{"id":5571,"date":"2014-05-15T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T16:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=5571"},"modified":"2014-05-14T15:01:20","modified_gmt":"2014-05-14T22:01:20","slug":"erica-enders-stevens-is-shining-bright-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/erica-enders-stevens-is-shining-bright-this-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Erica Enders-Stevens Is Shining Bright This Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"14EESLasVegasActionPhoto\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos:<\/strong> Courtesy of the NHRA<\/p>\n

Pro Stock\u2019s energetic Erica Enders-Stevens has become the NHRA\u2019s latest sensation this season. \u00a0But Enders-Stevens is hardly the new kid on the block. It’s taken her 10 years, and countless trips down that quarter-mile, to earn the respect and accolades her fellow competitors heap upon her that are matched only by the roars of support from the crowds.<\/p>\n

But now she gets to enjoy the payoff that her dedication to her craft has brought in the seat of the ELITE Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro. The current Mello Yello points leader has had two wins in 2014, the latest at her home track in Houston, as well as coming home victorious from the recent K&N Horsepower Challenge in Las Vegas with the season\u2019s biggest cash prize.<\/p>\n

Now she\u2019s in line to become the NHRA\u2019s 100th<\/sup>\u00a0 female champ.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the 10th year that I have been trying to make this Pro Stock deal work,\u201d said Enders-Stevens.\u00a0 \u201cI just feel like this year everything has come together.\u00a0 I\u2019m a firm believer there\u2019s a plan bigger than mine and you have to have faith and be patient.\u00a0 I feel so blessed to be with a team like I\u2019m with.\u00a0 My guys are awesome.\u00a0 I mean they really are.\u00a0 It\u2019s the first time since I have raced with my family in the past that I\u2019ve had this much fun.\u00a0 I\u2019m absolutely loving life right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The climb to the top for Ender-Stevens has been anything but easy.\u00a0 She has tried for years to acquire proper funding to keep her in the driver\u2019s seat and after sometimes coming up short, found herself on the sidelines itchy to get back on the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learn a few life lessons through drag racing. \u00a0One of them is perseverance in not quitting and not allowing that to be part of your vocabulary.\u00a0 If you left when all the times got hard, I would have left the sport 18 years ago when I was a kid,\u201d she said laughing.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s taught me a lot and it\u2019s taught me to put my head down and plow through all the stuff.\u00a0 There are going to be a lot of naysayers and a million people who tell you \u2018no\u2019 before you get a \u2018yes\u2019. \u00a0I have to focus on the positive and keep what you want in sight and go after it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tough business and being a girl in the beginning only added to that.\u00a0 It\u2019s always been a little bit interesting but I\u2019ve never given up.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not going to either until I accomplish everything I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her ELITE Motorsports team consists of car owner Richard Freeman of Winnewood, Oklahoma; her husband, Richie; and her co-crew chiefs, father-son team of Rick and Ricky Jones.\u00a0 Her clutch guy is Freeman\u2019s brother, Robert, and another brother, Royce Lee, is out there week in and week out.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalk about a tongue-twister out there,\u201d she laughed.\u00a0 \u201cI have Rick, Ricky, Richard Freeman, my Richie, Robert and Royce Lee.\u00a0 There are so many \u2018Rs\u2019.\u00a0 There are five Richards on our team, but we have different nicknames for them to keep them straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cRicky actually drove this car last year to the finals for a win at Pomona.\u00a0 He\u2019s a huge asset to me because he\u2019s a driver.\u00a0 He speaks the lingo and understands what I\u2019m going through.\u00a0 He\u2019s such a smart kid and although he\u2019s a little bit younger than me, he knows so much about these cars.\u00a0 He\u2019s such a great tuner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her engine team is made up of Nick Ferri and Jake Hairston, who head up the ELITE Performance and build the horsepower.\u00a0 At the moment, this team is producing the most horsepower of all the Pro Stock cars out there and miles per hour are equivalent to horsepower.\u00a0 The proof is owning the NHRA National Speed record for the class of 214.69 mph at Gainesville set earlier this year.\u00a0 Kyle Wilkerson maintains the back half of the car and drives the truck.\u00a0 Of course, she can never forget her husband, Richie, who is her constant companion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really blessed to have Richie, my husband in my corner,\u201d Erica said of spouse, Stevens.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s a really great driver and we\u2019re working on getting him back out there.\u00a0 Our plan for him is to run about 10 races this year.\u00a0 To have him as my rock and my eyes and ears outside the car and like him, I\u2019m his when he\u2019s inside the car.\u00a0 I love it and I\u2019m lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her biggest racing day of her young career came earlier in this year at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway where she came in first in the K&N Horsepower Challenge on Saturday and on Sunday, doubling the victories for the take home tune of $100,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dream come true,\u201d smiled Enders-Stevens.\u00a0 \u201cIt was an absolute dream weekend.\u00a0 You look at the 10 years that I have been driving Pro Stock and, granted, I\u2019ve been out of a ride before because lack of sponsorship or have driven for a team that necessarily wasn\u2019t as competitive as we would have liked.\u00a0 So it\u2019s been an up and down kind of roller-coaster of a Pro Stock career, but on that day in Vegas, all I can say is, it\u2019s so hard to win one race.\u00a0 To be able to win two in one weekend is just insane.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all my years in Pro Stock racing and up to that day I had only won seven times.\u00a0 It was pretty nuts to get it done twice.\u00a0 The double-up bonus was huge and it was so exciting and I\u2019m sitting here by myself in my office right now smiling like it was just the best day.\u201d<\/p>\n

