Her life was made into a Disney movie and now she’s a Texas Sports Hall of Fame nominee.
Only eight drivers in the history of NHRA Pro Stock racing have won more than one title, but only one of those eight had their life turned into a Disney Channel original movie.
Erica Enders, a six-time NHRA champion and the first woman to ever win a championship, is trying to win her third straight NHRA title. That win would give her the second most NHRA Pro Stock racing championships in history after Bob Glidden.
The movie, which aired in 2003, she inspired was called “Right on Track,” and it was about Erica and her younger sister Courtney’s journey through junior drag racing and how they won the national title in a sport dominated by boys.
The movie was filmed when Enders was a senior in high school. She missed six weeks of school for filming to be on set where she served as a technical advisor, made a cameo in the film and did stunt driving for her character.
Enders recently talked to the Star-Telegram about the impact of the film on her life and young women in drag racing.
I don’t really know if I grasped just how cool that was at that point in my life,” said Enders, “A lot of [young women] had watched the Disney movie “Right on Track,” about my sister and I, and so they started junior drag racing because of that movie. So, yeah, all across the country. I get to hear all these really cool stories of how we’ve had an impact on them.”
Enders was born in Houston where she fostered her love for racing thanks to her father Gregg who was also a professional racer and inspired her to get into the sport.
“I grew up watching my dad race, so it was kind of like what our family did on the weekend,” said Enders, “You know, my friends wanted to be teachers and doctors and astronauts, but for me, it was always a race car driver.”
