar that’s not waded up.”

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ST. LOUIS – Currently sixth in the Championship to the Countdown playoff standings, two-time Pro Stock world champ Erica Enders knows a third career victory at Gateway Motorsports Park would propel her up the rankings at the midway point of this year’s title chase. She also knows knocking off a few of the drivers ahead of her would throw a huge wrench in the fight for the sport’s top prize.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” Enders said. “With just four Sundays left in the Countdown, we’ve got a lot of work to do to see if we can move up in the points. Part of that is knocking off the drivers ahead of us in the points so I say line ’em up and let’s go. We’ve worked our way to the top of the mountain twice before so we know what it takes. The plan is to keep chasing it until it’s over.”

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READING, PA – The second race of this year’s Countdown to the Championship playoffs ended up just like the first one for two-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders with the most decorated female in class history going one-up, one-down in eliminations at the 33rd annual Dodge NHRA Nationals.

Starting race day as the No.9 qualifier, Enders scored a mild upset against eighth ranked driver Chris McGaha by way of a holeshot, meaning her superior reaction time from behind the wheel negated McGaha’s quicker run. She once again left ahead of opponent in the quarterfinals but didn’t quite have enough oomph to stay ahead all the way through the finish line.

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READING, PA – Two-time Pro Stock world champ Erica Enders only made one decent pass in qualifying for the 33rd annual Dodge NHRA Nationals, but the ever-hopeful Texan says she’s confident team owner Richard Freeman has the crew in place to turn their fortunes around during Sunday’s eliminations at Maple Grove Raceway.

“At the end of July when we were racing in Sonoma (Calif.), we didn’t get down the track in any of the four qualifying rounds,” Enders recalled. “On Sunday, we go out in the first round and we were second quickest of the entire session. It just so happens we had Bo (Butner) in the other lane and he was quickest so we lost, but we would have beaten any other car.

“That’s why you race on the track, not on paper. Anything can happen on race day. I have the best guys on the best team in the sport and we will remain positive. I’ve been known to get up on the wheel on occasion so we will see what happens tomorrow. All we can do is remain positive, do our best and let God do the rest.”

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READING, PA – As the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ Countdown to the Championship playoffs continue with this weekend’s 33rd annual Dodge NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, two-time Pro Stock world champion Erica Enders has her sights set on gaining traction in championship points by taking her bright red Melling Performance/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro to another winner’s circle.

Enders, a feisty 33-year-old Houston native, goes into the second round of the Countdown to the Championship sixth in points. Even though she and her Richard Freeman-owned team have been challenged recently with a change in rear tire specs, Enders remains highly confident in her group’s ability to contend for a third title and add to her glowing legacy as the most-acclaimed female driver in the history of the factory hot
rod class.

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CONCORD, NC – Two-time world champion Erica Enders went one-up, one-down Sunday at the first of six races in the 2017 Countdown to the Championship, the 10th annual NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMax Dragway.

Enders scored a mild upset over Elite Motorsports teammate Alex Laughlin in Round 1 when the slightly higher-qualified Laughlin was forced to surrender his run. She then matched her Melling Performance/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro up against local Tanner Gray with Gray evening their season record against one another at 3-3.

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CONCORD, NC – Throughout her record-setting career, two-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders always has done her best work in pressure-packed situations. When others wilt, she blossoms, which is one of the many reasons she’s excited about the first of six race days left in the 2017 season.

“The playoffs are definitely a different animal,” Enders said. “We’ve lived it, we’ve fought down to the last round of the season, we’ve felt the most pressure you can feel in this sport and we’ve come out on top. If that gives us an edge this year, we’ll take it.

“Of course, the guys that are going to make the biggest challenges are all veteran teams and most have them have won it all in the past. Either way, whoever wins this year’s championship will have earned it, no doubt.”

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