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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SBU chapter.

Erica Enders is an American drag racing driver in the Pro Stock class with the NHRA. She is also the most winningest woman in all of motorsports. She’s a six-time champion in the Pro Stock division and will defend her title for the 2024 season, which is going pretty good for her so far as she won the Gatornationals on March 10th, the NHRA season opener. It was also her first Gatornationals win since she started racing with the NHRA in 2005. 

In 1992 at age eight, Enders started racing with a junior dragster. That car is now on display at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. 

Throughout her junior dragster career, she had 37 wins and in 1995 was named Junior Dragster Driver of the Year.  

In 2000, at age 16, she advanced to her first national event final. She became the youngest driver to ever do so and because of that won NHRA’s award for Sportsman Rookie of the Year. 

In 2005, she became the first woman to compete in the Pro Stock class since 1993. She was also the first woman to ever qualify in the top half of the Pro Stock field and to reach a final round in her division. That same year, she earned more round wins than all other female drivers in the history of the Pro Stock class combined. Because of that, she was a finalist for the “Road to the Future” award for the season’s top rookie. 

A year later, Enders made history again with becoming the first woman to qualify number one in the Pro Stock class. She also recorded another runner-up finish at the Gatornationals. 

In 2011, she broke the national speed record for her class at Gainesville with a whopping 213.57 miles an hour.  

On July 2, 2012, Enders became the first woman to ever win in Pro Stock. With a 6.627 second race, she beat out four-time champion at the time, Greg Anderson. 

Two years later, she became the first woman to win the world championship for the Pro Stock class, winning six races that year. 

A year later, Enders broke two records for female drivers in the NHRA. Previously held by Shirley Muldowney in the Top Fuel class, Enders won for the 19th time in her Pro Stock career, surpassing Muldowney’s record of 18 wins. Enders also won eight races that year, surpassing the Pro Stock Motorcycle driver, Angelle Sampey’s, record of seven wins in one season in 2001. 

Enders currently holds both sides of the NHRA National Records for Pro Stock. The record time is 6.464 seconds, and the speed is 215.55 miles an hour. 

Brooke Johnpier is a contributor to the SBU chapter of Her Campus. She writes about the more "manly" topics of the site, including automotive, motorsports, mechanical, technical, DIY, and anything hands-on. Brooke is also using this platform as her personal blog, of which she will talk about more personal things that she feels the world should hear about. Besides Her Campus, Brooke is a part-time motorsports journalist for Speedway Illustrated, a columnist for Race Pro Weekly and Dirt Track Digesr, and a staff writer as well as a social media promoter for The Podium Finish, where she is interning. Brooke is also a writer for TAPinto Greater Olean, WSBU The Buzz, and PolitiFact NY. Brooke is also involved with St. Bonaventure's literary magazine, The Laurel. Brooke is currently a sophomore at St. Bonaventure University where she is majoring in Sports Media with minors in Native American and Indigenous Studies & English. You can also find Brooke working as an assistant in the Koop Lab and upstairs in the office, making her money. In her free time, Brooke loves reading, going to the local racetrack, riding four-wheelers, working on cars, and riding in tractor trailers. Brooke is a music lover, and will talk about most any genre, especially her favorites which are rock and rap. Brooke is also a percussionist, a published author, and a women's rights activist. Brooke is also a member of several lineage organizations, and currently holds a national position in one of them. As well as writing for campus media, Brooke is involved with Faith in Fiction, Jandoli Women in Communication, the History Club, College Democrats, and the Indigenous Student Confederacy. A fun fact about Brooke is that she was the only female to ever be in the top 5% of the Automotive Technology class at the trade school she attended in her junior and senior years of high school.