Towards the end of her successful quest for a fifth Pro Stock championship this fall, Erica Enders said to her challengers, “I am not scared. Bring on whatever you got.”

The driver of the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage / SCAG Chevy Camaro can say that with confidence because of the tight-knit group that has surrounded her, one that not only prepares a quick and fast car for her but would go to war for her off the racetrack.

“I know it sounds clichéd, but they're the most important part of the puzzle, to have a group that operates as one and that you can trust, not just on making the race car safe for you, but trusting them with everything . . . whether it be something that you tell them, executing a job perfectly, having your back when somebody's doing something as stupid as running their mouth, or they're not trying to sneak your ride from underneath you,” Enders said. “There's no ulterior motives. There's just a good group of men. I didn't always have that, but I have it now. I feel like that was the most challenging part was to weed through all of the crap to get to the cream.

“It makes my life easier. It makes me have some sort of peace,” she said. “I feel like that's why I can do as good of a job as I do. For the most part, I'm a human element. I screw up from time to time. But I feel like I can do such a good job because when they shut the door, I have no questions. I don't question anything. And that's a really nice feeling to have.”

In 2023, Enders will have double coverage. Her Elite Motorsports team has expanded its footprint by fielding two Mountain Motor Pro Stock cars, one for her and one for Elite ringleader Richard Freeman. They’ll make their class debut next March 3-5 at the $25,000-to-win invitational during Drag Illustrated’s World Series Of Pro Mod event at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida.

 

 

The NHRA’s Camping World Drag Racing Series will begin the next week with the March 9-12 Gatornationals at nearby Gainesville, Fla. But the Mountain Motor Pro Stock class will not open its six-race season until May 19-21 at Joliet, Ill.’s Route 66 Raceway. The campaign will end Oct. 12-15 at the Stampede of Speed at Ennis, Texas, near Dallas, after stops at Epping, N.H.; Morrison, Colo. (Denver); Topeka; and either Concord, N.C. (Charlotte) or Madison, Ill. (St. Louis).

“I think it'll be a cool addition and just another door car that I can put on my list of things we've done,” Enders said, anticipating her shot at the Mountain Motor Pro Stock machines with their 820-plus-cubic-inch engines that produce close to 2,000 horsepower. She’ll continue to race in the Pro Stock class.

And with her experience in door cars – notably five titles, 39 victories, and winning almost two-thirds of her elimination round-wins (439-240) in Pro Stock – the transition to Mountain Motor Pro Stock should be relatively seamless.

“I would think,” she said. “I know that it's different, as far as they don't turn as high of an RPM. The sound and the feel and all that's going to be different. There are 800-some-odd cubic inches. We’re 500 [in Pro Stock]. Torque is different. Clutch size is different. All of that stuff will change intricate parts of drivability, but I feel like same concept, clutch car with a five-speed Liberty. I'll just have to fine tune my stuff from behind the wheel.”

Enders, who also has competed in the Super Gas and Super Comp classes, has experienced the craziness – and scariness – of Pro Mod racing. “Finicky or crazy, unpredictable . . . I think we can find a plethora of words to describe Pro Mod,” she said. But, to her reassurance, her Mountain Motor Pro Stock car, she said, will behave more like a Pro Stock car.

It's “the same concept as the Pro Stock car. We hold the record to 660 [feet, or eighth-mile] in NHRA Pro Stock at 4.14 [seconds], and the world record in Mountain Motor is 4-flat. We're talking a 10th-of-a-second difference, and we're not going out there and going to run 200 almost [2]65 miles an hour like we did in a Pro Mod car,” Enders said. The Mountain Motor car, she said, “is not as wild as Pro Mod but just a little bit different than 500-inch [Pro Stock].”

 

 

Moreover, Enders expressed faith in her Mountain Motor Pro Stock equipment, which Freeman bought from J.R. Carr.

“Richard used to run [a Mountain Motor Pro Stock car] back in the day, and Richard and J.R. Carr are really good friends, and J.R. buys trucks and trailers and motorhomes and stuff off of us for years and years and years. He decided that he was going to exit again, and Richard bought his entire operation. I think if there's an operation to buy it obviously would be JR's. He's got the finest equipment,” Enders said.

