Four-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Erica Enders vowed to rebound from a disappointing runner-up finish for the title to Greg Anderson a season ago — little did the class know, however, just how fired up that loss made her and her Elite Performance team.
Enders has, through eight races in the 2022 campaign, put up Bob Glidden and Warren Johnson-like numbers, dominating the field with five wins and an impressive 23-3 round record. She collected win number five this past weekend in Norwalk — perhaps her most convincing of the season — by putting more than three hundredths of a second on the field in qualifying, and running low e.t. of all but one round on raceday on the way to a defeat of Aaron Stanfield in the finale.
If not for a broken engine in the final at Bristol a week ago — a contest she was well on her way to winning — she would have six victories and a 24-2 round record. Only Stanfield (2) and Dallas Glenn (1) have been permitted to enter the winner’s circle in a season that has thus far belonged to Erica. Impressively, she’s only qualified number one twice, but has consistently had the car to beat when it mattered most. She even reset the Pro Stock national record at Gainesville earlier in the year, just for added measure.
“We started off on the right foot in Pomona, and after we exploded last weekend in Bristol, the guys rallied and put in a new bullet for this race,” Enders said. “It performed pretty flawlessly. It mowed down the scoreboard on Friday and we threw out some really great numbers on raceday. “I’m sure a lot of people are sick of us winning, but you hav4 to back and see the whole journey, I spent my first seven seasons winless before teaming up with Elite. I’m really proud of my guys. To have a group believe in me like they do, it makes my job a whole heck of a lot easier. I have a group that believes in me and lifts me up, and I attribute all my success to that.”
Eleven races remain on the Pro Stock calendar, and Enders has set herself up for a shot to achieve a double-digit win total on the year and supersede her own career-high from 2015. More importantly for her team, though, she has amassed a 105-point lead over Stanfield and a whopping 252 points over everyone else in the class, giving them supreme confidence that championship number five awaits.
“If the trend continues, it’s definitely possible. We had a crazy awesome year in 2015 with nine wins and 11 final round appearances, and locked…
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