Only eight drivers in the history of NHRA Pro Stock racing have won multiple championships, and only one of those eight had their life turned into a Disney Channel original movie.
Erica Enders, a six-time NHRA champion and the first woman to win a championship, is attempting to win a third consecutive title. That victory would give her the second most NHRA Pro Stock racing championships in history, trailing only Bob Glidden.
The movie, which aired in 2003, she inspired was called “Right on Track,” and it was about Erica and her younger sister Courtney’s journey through junior drag racing and how they won the national title in a sport dominated by boys.
The movie was filmed when Enders was a senior in high school. She missed six weeks of school for filming to be on set where she served as a technical advisor, made a cameo in the film and did stunt driving for her character.
Enders recently talked to the Star-Telegram about the impact of the film on her life and young women in drag racing.
I don’t really know if I grasped just how cool that was at that point in my life,” said Enders, “A lot of [young women] had watched the Disney movie “Right on Track,” about my sister and I, and so they started junior drag racing because of that movie. So, yeah, all across the country. I get to hear all these really cool stories of how we’ve had an impact on them.”
Enders was born in Houston where she fostered her love for racing thanks to her father Gregg who was also a professional racer and inspired her to get into the sport.
“I grew up watching my dad race, so it was kind of like what our family did on the weekend,” said Enders, “You know, my friends wanted to be teachers and doctors and astronauts, but for me, it was always a race car driver.”
She remembered when she first asked her father if she could enter drag racing when she was only 8.
“I was out there [in the garage] with him and I was flipping through the National Dragster, and there was an ad about the junior drag racing league and I asked him if I could do it, and he said that I’m a good kid and I made good grades, So I don’t see why not,” said Enders.
While Pro Stock racing is a male-dominated sport, Enders grew up with female idols who she wanted to emulate like Shirley Muldowney, Shelly Anderson and Melanie Troxel.
Now it’s Enders who serves as the standard for female Pro Stock drivers and she makes it her mission to ease the burden for the next generation.
“It’s kind of surreal, full circle and I get to meet kids at the pit, you know, and I recognize the look in their eyes, the same look that I had when I was younger,” said Enders, “Part of being a pioneer is you take the heat so that the people that follow you don’t have to and you know, that’s a role that I don’t take lightly.”
“I have a young woman, she just turned 18, and when she came on board, I said my job is not only to make her a great driver but make her journey more enjoyable than mine was because people were awful to me and I’m going to protect her,” said Enders.
Enders remembers what it was like for her when she started in Pro Stock racing.
“I was 19 years old competing against a bunch of middle-aged men. So I can only imagine their opinion of me at the time, like flash in the pan, little daddy’s money girl, which also wasn’t true. I made it my mission to prove to them that I wasn’t what they thought I was and I made a living doing it and I love it. My favorite thing to do is to prove people wrong,” said Enders.
Enders will spend the fall waiting to find out if she was elected to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, a first-time nominee. She didn’t even know she was up for nomination until her father told her.
“I’m very proud to be a Texan and to get the nod from the Texas Sports Hall of Fame is pretty cool,” said Enders, “Then on top of that, to be the only Motorsports nominee among coaches and stick-and-ball athletes it’s really cool and it was a huge surprise to me.”
She will return home to compete in the Texas NHRA FallNationals from October 10-13 hoping to win the event for the second year in a row as she tries to finish off her threepeat.
