Erica Enders and the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage / Melling Performance / SCAG Power Equipment Pro Stock team secured their seventh No. 1 qualifying position Saturday at the NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway just outside of St. Louis.
After rain washed out qualifying on Friday, Enders earned her No. 1 position with a 6.565-second pass at 208.01 mph during Saturday’s first session, getting her three bonus qualifying points. The JHG / Melling team followed it up with a 6.573 run at 208.46 mph that was second quickest of the second session and earned them another two bonus points.
“The baby points always add up, I’ve said that since the beginning of our career when we started running really well, and they made a huge difference in both of our 2014 and 2015 championship chases. I imagine it will be the same this year,” Enders said. “To come off the trailer after a long rain cancellation yesterday and go to the No. 1 spot, you know you only have two runs, so you want to run quick enough to be great but conservative enough to be sure to get down. Thankfully Mark Ingersoll and my guys are really great at that. We threw up a decent number first session and made a huge error second session but we were still second low for the round and collected five points. We’ll take that into Sunday and see what we can do with it.”
With their performance, Enders and her JHG / Melling machine will face off with Chris McGaha in the first round of eliminations on Sunday. Enders will be looking for her seventh win at World Wide Technology Raceway, second win of the season, 50th national event win and 49th win in Pro Stock. Chasing her seventh Pro Stock world title, Enders will look to close the 53-point gap from the lead she entered the weekend with.
“Coming into St. Louis, my sister and I have always had this phrase, ‘Everything changes in St. Louis.’ So, no matter what has happened behind us there’s a lot to look forward to in front of us,” Enders said. “We have six victories here and it’s a place that I’ve grown up racing at. Steve Torrence and I used to drag our Super Comp dragsters up here and run. I have a lot of fond memories here and I’m hopeful to park it in the winners circle tomorrow.”
Competition at World Wide Technology Raceway for the NHRA Midwest Nationals continues Sunday for eliminations slated at 11 a.m. with Pro Stock first round hitting the track at noon. Television coverage of the event continues on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with a second qualifying show Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET and an eliminations show on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. ET.
This story was originally published on September 29, 2024. 
