The second round of the NHRA playoffs did not disappoint fans in St Louis who turned out in droves to watch the action over a warm weekend in late September. At the end of the weekend it was a foursome of Karen Stoffer, Erica Enders, Shawn Langdon, and Billy Torrence standing tall in the winner’s circle.
They were the racers who did what all the rest failed to do, avoid upsets, mechanical failures, and straight up performance gaffes that cost them the race. It was the first time in history that women won both of the pro stock classes at the same race, which was pretty cool. There was a shot for a three woman winner’s circle for a while, until Leah Pritchett was eliminated in later round competition.
For Karen Stoffer, the winless drought had lasted some four years. Her riding has been brilliant in 2019 and with the horsepower that the team has underneath her, she’s a threat to continue winning. As you will see below, the final round was a real squeaker with Karen nosing out Andrew Hines by minuscule fractions of a second.
In pro stock car, Erica Enders finally exercised whatever demons were haunting that team, beating Matt Hartford in a final round and overcoming weird lucky that started tanning the team in Seattle and continued right through Maple Grove. That’s over and the car looks as strong as the driver, grabbing the number one qualifying spot along with the win.
Shawn Langdon had an amazing weekend in his Global Electronic Technology Camry bodied funny car basically hitting for the drag racing cycle. He won on hole shots, he out ran people, and he out-pedaled them as well. Truly a well rounded weekend for the team and their win raised them much higher in the championship standings as the tour moves to Charlotte in two weeks.
Finally it was Billy Torrence facing off against his son Steve in the final round of top fuel. The two cars and drivers that did not escape the first round at Maple Grove were 100% turned around and looking as strong as ever in St Louis. An internal personnel shuffle appears to have been the ticket to righting the Capco Contractors ship. It will be fun to see those two guys slice and dice through the last four races of the season.