This weekend in Atlanta at the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals, Enders-Stevens could be the one to join racing lore as being the 100th woman to win a professional NHRA National event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is such a huge milestone for our sport and if we could be the one to get that done, it would so significant and mean so much to all of us.\u00a0 All the girls out there really want it, too!\u00a0 Rumor has it the NHRA has pink on the Wally, so it\u2019s kind of like a girly Wally.\u00a0 We got No. 98 and 99 and the ball is in our court because of the schedule of how the NHRA runs things.\u00a0 The Pro Stock division runs before the nitro cars in the procession order going into the finals to offer her first shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get there first.\u00a0 It\u2019s really challenging to get to a final round.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got the momentum right now and we have the confidence and certainly the team and race car, so I\u2019m very optimistic about things and hopefully we can seal the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

On June 13, 1976, Shirley Muldowney won the Springnationals in Columbus, Ohio, defeating the late Bob Evans in the finals.\u00a0 That was the first professional win for a female and recently Muldowney went on the \u00a0NHRA\u2019s ESPN2 broadcast from Houston and stated she hoped Enders-Stevens would be the one to win it because of their close relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cShirley is such a legend and such hero of mine,\u201d said EES.\u00a0 \u201cI grew up watching her and to be able to talk with her on a level like we get to chat about things is phenomenal.\u00a0 I could just sit there as a fan and listen to her stories for days. What this woman has been through and the things she knows, the barriers she had to overcome have been incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has been so supported.\u00a0 She emails me and we chat and she talks with my dad, occasionally.\u00a0 To hear her say such positive things about me, my driving, my team; it means the world to me because I can\u2019t help but star-struck by her.\u00a0 But, I get to call her my friend, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s a really a cool deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"14EESLasVegas1KNHorsepowerWin\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pro Stock\u2019s energetic Erica Enders-Stevens has become the NHRA\u2019s latest sensation this season, and she stands to become the 100th Female Winner this weekend in Atlanta.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,16,22],"tags":[554,640,857,855,856,854],"class_list":["post-5571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-pro-stock","category-event-coverage","tag-2014-nhra-mello-yello-drag-racing-series","tag-erica-enders-stevens","tag-kn-horsepower-challenge","tag-shirley-muldowney","tag-summit-racing-equipment-southern-nationals","tag-summit-racing-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/14EESLasVegas1KNHorsepowerWinFeature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-1rR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5571"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5651,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5571\/revisions\/5651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}