Erin did not succeed in her first attempt to qualify as a race pilot. She is an athlete and airline pilot (retired a few years ago as a senior 767 Captain) but not military trained, so had limited experience with aerobatics and formation work, She went home and practiced extensively, flew a lot of formation, and passed easily in her next attempt. In the first shot here she is being debriefed after her successful test by the Unlimited check pilot, the legendary Neil Anderson. Neil is ex- military and a long time test and demonstration pilot for General Dynamics. He is famous for his F-16 demos at places like the Paris Air Show back in the day. He also won Reno in Dreadnought in 1983.
Erin first raced at an event outside of Denver, Colorado in the summer of 1990.. Saturday went fine and she looked good (second photo). On Sunday things went sour, with a massive engine failure (broken connecting rod putting a hole in the crankcase) in a bad position on the course -- going away from the only usable runway. She made the runway just fine -- a little hot and far down the runway. Erin handled it all perfectly -- heavy braking without dinging the prop -- and got it stopped in a pool of oil by the end of the runway.
Check out the windshield in the last (post engine failure) photo here. She did not have much visibility at all through that oil coated windscreen. After Denver 1990 there were no more questions about Erin as a race pilot.