Enders Overcomes Rough Start
Erica Enders languished between ninth and 14th in the standings through six races, but a breakout June victory at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway turned her season around.
By the midpoint in the Countdown, she was back in command of the standings. Her nemesis, Greg Anderson, also a five-time champion, emerged from midpack and the duo again played out retired icon Warren Johnson’s adage that “Old age and treachery beat youth and inexperience every time.”
For the second straight year, these two veterans battled down the stretch, leaving next-gen racers Troy Coughlin Jr., Dallas Glenn and Matt Hartford — all of whom led the points during the year — in their wake.
“I want to give the good Lord all the glory. He turns every single mess into a message,” Enders said. “And that’s exactly what the season started off as — a complete and utter disaster. It took us seven races to figure out our issue. The message this year is tenacity and consistency and digging through all of the crap and just prevailing when it matters.”
Glenn, like Justin Ashley in Top Fuel and Ron Capps in Funny Car, was reminded that starting the Countdown as the top seed guaranteed nothing.
In Top Fuel, Ashley had a longshot mathematical chance to swipe his first championship, but Capps was out of contention before the final race. Both ended up fourth in their respective classes. Glenn came in sixth, 249 points off the pace.
Hartford won the first two Countdown races, but faded as Enders notched two Countdown triumphs and completed her season with four victories in as many finals to cement her status as the most successful woman in motorsports with 47 victories and six championships.
Herrera Crushes Bike Competition
Gaige Herrera is a pipefitter in northwestern Indiana during the week and a steamroller in the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle class on the weekend.
A year after he was seeking volunteers for his fledgling crew as Gary and Karen Stoffer tutored him, Herrera is a record-setting, utterly dominating champion for the mighty Vance & Hines organization.
“Last year, I was out here just trying to have a little bit of fun. Then, I got a call to ride for these legends. I grew up watching these guys race. Now racing next to them and accomplishing what we have this season is very surreal,” Herrera said after bulldozing to 11 victories in 15 races and earning 14 No. 1 qualifying positions.
He finished atop the standings with a 214-point advantage over No. 2 Eddie Krawiec, his Mission Foods Suzuki teammate.
Herrera became the first Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to sweep the Western Swing, recording consecutive race victories at Bandimere Speedway, Pacific Raceways and Sonoma Raceway. He also won four Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge bonus races, as well as the Pro Stock Motorcycle All-Star Call-Out at Sonoma.
The lone racer among all pro classes to enter and end the playoffs as the No. 1-ranked competitor, Herrera won the final five events of the six-race Countdown.
He recorded the quickest run in Pro Stock Motorcycle history on the Texas Motorplex quarter-mile near Dallas, with a 6.627-second elapsed time en route to registering nine of the 10 quickest runs in class history.
“I think it’s only the beginning,” Herrera said after his 50-4 performance that brought Vance & Hines its 14th crown. “It’s a big deal for me to ride for this team. What I love to do is race, and it’s worked out well for all of us. We were focused on the here and now, and we just kept the ball rolling all season long. It really hasn’t set in yet. The way I look at it, it was a perfect season. I’m going to cherish this whole season and it’s something I’ll never forget.”
The freshly branded NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series will start the new season March 7-10 at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway.
This story appeared in the Dec 13, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
