Swedish drag racer Ida Zetterström has had a surplus of new things to become acquainted with since moving halfway around the world and settling in the United States a few months ago.
One of the first lessons she learned was in the laundry room.
“Apparently, you need to have dryer sheets when you use your dryer, otherwise everything comes out static,” Zetterström said with a laugh.
Not to mention, people also drive “a little differently” on the streets of Brownsburg, Ind., where she now lives — opposed to her former residence in Jomla, Aland Islands, Finland.
“We got hit by a car like the third day we were here,” she recalled.
Not to worry, though, because Zetterström finds home the moment she sets foot at the drag strip or spends time in the shop of JCM Racing, the team she’ll soon be driving for in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.
After all, that’s the reason she made the 4,000-mile move.
Zetterström took home championship honors in the FIA European Championship last season as a third-year Top Fuel driver, stockpiling four wins en route to the title.
That championship drive was the final straw in pushing the 29-year-old to flip the switch and pursue her NHRA dreams in the United States.
She signed with JCM Racing — a Top Fuel operation owned by Joe Maynard — last December and moved to Brownsburg soon after to help speed up her familiarization with the team.
As JCM Racing currently fields eight-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher, it was easy for Zetterström to immerse herself in the team, working daily in the shop and also playing a role on race weekends while she bides her time until her NHRA debut.
“I mix fuel for Tony (Schumacher’s) car and help out with other things,” Zetterström explained. “Since I work full time with the team now, I’ll be at every (national) event up until I race.”
It was recently announced that the European champion will be making her first Top Fuel appearance in mid-August at Minnesota’s Brainerd Int’l Raceway during the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals.
The national event will be the first of eight races Zetterström will run with JCM Racing this year. Jon Schaffer, who currently serves as co-crew chief for Schumacher, will move over to crew chief Zetterström’s car for the final stretch of the season.
The little-known reality is that the big details have been settled for a while. So, if that’s the case, what has been the hold up with getting Zetterström on track?
“The thing is that we’re building this team. This was not a team that had a car already sitting, waiting to find a driver. This is a team that’s building this opportunity around me as a driver,” Zetterström said.
The modest, family-owned operation has been working overtime to build a backup car, with that being one of the biggest boxes to check off the list. Beyond that, there are still a lot of dominoes that need to fall.
“We’re having tools and parts and everything come in — we’re building engines, setting everything up so that way we are ready to really hit the ground running when we come out,” Zetterström explained.
So, it’s not a matter of finding funding or Zetterström not being ready — it truly is the fact that JCM is having to build everything from scratch. Schumacher’s crew is essentially pulling double duty in order to lay the groundwork for their sister Top Fuel team.
While she waits, Zetterström has been able to scratch the racing itch through testing, though even that process was a bit delayed.
JCM had originally planned for Zetterström to climb in the car during the season opener at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway to throw down a few passes, but NHRA rules made it clear that unless she was competing in the national event, she couldn’t test.
That pushed her first test to Firebird Motorsports Park in Chandler, Ariz., a few weeks later.
“Just feeling how this car reacts in comparison to the car I’m used to in Europe … there are differences, but not the kind some people think,” Zetterström said. “People think that over here the cars go a little quicker and you feel a difference in speed, but that’s not really it. It’s more (based on) how the car reacts, how the brakes feel, how your steering inputs are taken by the car and all of that.”
That may be true, but it’s worth taking a moment to note the difference in speed between European and U.S. drag racing competition.
Zetterström currently holds the European speed record with a 3.77-second pass at 321 mph. During her very first test session with JCM, she flew down the quarter mile in 3.74 seconds at 329 mph, a new personal best.
For added perspective, the fastest run in Top Fuel history is 338.48 mph — a record set by Brittany Force during her championship season in 2022.
Regardless, Zetterström is adamant that speed is not the biggest adjustment.
“It’s not like you can feel a huge amount of difference in that. For me, it’s more that you can feel if it was a good pass and if it was a clean pass,” she said.
The test session in Phoenix also marked the first time Zetterström drove a canopy car, which lessens the noise in the cockpit and also narrows her line of vision.
Despite the handful of differences, Zetterström said she already felt at “one with the car” during her second test session, which was held at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
As she counts the days until her official debut at Brainerd, Zetterström has been able to reflect on how her journey started — and oddly enough, how it began on two wheels.
After entering the junior dragster ranks at 8 years old and dabbling in Super Comp as a teenager, Zetterström started her professional drag racing career by steering a motorcycle in the European Super Street Bike series.
She then became the first woman to conquer the series championship in 2019.
But it wasn’t enough for Zetterström, who had higher ambitions for her career.
“Around the time I started racing on a high level with bikes, seven to 10 years ago, I knew that I wanted to come to the U.S. and race,” Zetterström said.
And so, the ever-determined Swede set her sights on running Top Fuel — a dream that had taken root in her mind as a young girl.
In 2021, she obtained her FIA license with the eventual hope of moving overseas to compete in NHRA’s prestigious Top Fuel class. Two years later, Zetterström took a gamble and inked a deal with JCM Racing without knowing exactly what her future looked like.
And now, it’s finally starting to take shape.
“There’s a lot of things over here that are a little different that I’m getting used to, but racing wise, everything feels really good and I’m very happy I’m here,” Zetterström said.
THIS ARTICLE IS REPOSTED FROM THE June 26 EDITION OF SPEED SPORT INSIDER
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