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Are Women Better Drivers and More Popular? In the NHRA They Often Are!

It is quite cool to see that some of the most popular and fastest drivers in a male-dominated sport are women. On Saturdays during NHRA autograph events, you can bet the crowd around the likes of Brittany Force and Erica Enders is eight to ten people deep.
Erica Enders 9 photos
Photo: NHRA.com
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As the first of three of the final race events of 2022 gets underway at Texas Motorplex, I wanted to shed some light and celebrate the courageous women racers that make NHRA drag racing such an exciting motorsport. No other sport today can claim to be as gender-inclusive as the NHRA, and it has been going on for over 50 years. These women do not just show up as marketing pawns; they perform and often outshine their male counterparts.

Specifically, this year, Top Fuel racer Brittany Force and Erica Enders of the Pro Stock class both have a legitimate shot at taking home the championship in their respective classes.

It all began in the world of NHRA drag racing back in 1964 when Barbara Hamilton became the first woman to earn an NHRA license.

However, it was a former aerospace engineer who blew open the gender barrier in drag racing. Despite a tremendous amount of opposition from the NHRA and drivers, Shirley Muldowney earned her Top Fuel license in the early 70s. The "First Lady of Drag Racing," known as "Cha Cha," would go on to win three NHRA Top Fuel championships in 1977, 1980, and 1982.

Brittany Force
Photo: NHRA.com
Since then, a litany of female drivers has joined the association with varying degrees of success against the boys.

For her part, 36-year-old Brittany Force, the apple does not fall far from the tree. She is one daughter of 16-time NHRA champion and 155-time event winner John Force. Brittany joined her father's Top Fuel team in 2013. She accomplished several firsts in the NHRA, including being the first woman to win the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals and the first woman to qualify first at a U.S. Nationals.

In 2017, Force became the second woman to win the NHRA championship, behind the aforementioned Shirley Muldowney. The graduate of California State University Fullerton holds the distinction of having the ten fastest runs in NHRA drag racing history. However, in Top Fuel racing, being the fastest does not always equate to victory if you are beaten off the line. Watch her fastest runs below.

She enters the weekend at Texas in third behind Justin Ashley and Steve Torrance but well within striking distance with three races to go.

Brittany Force
Photo: NHRA.com
Pro Stock driver and native Texan Erica Enders began her career at age sixteen back in 2000, becoming the youngest finalist in history and earning Rookie of the Year honors. She became the first woman to win the Pro Stock championship in 2014 and followed that up with a championship in 2015. She returns to home soil this weekend looking to stretch her 120-point lead in the standings. The 4-time 39-year-old veteran is poised to capture her fifth championship as early as next week in Las Vegas.

To put these two racer's accomplishments in context, let's look at the cars they command to get down the track as they do.

NHRA Top Fuel dragsters are 25-foot long chrome-molybdenum steel-tubed frames weighing 2,330 pounds (1,057 kg) when race ready. The nitro-methane-burning supercharged engines are capable of producing upwards of 11,000 horsepower, propelling the dragster from a standstill to 100 miles per hour (161 kph) in 0.8 seconds to top speeds exceeding 335 miles per hour (539 km/h). Drivers are subjected to force exceeding 5G's throughout the 1000-foot run (304.8 meters).

Erica Enders
Photo: NHRA.com
Pro Stock cars, on the other hand, are 'all motor,' meaning they do not incorporate any sort of turbo- or supercharging. The 2350-pound (1,066 kg) car frame is of the same chrome-molybdenum steel tubing as their dragster kin and is covered by a carbon-fiber body designed after factory models such as Camaros, Mustangs, et al. Their 500 cubic-inch (8.2 l) engines produce 1,300 horsepower achieving top speeds exceeding 210 miles per hour (338 kph).

As the season winds down, the drama and intrigue surrounding each run will play out in both the qualifying and, especially, the elimination rounds. Regardless of the final results, the guys know these two ladies will bring with them each and every run.

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