Enders, Stoffer Stun With History-Making PS, PSM Runs At The Gators

One hundred and twenty five miles south of the Gainesville Raceway, you’ll find Disney World and the Magic Kingdom, a place unlike any other where the imaginations of children and adults alike come to life. For competitors and spectators at the NHRA Gatornationals, Disney moved north and delivered magic of a different kind, as unseasonably cold temperatures provided density altitudes that dipped as low as 700-plus feet below sea level as raceday began on Sunday, setting the stage for historic numbers.

Competitors in Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle were primed to take advantage of the type of conditions they hadn’t experienced in years, and Erica Enders and Karen Stoffer took full advantage of it.

Enders, the No. 3 qualifier in a very quick Pro Stock field with a 6.510, fired the biggest shot when it mattered most, clocking a 6.450 at 213.57 mph — the quickest run by a 500 cubic-inch Pro Stock car in competition in history, regardless of carburetor or fuel-injected. The only blemish on her historic performance was a .002 to .077 holeshot by her teammate Bo Butner that allowed him to sneak by for the win with a paltry 6.513.

The Pro Stock record — Jason Line’s 6.455-second lap at the zMax Dragway in March of 2015 — had stood for nearly seven full years. Shortly after Line’s record-setting run, the category underwent a number of changes, including a conversion to electronic fuel injection and new RPM limitations that dialed E.T.’s back more than a tenth of a second. But at long last, the class has clawed back to its previous performances.

“That I suck, I don’t know what else to say,” Enders quipped to NHRA on FOX’s Jamie Howe when asked of her takeaway after digesting the losing time-slip. “I’m known for my really great ability on the starting line and I didn’t show that today.”

Enders still holds the speed record, at 215.55 mph, set in Englishtown in 2014.

Stoffer, for her part, wow’ed the assembled crowd at Gainesville not once, but twice, in one of the single most impressive displays of performance in a single day in NHRA history.

With nary a single qualifying run to accumulate data, the two-wheeled veteran from Gardnerville, Nevada rolled her Suzuki off the trailer and clocked the quickest Pro Stock Motorcycle run in history in a 6.682-second, 198.70 mph opening round win over Jim Underdahl. The existing record, Andrew Hines’s 6.720, had also stood the test of time, dating to March of 2019.

Stoffer wasn’t done there, however, as she went an even quicker 6.665 in round two, topping the double century mark with a 200.71 mph trap speed, to easily dispatch Eddie Krawiec.

En route to her 11th national event triumph, Stoffer ran 6.721 in the semifinals and 6.700 in a final round defeat of Angie Smith. In all, she went quicker then the existing national record in three of her four eliminations rounds, and topped 200 mph three times.

“I knew the conditions were fantastic and out of the box, the bike was on fire,” said Stoffer, who now has three Gatornationals wins. “Gainesville is like my second home. I’ve spent a lot of time here; I feel really comfortable racing here and I’ve done well. When you look at that whole package, it means a lot and it’s definitely a dream come true to win and set a record at one of my favorite tracks. I love it here and it’s really nice to know we were able to cement something and say we were the first bike in the 6.60s.”