Early Exit for Ida Zetterström During Gatornationals Debut
GAINESVILLE, FL – Multi-time European drag racing champ Ida Zetterström will have to wait until the next event on the NHRA Mission 
Foods Drag Racing Series tour to capture her first win light of the year as the Swedish speedster bowed out in the first round of eliminations at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals on Sunday morning.
Aboard the JCM Racing Top Fuel dragster and making her Gainesville Raceway debut, Zetterström qualified her machine 13th after an abbreviated qualifying show due to persistent rain showers washing out all on-track activity on Saturday. In the weekend’s opening session, Zetterström’s machine shook early, and she ended the round in the fourteenth spot. In the second session, she took her 11,000-horsepower rail straight down the groove with a clean pass of 3.781 seconds at 316.67 mph to move one position on the ladder up to 13th. With racing canceled on Saturday, Zetterström was locked into the No. 13 position to start race day and faced Doug Kalitta in the opening round, setting up a showdown between Zetterström, the 2023 FIA European Top Fuel champ, and Kalitta, who secured his first NHRA Top Fuel title that same year. Unfortunately for Zetterström, the race would go Kalitta’s way. She stood on the throttle and her machine instantly lost traction while her opponent crossed the finish line in 5.575 seconds to score the ugly round win.
“Obviously, a very tough weekend. We only got the two qualifiers. Didn’t make it down the track on the first one and struggled with some parts on the second one. Then today, I did the burnout and even when backing up, you could see that there was no traction on the starting line,” Zetterström said, referring to the unfavorable track conditions on Sunday morning after several bouts of heavy rain.
“Watched four pairs of pedalfests in front of me before it was our turn. Hit the throttle and it was up in smoke instantly. Tried to pedal it, but the car didn’t want to settle down and I had to shut it off and watch as Doug Kalitta drove down the track. Obviously, not the best weekend for us, but also not the best weekend for me as a driver either. I feel like I can do better. My reaction times haven’t been where I want them to be, but I’ll keep working at it and hopefully soon, me and the car can become one. Despite all of that, it was good to see so many fans out here. They stuck it out despite the rain even though we didn’t make a single pass down the track on Saturday, which gave us drivers plenty of time to spend with the fans. I signed autographs for hours and so many fans stayed and hung out even though it was raining and that’s always very nice to see the support we have out here. It was also the first weekend with VP Racing as the official racing fuel of the NHRA, which is really cool. I’m proud to have them on the side of my car.”
While Zetterström’s duties behind the wheel were complete after the first elimination round, the day ended up still being a busy one for the European transplant, who jumped in to help her new JCM Racing teammate Alexis DeJoria. During the first elimination round, DeJoria suffered an engine blowup near the finish line. Crew members from both sides of the JCM Racing organization quickly sprang into action to get the team ready to make the call for round two.
“There was obviously a lot of work to do to get that team ready to go back up and race for round two in time,” Zetterström said. “Jon (Schaffer), my crew chief, got started on working on the carbon fiber on the body and we had everyone from our team pitching in. I helped change the windshield out, get a new one on, helped mix the fuel, fuel the car, and just pitched in wherever I could. And then of course we were on such a time crunch, I helped her get suited up and into the car because she had to already be in the car when we left the pit. I was just a small part of this, but it was really cool to see both teams come together like that. I don’t know how we pulled it off, but we did.”
Up next for Zetterström is the NHRA Arizona Nationals near Phoenix where she will make her Firebird Motorsports Park competition debut. It is the second of 10 scheduled events for Zetterström and her JCM Racing Top Fuel team, who are competing on a limited schedule as they seek additional funding.
Qualified: No. 13 (3.781 E.T. at 316.67 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 11.004 E.T. at 74.49 MPH defeated by Doug Kalitta 5.575 E.T. at 193.13 MPH
