Ida Zetterström Eyes Indy Reset After Early Brainerd Exit
Brainerd, MN – Heading into the weekend of the one-year anniversary of her American Top Fuel debut, multi-time European drag racing 
champion Ida Zetterström was looking to repeat the success of her 2024 Brainerd, Minn. outing, which saw her advance to the semifinals. Unfortunately for Zetterström, the JCM Racing dragster shook the tires early during the first round of eliminations on Sunday at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals while her opponent clocked his best pass of the weekend in the opposite lane to advance, ending her anniversary weekend much earlier than she had hoped.
Zetterström’s outing at Brainerd International Raceway began with a 3.877-second pass to place her third on the timing sheets after the first round of qualifying. She lost traction during Friday’s evening session, but bounced back on Saturday with a 3.829 at 325.40 mph run. A loss of traction followed in Q4, and Zetterström eventually settled into the No. 11 spot on the Brainerd Top Fuel ladder, pitting her against a tough opponent in Billy Torrence during Sunday’s first round of eliminations. Against the elder Torrence, Zetterström’s machine overpowered the track early. Her years of driving experience came into play as she successfully pedaled her red, white, and blue dragster, which sported a throwback livery from her ’24 campaign, but unfortunately for Zetterström, Torrence made a quick and clean pass in the opposite lane. Despite getting her car to quickly hook back up, Zetterström wasn’t able to chase him down as he crossed the finish line beams in 3.706 seconds to her 6.7-second pass.
“We’re frustrated right now,” said Zetterström. “We wanted more on both ends; we wanted to run quicker and put up a good fight against Billy Torrence. I pedaled, the car hooked, I felt good about my pedal job but unfortunately, when I pedaled and the car recovered, is right around the time that I saw Billy swing by me, and at that point I had to lift because there’s no sense in potentially hurting parts.
“We changed things in the car for this race. I had really hoped it was going to show in a big way, and it didn’t, but like a lot of people keep reminding me, it takes time. You don’t change something and then in one round it’s going to be an automatic fix; it takes time. It’s just not translating yet.”
Like many of the nitro-powered teams, the JCM Racing cars will remain in Brainerd through Monday to test in preparation of the upcoming NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis over Labor Day weekend.
“I’m really glad we have the opportunity to try some things tomorrow,” Zetterström added. “It’s been a while since we’ve tested. I feel like what we’re lacking is consistency. We can run well, but we need to be quicker. Even when we run our personal best, we’ve got a ways to go to be able to run with the strongest cars in the field, and that’s where we need to be in order to be competitive, qualify higher, and get round wins on race day. We need to be consistently running in the 60s when conditions allow. I know that’s what my crew chiefs are working towards, and it’s not going to happen overnight, so having opportunities to test are important – especially so for a team like ours that is still relatively new in the grand scheme of things and not able to run a full schedule on a regular basis. I was hoping this weekend was going to be our breakout event. Our goal for tomorrow is to get us to a place where we have a good baseline to work off of for Indy. Testing here last year went really well; one of the best test sessions we’ve had. So, we’re looking for tomorrow to be a good reset for us and hoping we can go into Indy with a fresh mindset and a renewed sense of confidence.”
Zetterström and the JCM Racing Top Fuel team will compete next at the NHRA U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park, Aug. 29 – Sept. 1.
Qualified: No. 11 (3.829 E.T. at 326.40 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 6.733 E.T. at 89.99 MPH defeated by Billy Torrence 3.706 E.T. at 335.73 MPH
