Ida Zetterstrom, who has been patiently waiting for the parts and personnel pertinent to running any Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series Top Fuel car, will make her debut at Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota on August 16-18, driving the JCM/VP Racing/Edelbrock/CompCams dragster, the JCM team announced.
While she’s spent much of this year as an adjunct to the JCM team running a Top Fuel dragster for Tony Schumacher, patiently waiting for all the parts and pieces to fall in place, Zetterstrom, the reigning 2023 FIA Top Fuel champion has been testing at both Firebird Motorsports Park and on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Once she’s competed at Brainerd, Zetterstrom joins Schumacher on the NHRA’s – and all of drag racing’s – biggest stage as she contests the 70th annual NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis over the Labor Day weekend, an event that closes out the Mission Foods “regular” season before the Countdown to the Championship contenders are named and begin their six-race dash for a 2024 title.
“I’m so excited to share that I’ll finally be hitting the track at Brainerd and will be competing alongside my teammate, Tony Schumacher in the final eight of 20 races on the schedule this year,” Zetterstrom said. The Swedish racer, who relocated to the Indianapolis area in January noted, “I’ve been champing at the bit to share my first race date, but we wanted to wait until we had it completely buttoned up first.”
In an attempt to earn NHRA’s 2024 Rookie of the Year award, Zetterstrom will join the balance of the Top Fuel field for the six-race Countdown that culminates in Pomona, California this November.
Zetterstrom’s team is a ground-up affair, and it’s been a chore for the JCM Racing team to put together the equipment, trucks and team to finally put her on the track. “We’re building this team from scratch,” she noted, “and there’s a lot that goes into that. In addition to building a car and figuring out a crew, we have to stock our parts inventory, trucks and trailers need to be purchased and outfitted as fully stocked race rigs, wraps need to be designed, approved and installed. The list goes on and on, but I’m glad that we finally have that Brainerd date confirmed because now the countdown is on – 86 days!”
In addition to the partners cited above, she’ll have support from the Dodge brand. Zetterstrom had a previous relationship with the overseas operation of Dodge, the iconic muscle car manufacturer, as she’s been a European brand ambassador for the marque over the past year.
“I love being affiliated with Dodge and representing American muscle car culture in Europe,” she said. “Last month, I flew to the Netherlands to take in the full FIM Superbike World Championship experience as a guest of Dodge. I made the first lap before Saturday’s Race 1 in my Challenger SRT Hellcat, and I also participated in the award ceremonies of the Superpole. My experience,” she revealed, will be documented in the first episode of the latest season of IN/OUT, a Dodge Europe series that fans can catch on the Dodge Official YouTube page.”
As a brand ambassador both in Europe and in the United States, Dodge will provide Zetterstrom and her team with off-track vehicle support and social media exposure throughout the balance of this year’s 20-race NHRA season. She will participate in driver autograph sessions with Leah Pruett, Matt Hagan, Tony Stewart and Cruz Pedregon, all Dodge NHRA racers. At Brainerd, her dragster, helmet and fire suit will all carry the Dodge logo, thereby showing her ties with the brand that’s so involved in drag racing’s culture.
Not only is the build-up of a race car and attendant parts critical to Zetterstrom’s success on the eight circuits where she’ll be racing later this season, but the crew choice is paramount to making sure she’s successful.
“Jon Schaffer, who currently serves as Tony Schumacher’s co-crew chief alongside Mike Neff and the team have been working tirelessly to get everything ready for my Brainerd debut,” Zetterstrom announced. “Jon will be moving over to my team full-time starting in Brainerd, so it’s been great that we’ve been able to spend this time getting to know each other before just going full throttle with this whole operation,” as she’s attended all six NHRA Mission Foods races held thus far.
As a member of the JCM Racing team, “I’m right there with the team at the shop helping whenever I can, and at the track I mix the fuel before every one of Tony’s runs and jump in as an extra set of hands whenever needed. Being able to travel with the team and work alongside them at the shop has been great, because I have been able to develop such strong relationships with all of them and have felt extremely comfortable and trusting in them during those first few test days.”
Once she completes her eight-race 2024 stint piloting the JCM/VP Racing/Edelbrock/CompCams Top Fuel dragster, Zetterstrom intends to run the full 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule. Prior to her competition debut in mid-August, Zetterstrom is slated to complete at least two more tests.
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