Erica Enders-Stevens
| Erica Enders-Stevens | |
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Erica (left) and her sister Courtney at the NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, 2013
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| Born | Erica Lee Enders October 8, 1983 Houston, Texas, U.S. |
| Related to | Richie Stevens Jr. Courtney Enders |
| NHRA Pro Stock career | |
| Years active | 1992-2006, 2010, 2011–present |
Erica Lee Enders-Stevens (born October 8, 1983 in Houston, Texas) is an American NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series driver.
Enders-Stevens started racing in 1992 at the age of 8. Her original Enders Racing Junior Dragster car is on display at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum.
In 1993, Enders-Stevens won the Division 4 Jr. Dragster championship in the 8 to 9 year old class, and in 1995 she was named Junior Dragster Driver of the Year. In her eight years of junior dragster competition, she had 37 career wins.
In 2000, at age 16, she advanced to her first national event final (Houston) to become the youngest NHRA national event finalist. She was named NHRA Sportsman Rookie of the Year.
In 2004, Enders-Stevens became the 35th woman in NHRA history to earn a national event victory, in Super Gas class at Houston. In 2005, she became the first woman to compete in the NHRA's Pro Stock Category since 1993, the first woman in NHRA history to qualify in the top-half of a Pro Stock field, and the first woman to reach a final round in Pro Stock (at Chicago). Enders-Stevens achieved more round wins in 2005 than all other female drivers in NHRA Pro Stock history combined, and was a finalist for the “Road to the Future” award for the season’s top rookie.
In 2006, Enders-Stevens became the first woman to qualify No. 1 in Pro Stock (at Heartland Park, Topeka, Kansas), and recorded another runner-up finish at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.
After returning to Cagnazzi Racing in 2011, she broke the national speed record in Pro Stock at 213.57 mph (343.71 km/h) at the Gainesville round, and defeated 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kurt Busch in Round One of that meet.
On July 2, 2012, Enders-Stevens became the first woman to win in NHRA Pro Stock, beating four-time champion Greg Anderson in the finals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill. Her winning time was 6.627 seconds for the 1,320 foot run.
In 2012, Enders-Stevens finished a career best fourth in the points in the Countdown to the Championship in NHRA Pro Stock and followed that up with a sixth-place finish in 2013.
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