History could be made this weekend at drag racing's most historic venue as Erica Enders-Stevens attempts to clinch the first Pro Stock championship for a female driver in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
The 50th annual NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California, wraps up a hard-fought campaign in which female drivers have often starred. Enders-Stevens took over the lead of the Pro Stock standings with a victory two weeks ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, her fifth win in a breakout 2014 campaign. She leads two-time Pro Stock champion Jason Line by 17 points.
Dave Connolly (minus-84) and Shane Gray (minus-111) also remain in contention. A driver could score a maximum of 150 points at Pomona, but that would require sweeping all qualifying sessions and setting a national record for elapsed time.
It's been a remarkable season in general for the cadre of female drag racers, with Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force each posting multiple victories in the Funny Car class. But it's Enders-Stevens who has the chance to join Shirley Muldowney (a three-time Top Fuel champion) and Angelle Sampey (Pro Stock Motorcycle, also with three titles) as true NHRA history-makers.
"At the end of the day I guess it would be very awesome to be able to make history," Enders-Stevens said. "It would just show any other female that maybe even had a little bit of doubt that they weren't capable or whatever that I'm a perfect example of a normal kid, through hard work and certainly surrounding myself with the right people and having such a solid support group, that anything is possible.
"I hope that's the message that comes across to them."
Enders-Stevens has gotten to the brink of a championship despite skipping several midseason events to conserve resources for the Countdown to the Championship. Her Elite Motorsports Camaro is run by the father-son tandem of Rick and Rickie Jones.
"It's definitely an interesting and awesome position to be in," she said. "But I try to just stay calm about it and focus on just one round, one at a time, and just going after it and doing our best -- and having fun, most importantly."
But first she'll have to overcome Line, who parlayed a three-race win streak into the points lead for most of the season before ceding the top spot to Enders-Stevens at Las Vegas.
Enders-Stevens prevailed in a key head-to-head matchup in the semis at Vegas after Line jumped the start.
Line has three career wins at Pomona, including the 2014 season opener, and has qualified No. 1 on four occasions, including three times for the NHRA Finals. His championships came in 2006 and 2011.
"Last year, we came to this race 71 points back, and we really had no chance," Line said. "To come into this race 17 points out of the lead this time around is nothing -- it's a single round."
He added: "Our approach is pretty simple, really. We're going there to win the race. The Summit Racing team certainly has the ability to do that. Anything is possible, and I feel really good about this weekend."
The championship race is similarly tight in Funny Car, where Matt Hagan leads John Force by 21 points. Courtney Force is 121 points back in third.
John Force is vying for his record 17th Funny Car title despite parting ways with crew chief Jimmy Prock just prior to Las Vegas. Prock joined the rival Don Schumacher Racing organization to tune cars driven by Jack Beckman.
Force has also been distracted by efforts to replace his longtime sponsor Castrol and his manufacturer affiliation with Ford.
"I want to win this championship for my partner of 29 years, Castrol, and the Ford Motor Company, who's been with me for 11 years," Force said. "They're moving on and I'd like to bring that title home like the others."
DSR driver Hagan, who won the 2011 Funny Car title, has emerged as Force's most serious rival in recent years.
"Me and John have been battling it out, four years out of the last five of my career, and John has won two, I've won one," Hagan said. "And I'm planning on winning this one. We are still a very, very hungry team. I think that we've grown together, and we're driven to go out and get this thing done.
"Pomona has been really good to me," he added. "I've been able to win it several times, and I really look forward to getting out there and crawling in this race car. We can talk about it until I'm blue in the face, but when push comes to shove, it's crawling in the race car and making it happen."
In Top Fuel, DSR's Tony Schumacher is on the verge of his eighth championship. The U.S. Army-sponsored driver holds a 109-point advantage over his teammate Spencer Massey. J.R. Todd, Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta are within 135 points and retain remote title hopes.
Schumacher's last championship came in 2009 when he capped a run of six consecutive. Since then he endured a two-year winless streak (2010-12) but bounced back strongly this year, winning three of the first five Countdown events.
DSR has swept all five Countdown events in 2014.
"I feel great," Schumacher said. "I've gone into this last event several times with either a one-point lead or behind the eight ball, so it's a good place to be. When you come in with a big lead, you've won already, in a sense. You've done a great job and your car has done what it has had to do to get this lead.
"I just hope I step up and the Army car goes as fast as it can, and we win this event and show why we're the champs. We have to continue living up to what the Army car is supposed to do."
The Pro Stock Motorcycle title is also in little doubt, as Andrew Hines leads his Harley-Davidson teammate Eddie Krawiec by 92 points.
In addition to the championship crown, Hines is seeking his seventh race win of the season.
"You don't get a chance to win these big annual races very often," Hines said. "I missed out at the 50th U.S. Nationals a decade ago, so it would be great to win here. You win a 50th anniversary race, you get that special Wally and it's something that's remembered for a long time. It would be nice to cap off the year with a win like that and I'm really looking forward to the weekend."
Hines won three consecutive PSM titles from 2004-06 and is thrilled to be on the cusp of another.
"It's been a long road to get back to this point," he said. "I won three championships when I was a naïve, young kid. You really realize what it takes to win a championship after all these years. This one would definitely mean the most if I got it.
"It's great to have the opportunity, and to pull it off would be phenomenal."