Enders confident frustrations will end soon after 2nd first-round loss
The NHRA Pro Stock class has undergone a lot of changes heading into 2016, most notably with a switch to fuel-injected engines with a 10,500-rpm rev limiter. Additionally, the hood scoops have been removed and wheelie bars shortened.
If this hadn’t thrown enough curveballs already at defending Pro Stock champion Erica Enders-Stevens, her Elite Motorsports team had made the switch to Mopar power during the offseason.
Thus, even before the season began, Enders knew that 2016 would be a “real tall order” for her to three-peat.
However, back-to-back first-round eliminations in the opening two races of the season is certainly not what anyone would have expected. Yet, for Enders, it has come to fruition, with a loss to her teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr. in her first race at Pomona, and then again to Drew Skillman in Phoenix.
“Our car has been extremely unhappy all weekend, and we're trying to get her settled down and back to our real race car,” admitted Enders after her Phoenix loss. “It stinks that we are out early in Phoenix, but that round was certainly a step in the right direction.”
The reason Enders was so optimistic was because she had managed to post the best reaction time of the day: 0.005s (half the time that Denny Hamlin beat Martin Truex Jr. by in the Daytona 500).
“It gives us a little positive breath of air throughout all of this interesting learning curve,” said Enders. “It's easy to get frustrated, especially coming off two successful years like we have had, but my crew continues to dig deep and have positive attitudes, and that's what I feel champions are made of.
“I'm so proud of them and proud to be their driver. I know that this early elimination trend is going to end pretty quickly and the rest of the field will be in trouble. Until then we'll just continue to work on our race car. The Dodge Dart is a great car and we're going to test before Gainesville, and that will help get us moving in the right direction.”
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