Team Enders working hard on summertime set-up

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (June 19) -- Veteran crew chief David Nickens of Houston
was reminded of a very harsh lesson in the first race of the summer --
professional qualifying for a POWERade Drag Racing Series national event can
oftentimes come down to one do-or-die session.

NHRA traditionally schedules just one nighttime qualifying session during a
race weekend, and when you tune a carbureted Pro Stock car that is sensitive
to weather conditions and temperature changes, that round under the lights
is usually the one where a driver needs to post the pass that will put them
into Sunday's starting line up.

"The numbers speak for themselves," said Nickens, a former world champion
with more than 30 years of drag racing experience. "Take the last race in
Chicago, which is really the first race where we had much hotter
temperatures when the sun was out. Only three drivers made runs in the other
three qualifying sessions that would have been good enough to make the
field. Everyone else got in on Friday night. That says it all."

Unfortunately for Nickens and his driver, popular female professional Erica
Enders, they didn't make a representative run in Round 2, and ultimately
failed to make the cut-off for Sunday's racing action.

"We got behind in Round 1 when we broke the transmission and couldn't make a
run," Nickens said. "That made us the first car up in the evening session
and we went up there with virtually no data. The car shook the tires and the
run was lost and that pretty much ruined the weekend right there.

"You only get four passes at a race so you can't afford to give any of them
up, which is what we've been doing. And now that it's hot, you have to make
darn sure you are 100-percent prepared for that Friday night run. I don't
like it, none of us in Pro Stock do, but it's a reality and it's what we're
going to be dealing with for the rest of the summer."

Nickens and Enders hope a new Jerry Haas racecar, built specifically to
Enders' specifications, will help them find the consistency they need to be
prepared.

"The car's showing promise in testing and Erica is definitely driving it
better because she feels right in there," Nickens said. "For some reason we
have a lot of downforce at the top end with this car and that's cutting into
our E.T.'s a little bit but we're working on that.

"We have the people, the driver, the horsepower, and the car to qualify and
win rounds out here. We just need to get our stuff together and start
showing everyone else that we're capable of doing this week-in and week-out.
Hopefully, it starts this weekend."

Enders begins the first of six races in six weekends starting Friday at Old
Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey, the site of the 38th annual
ProCare Rx NHRA SuperNationals presented by R2B2 Motors.