 Erica Enders |  Courtney Force |  Alexis DeJoria |
 Leah Pritchett |  Shirley Muldowney |
The popular annual event at the SEMA Show, which has showcased many of NHRA’s legendary drivers, team owners and other characters within the sport, has grown into a must-attend affair for SEMA Show attendees and this year’s program promises to continue that tradition. NHRA will bring together some of its most successful women in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and they will discuss their memories and legacies.
Enders is the defending Pro Stock world champion, having won her title in dramatic fashion over Jason Line at the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals. The win made her only the third female driver to win an NHRA professional championship. She has 19 career victories, including this year’s Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, which puts her second on the all-time wins list by women behind only Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Angelle Sampey.
Force, the youngest daughter of 16-time Funny Car world champ John Force, is creating her own legacy in Funny Car. She has seven career victories, cementing her as the winningest female Funny Car driver ever. Force is also the only female Funny Car driver to record four wins in a season. Her biggest win came in 2013 when she won the season-opening Circle K NHRA Winternationals. Force was also the 2012 Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award winner.
DeJoria has also made a name for herself in the Funny Car ranks. The daughter of Paul Mitchell Hair Care Products and Patron Tequila owner John Paul DeJoria, DeJoria is a three-time winner in the Mello Yello Series. She made history in 2014, becoming the second female in Funny Car to win the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. DeJoria also became the first Funny Car female to run a sub-three-second pass, achieving the feat at the season-opening event in Pomona in 2014.
Pritchett is a name to watch in the future in Top Fuel. She has started to make consistent runs on her part-time team and her talent is immense. She reached her first career final this year in Atlanta and was narrowly defeated. A former Nostalgia Funny Car world champion, a junior dragster racer and always a crowd favorite, Pritchett is on track to become a major player in NHRA Drag Racing.
Muldowney is a name that will forever be etched in the history of motorsports. Racing in a time when a woman in drag racing was nonexistent, Muldowney rewrote the rule book of successful women in racing. She scored three world championships and 18 career victories, cementing her legacy alongside the greats of “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Kenny Bernstein.
The NHRA Breakfast at the SEMA Show will be held Wednesday, November 4, from 7:30 a.m.–9:00 a.m. at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino (formerly the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino [LVH]) Paradise Events Center South. The NHRA Breakfast is open to all registered SEMA Show attendees. A continental breakfast will be served.
The panel will be moderated by longtime NHRA announcer Bob Frey. Following the NHRA Breakfast, all of the special panel guests will be at the NHRA Booth signing autographs and handing out limited-edition autograph cards from 10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. DeJoria’s Patron XO Cafe Incendio Toyota Camry Funny Car will also be on display at the booth.
This event is open to all registered SEMA Show attendees at no cost; however, tickets are required. To order your event ticket or register for the show, visit the SEMA Show website and click “Add Event Tickets.”