In the Fast Lane with Erica Enders

"Where are the eyelashes?!" That was the most-asked question after Erica Enders finished the first test session in her brand new Dodge Dart earlier this year. Fans weren't inquiring about her own lashes, though. They were asking about the signature black lashes that had been painted above the headlights on her old race car for two seasons. "My email went crazy when they weren't on the Dart," Enders recalls. She made certain they were on her car before the start of the National Hot Rod Association Mello Yello Drag Racing season. "I race in a man's world," Enders says. "Being the only woman in Pro Stock, I want my car to be a little girly. The lashes are fun, and the fans love them."

Although racing is male-dominated, Enders has zoomed to the top of the Pro Stock circuit. In 2014, she became the first woman to win the NHRA Pro Stock world championship, then won the title again in 2015. "I'm sure there were people who thought I'd be a flash in the pan when I started," Enders says. "I proved that I belong here." The 32-year-old has racked up the most NHRA national event victories by a female driver (19), while her nine wins last year are the most in a single season for a woman in any Pro Stock class. She's done all of this by covering a quarter of a mile — yes, each race is that short — at up to 215 miles per hour.

​Her career seemed to take off just as fast. Enders was named the 1995 Junior Dragster Driver of the Year and had 37 total wins in eight years of youth racing. She and her sister, Courtney, a former driver, even provided the inspiration for Disney's 2003 film Right On Track.

Since turning pro in '04 at age 21, though, Enders has endured her fair share of struggles. In '06, she lost her car's sponsor. (Her father, Gregg, a former driver, financed her racing for the next five years.) In '13, tension with her crew chief led her to search for a new team. By that time, Enders was thinking about walking away from the sport her father had introduced her to. "I was just about over the sport in 2013. I thought, I have a [marketing] degree. I can make a living doing something else," Enders says. "But would I be happy?"

Enders, however, has never been a quitter. Not even when she tore her right rotator cuff twice as a junior in high school and was told she had to stop playing volleyball. "I trained myself to play lefthanded," she remembers. "I was determined to play." Enders made the all-district team as a senior after making the switch.

And the big switch she made in 2013 — when she joined Richard Freeman's Elite Motorsports — has helped her win the last two Pro Stock championships.

Enders, who is currently eyeing a third title, let SI KIDS ride along with her (not literally, though!) at the Carquest Auto Parts NHRA Nationals in Phoenix in February.

"Before the race, I have to meet a minimum driver-car weight combination, which is 2,350 pounds. If you're a pound light, you don't compete," she says. Enders then hops into her car and gets pulled into the staging lane for her run, a head-to-head competition against one other driver. Once she's fully suited up, she tries to stay loose. "I stretch my calves and quads because of the clutch pedal," she says.

On race days, Enders visits her pit area's data center, which is housed in a truck that travels with her. There, she can see how the weather might affect her driving. "We try to predict what it will be when we run and make the changes to the race car accordingly," she says. After a run, Enders heads back to the data center to analyze how she did. "We record the run from different angles. My crew chief and I will go over everything."

After Enders completes a run — she could drive as many as eight in a weekend of competition — she detaches and carries the driver's side door as the car heads back to her pit area. Enders also keeps the proverbial door open for more women to get behind the wheel. "I was the only girl when I started out at my home track," recalls Enders, who looked up to three-time top fuel champion Shirley Muldowney as a kid. Now, Enders estimates that more than 50% of drivers in the junior drag racing league are female. "That's so awesome," she says.

Enders doesn't just drive the car. She helps service it after each run as well. "I'll get the jack set so we can raise the car. I'll plug in the fans and water pump to cool the motor down from a run," she says. But she doesn't do everything by herself. For Enders, Pro Stock racing is a team sport — especially when the unexpected happens. "[Last year] in Houston was crazy for us. We won the second round of the NHRA spring nationals. We were warming up for the third round, and we hurt the motor," Enders remembers. "We were being called up to make the run. My crew chief asked, 'What do you want to do?' I said, 'We have to try.' Everyone jumped in. We had to change an engine in 11 minutes. We won the entire race." Teamwork will play a key role this season, since Enders has switched to a new car. "Change is always challenging. I've got a big learning curve associated with our new engine," she says. "But I've got some of the brightest guys working with me."

In between races, fans stop by Enders's pit for autographs and a chance to see her blinged-out championship ring up close. "It's insane the amount of fan support we get," she says. "The support has been a key to my success."

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Photo: David E. Klutho