{"id":90617,"date":"2023-12-12T18:18:38","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T18:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/di-30-under-30-2023-jndia-erbacher\/"},"modified":"2024-01-20T23:50:55","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T23:50:55","slug":"di-30-under-30-2023-jndia-erbacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/di-30-under-30-2023-jndia-erbacher\/","title":{"rendered":"DI 30 Under 30 2023: Jndia Erbacher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jndia Erbacher was first taken to the dragstrip when she was three weeks old. Even though she grew up around motorsports, Erbacher was never really into drag racing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her hobby consisted of a different type of horsepower \u2013 horse show jumping. However, when the time came for her dad, one of the first drag racers in Switzerland, to retire after spending more than 35 years in the sport, Jndia decided to switch gears.<\/span><\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #185, the 30 Under 30 Issue, in Nov\/Dec of 2023.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe are a family team,\u201d explains Erbacher. \u201cWe don\u2019t do it for a business \u2013 we just do it out of passion as a family. It was like, if he stops racing, I will lose my racing family, so I asked him to give me a try.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Erbacher\u2019s father, Urs, immediately said no to the idea, stating that it was too dangerous. So, she went a different route to obtain her first drag racing license by asking a friend to help fund the process.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI went to my dad and said, \u2018You do it with me, or I\u2019m doing it alone,\u2019 and then he was like, \u2018OK, I\u2019ll do it with you,\u2019\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Erbacher began by getting her Super Comp license, then worked her way to a Top Alcohol Dragster license. She only competed in three races as a TAD driver and then took the step into a Top Fuel dragster.<\/span><\/p>\n

After competing in the class for several years, Erbacher\u2019s goal was to field the Top Fuel dragster for a full season. However, this year, the FIA Top Fuel racer was thrown an unexpected curveball.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was planning to do the full season after the Main Event since we were pretty good in the points,\u201d she says. \u201cThen, at the Main Event, the first race of the year, I had some very massive back pain after the last qualification around on Saturday. I was thinking it\u2019s probably just something in my back, maybe a muscle or something.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Erbacher continued to compete throughout Sunday up to the semifinals, where she was eventually eliminated. \u201cAfter the semifinals, I almost couldn\u2019t get out of the car,\u201d she confesses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The 29-year-old returned home and was still thinking the pain was muscle-related. However, after a week of no relief, she went to the doctor for X-rays, and it turned out she had a fractured vertebra in her spine.<\/span><\/p>\n

After only two and a half months, Erbacher returned to racing and competed at the NitrOlympX at the Hockenheim Motodrom. At the end of the 2023 season, she finished third in the FIA championship points.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, her plan for the future is to chase a championship in Europe. However, Erbacher has to juggle her full-time student status, a full-time job, and securing funding. Plus, the Erbacher team still has the dragster she licensed in stored with the Lagana family in the U.S., with hopes to run a few races stateside this coming year as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said, we are a family team. All of us are doing this in our free time,\u201d she concludes. \u201cAll of my crew has a full-time job, and I know how much effort this is. I really want to thank them and my dad and mom. I know I wouldn\u2019t be here without them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The post DI 30 Under 30 2023: Jndia Erbacher<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jndia Erbacher was first taken to the dragstrip when she was three weeks old. Even though she grew up around motorsports, Erbacher was never really into drag racing.\u00a0 Her hobby consisted of a different type of horsepower \u2013 horse show jumping. However, when the time came for her dad, one of the first drag racers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,78117,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-race-pages","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91155,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90617\/revisions\/91155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}