Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Step up to Pro Stock has been a culture shock for Enders

Thursday, April 7, 2005 | 9:24 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Erica Enders has made countless runs -- and won a handful of races -- as a Junior Dragster competitor on the quarter-mile drag strip at Houston Raceway Park.

But when Enders, a 21-year-old Houston native, pulls her Cagnazzi Racing Pro Stock Chevrolet to the starting line Friday afternoon for her first qualifying run as a professional at HRP, it is unlikely she will have a hometown advantage.

Enders has learned after only three races as a pro that driving in the highly competitive Pro Stock class is a completely different animal.

"As much as I tried to prepare myself, the competition is a lot tougher than I thought," Enders said. "No disrespect to the other teams and drivers; I knew it was going to be difficult to qualify and compete, I just didn't know it was going to be this competitive."

Muscling the 1,300-horsepower Pro Stock racecar has also been a bit of an eye-opener, Enders said.

"I didn't expect the driving part to be so difficult," she admitted. "I expected it would be tough, but nothing that I have driven in the past comes close to Pro Stock driving and how hard it really is on your body.

"It's a blast and I love the rush I get every pass and every time I drop the clutch. I work out almost every day that I am home, trying to work on my strength and it still takes everything I've got to make each pass."

Enders, who won 37 races in the Junior Dragster series, in February became only the fifth female driver to qualify for an NHRA Pro Stock field when she qualified 16th (out of 26 cars) at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Ariz. Her other two outings this season produced less desirable results; she failed to qualify at the season-opening race in Pomona and the most recent event, in Gainesville, Fla.

Enders, who is taking the semester off from her studies at Texas A&M to concentrate on her rookie season, said she is looking forward to her homecoming this weekend.

"It will be neat to be the hometown girl," Enders said. "All of my friends and family will be out there and they will see me race in Pro Stock for the first time. It's exciting because everybody that I care about will be there and I think it will help us perform better because it will put a little added pressure on us.

"Pressure is a great thing. I know I perform better with more pressure; it drives me to do better."

AUTOGRAPH SESSION: In conjunction with next weekend's NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, several NHRA drivers will be participating in a free autograph session next Thursday at the ESPN Zone in the New York New York Hotel & Casino.

Tony Schumacher, Morgan Lucas, Erica Enders, Jim Yates, Mark Pawuk, Kenny Koretsky, Rod Fuller, Ashley Force, Gary Densham, Jeg Coughlin Jr. and David Baca are scheduled to sign autographs from 7 to 8 p.m.

Pro qualifying for the sixth annual SummitRacing.com Nationals will begin at 3 p.m. Friday, April 15.

AT THE STRIP: "Midnight Mayhem" and the second points races of the season for both the Meadow Gold NHRA Junior Dragster Series and the Jerry's Nugget Championship Drag Racing Series will occupy The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend.

"Midnight Mayhem," for street-legal cars and motorcycles, will run from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday. Junior Dragster competitors will be on the track from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and the JNCDRS and West Coast Corvette Challenge will run Saturday from 5-11 p.m.

A complete schedule can be found at www.lvmsstrip.com.