INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Engines Inc. driver Erica Enders-Stevens is ready to reclaim her spot atop the Pro Stock points standings during the 60th annual Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals this weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.

Enders-Stevens led the Pro Stock standings for 13 of the 17 races to date, but a parts failure during the first round in Brainerd, Minn., caused her to drop to second.

Indy marks the final race before the Countdown to the Championship, and Enders-Stevens and her Elite Motorsports team are looking at the big picture: the Pro Stock championship.

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Engines Inc., one of the foremost generator builders in the racing industry, will serve as primary sponsor on Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro driven by Erica Enders-Stevens at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals next week at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.

Engines Inc. is a family-owned company that has been in business for 79 years. The company is the leading source for diesel-powered products serving OEM, marine, agriculture and industrial customers.

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BRAINERD, MN – Elite Motorsports pro Erica Enders-Stevens was certainly ready for her first-round race against Dave River, recording a perfect reaction time of .000-second to jump off the starting line in what appeared to be another victorious quarter-mile run. But just a few hundred feet later Enders-Stevens’ Camaro fell silent, and for the first time all year she was handed a first-round loss.

“We changed everything there was to change on the race car because of this big swing in the weather, and this time something got us,” Enders-Stevens said, referring to an overnight 30-degree drop in ambient temperatures. “I mean we can go down the Ho Chi Minh trail with this car. We go A to B every time, so it’s a little mind-boggling when it doesn’t happen.

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BRAINERD, MN – Pro Stock championship points leader Erica Enders-Stevens has placed her front-running Elite Motorsports Camaro in solid contention for this weekend’s 33rd annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, qualifying third in the factory hot rod class with a swift 6.630 at 207.69 mph.

“I’m so happy to be driving again,” said Enders-Stevens, who last arced July 20 in Denver. “Thankfully, it’s kind of like riding a bike where everything came right back to me the first pass down the strip. Obviously, the team picked up right where we left off as well. I’m a happy girl.”

The points leader for the last 13 consecutive national events, Enders-Stevens skipped the last two races on the Mello Yello tour as her team prepares for the upcoming Countdown to the Championship. The NHRA’s six-race version of playoffs begins mid- September in Charlotte.

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BRAINERD, MN – No other driver is probably more excited for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals this weekend at Brainerd Int’l Raceway than Elite Motorsports Pro Stock ace Erica Enders-Stevens, who sat out the previous two races on the NHRA schedule while her team prepared for Brainerd and the Countdown to the Championship.

“Everyone worked really hard during the two weeks we weren’t racing,” Enders-Stevens said. “We should be better than ever, and we’re excited to get back at it.

“The guys have been working really hard in the engine shop. They left this morning to go to (co-crew chief) Rick (Jones’) to get the car fine-tuned, and then we’ll head to Brainerd.”

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BRISTOL, TN – Serving Orphans Worldwide will join Elite Motorsports Pro Stock driver Richie Stevens as an associate sponsor for the upcoming Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.

“Serving Orphans Worldwide is thrilled that Elite Motorsports and Richie Stevens believe in the work we are doing globally,” said Richard Baker, chief operating officer of Serving Orphans Worldwide. “We are honored to be forging this relationship with people who are as passionate about orphan care as we are.”

Serving Orphans Worldwide joins Stevens Collision Center, Stevens Auto Parts, Valspar, and B-V Plumbing in backing Stevens’ entry at the U.S. Nationals.

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TEMPE, AZ – Pro Stock points leader Erica Enders-Stevens will challenge for the 2014 NHRA championship with Mach 1 Global Services on the side of her powerful Elite Motorsports Camaro. The global logistics company, which has supported Enders-Stevens in the past, signed on as title sponsor for the remainder of the season, beginning with the race in Dallas. Geiger Media Global brokered the deal.

“We’re so excited to reunite with Erica,” CEO Jamie Fletcher said. “We’ve certainly kept up with her career since we first started supporting her in 2008, and we’re definitely impressed with the season she’s putting together.

“Being a woman in a male-dominated industry, Erica and I share a special bond because we’ve faced many of the same obstacles in our respective careers. She’s been a real inspiration to so many young women, and to see her in the winner’s circle so many times since we’ve met always serves as personal motivation for me.”

Using Elite Performance horsepower, Enders-Stevens leads the Pro Stock class with four victories this season, also winning the non-points K&N Horsepower Challenge in Las Vegas. She has collected at least one round-win at every race and has led the points standings after 12 of 16 national events. She’s currently 32 points ahead of Allen Johnson with two regular-season races left on the schedule.

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WYNNEWOOD, OK – Pro Stock points leader Erica Enders-Stevens will have some very familiar company in the Elite Motorsports camp for the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals and at least part of the six-race Countdown to the Championship as her husband Richie Stevens joins Richard Freeman’s front-running team in a second Elite car.

Stevens, a six-time national event winner from New Orleans, will be driving a brand-new Rick Jones-built Camaro with identical horsepower to his wife’s hot rod. Rick and Rickie Jones will tune both race cars, with two-time ADRL Pro Stock champion Cary Goforth handling clutch duties in the new entry. Stevens’ car will be branded with Elite Motorsports in the primary sponsor position, with associate funding from Pierson Construction. Tom Pierson also will serve as a crewman.

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DENVER, CO – Moments after announcing she would be skipping the next two NHRA national events, Pro Stock points leader Erica Enders-Stevens fell in the quarterfinal round of eliminations at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals by the infinitesimally small margin of three-ten-thousandths of a second, or less than one inch.

Racing her former crew chief Dave Connolly, whom she beat two weeks ago in the final round of the Norwalk, Ohio, event, Enders-Stevens posted a quicker elapsed time of 6.962 seconds during a 198.06-mph pass against Connolly’s 6.992 at 196.70 mph. The difference came at the starting line when Connolly reacted with a cosmic .007-second to Enders-Stevens’ .037-second launch.

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DENVER, CO – Pro Stock points leader Erica Enders-Stevens will skip the NHRA national events in Sonoma, Calif., and Seattle in order to better prepare for the rapidly-approaching Countdown to the Championship, Elite Motorsports team owner Richard Freeman announced Sunday at Bandimere Speedway. Enders-Stevens has led the points since March, making her the most prolific racer in the pro classes this season.

“This has been the game plan for us from the start,” Freeman said. “The fact we’ve had such a great year and Erica has been driving so well is bringing more attention to this move but we never intended to run the entire schedule. We don’t have a major sponsor, so there are no commitments to fulfill. The rest of our supporters are totally onboard.

“We’ve got some things we want to work on to prepare for the last few regular-season races and especially the Countdown. I really believe we’ll still be in the points lead, even skipping Sonoma and Seattle, or we’ll be close enough to get that No. 1 ranking back in the two races before the Countdown starts.”

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