“We bought his two cars and some motors and whatnot,” she said. “We're going to have our engine shop guys work on them. Then, of course, we have Mark Ingersoll and Rick Jones in our pockets. I feel like we have the best people in the best areas to make it the best that it can be.”

Former IHRA and NHRA Pro Stock racer Frank Gugliotta (affectionately known as “The Flying Meatball”) will join Elite Motorsports’ effort and oversee the Mountain Motor Pro Stock program from his home in Maryland and will stay in touch with the Elite crew that’s headquartered in Oklahoma.

Freeman said, “In 2008, I got my first go at running Pro Stock in IHRA. It was J.R. Carr, Frank Gugliotta, and myself. J.R. and I drove, and Frank tuned both machines. J.R. and Frank did well. When I switched gears to 500-inch racing, they continued the Mountain Motor deal. They’ve always remained great friends and we’ve done a lot of business together over the years.

“One of the reasons that I quit the Mountain Motor deal years ago,” he said, “is that they went from a quarter-mile to an eighth-mile [course]. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just didn’t really have an interest. When you spend all that money, you want to plug it in high gear and go 225.”

Gugliotta will run the operation out of his home base in Maryland while working closely with the Elite Performance team in Oklahoma.

Enders, who hasn’t worked with Gugliotta yet, said she’s sure he’ll bring a lot to the table at Elite: “He's been doing that stuff for a long time and he worked for J.R., as well. And Frank and Richard go way back. He'll fit in our operation just fine. We're all a little bit different here at Elite. We have a good time together. I think he'll fit right in.”

Freeman also purchased Carr’s Ford program which will move to the Elite headquarters.

“We’re going to work on that Ford program and see if we can make something out of it,” Freeman said. “It was pretty good back when J.R. was running it. We have a strong belief that it could be something great with the team of people we have in place. With this acquisition, we’ve got door car racing covered. Whether it’s our 500-inch program, which is arguably one of the best in the country [or] our Pro Mod program through our alliance with Justin Elkes at Modern Racing. And now we’ve got our 800-inch program, as well. I’ve always had a love for the big-motor stuff and was waiting for the time to be right. This is the right time.”

He said, “We’re going to try to focus a lot of our efforts on the NHRA side of things. I want to work with NHRA to try to grow that category.”

One of the fun dynamics for fans to keep an eye on in 2023 is the fact that Enders and Freeman will be racing against each other, more than they did when he jumped into the Pro Stock driving mix occasionally.

“He's driven a lot of different stuff, and he dabbled in 500-inch Pro Stock. He played with some of the Pro Mod stuff that we had. He's done Mountain Motor before. He's done Comp Eliminator before. Everything that I've driven here, he's driven as well,” she said.

 

 

“As you know, as well, all of us get along and we're family, like there's a ton of that banter that goes on, like, ‘I'm going to kick your ass’ and whatnot. He was saying, ‘Even Richard can win in this class.’ So he's obviously ready to go, but I think it'll be cool for him to drive. He's interesting in the aspect that he gets just as much, if not more, satisfaction standing behind the car than he does behind the wheel. He's put all of this together and made it a success with people and parts and pieces that he doesn't need the accolades of driving. But he does love racing, and he's not a bad driver. He's a good driver. His only problem in Pro Stock was he couldn't cut a light very well. And I think also he's lost like 100 pounds now. I definitely think that'll help with him being more comfortable in the car and all of that. I'm sure he'll do just fine.”

She said her own attitude in the car – in both Pro Stock and Mountain Motor Pro Stock – won’t change. She’ll continue to be aggressive, with that “I’m not scared. Bring on whatever you got” mentality.

“We're going to take the same approach with that that we do in 500-inch Pro Stock racing,” she said. “I'll say that, but we're also going to be the newbies. I haven't driven that stuff. We haven't run that stuff before. I'm sure there'll be some sort of a learning curve, and we'll go out and test and practice and make sure we're good before we go.”