NHRA Rookie of the Year contender Ida Zetterström, who started her NHRA Top Fuel career with a first-round holeshot win over Steve Torrence, came up short in another first-round battle with Torrence at the NHRA Midwest Nationals Sunday morning at World Wide Technology Raceway. But between rain-shortened qualifying and eliminations, she made three consistent passes in her JCM/VP Racing Fuels/Edelbrock/COMP Cams/Dodge Top Fuel dragster, giving the reigning FIA European Top Fuel champion confidence going into the final three races of her rookie season.
Persistent rain washed away any chance of hitting the track on Friday, leaving Zetterström and her 18 fellow competitors with just two Saturday qualifying attempts to get into the 16-car field. With Jon Schaffer making the tuning calls, Zetterström got into the show in the No. 13 spot in her first attempt with a 3.814-second pass at 308.14 mph. She then stepped up with a 3.76 at 319.37 mph in the second and final qualifying session to move up to a career-best No. 9 position, setting up a first-round matchup with the four-time world champion for the third time in Zetterström’s five starts. Adding to the excitement, Zetterström was part of a historic field, which included four women competing in the Sunday show, a first for the NHRA Top Fuel category.
Zetterström and Torrence squared off in the first Top Fuel pairing after the national anthem on Sunday morning. Zetterström chased Torrence out of the gate, nearly matching her qualifying best with a 3.764 E.T. at 321.42 mph. Unfortunately, Torrence improved on his qualifying performance with a winning 3.726 E.T.
“Obviously, we were planning on running a little quicker on that pass,” Zetterström said. “We did find some valuable info on why that run didn’t go as planned. Obviously, it always sucks to lose. I’ve had three losses in a row now. It sucks. There’s no other way to say it. The good thing, though, is we’ve learned something from each one of them. Right now, this was a big thing for us to learn, so I feel very good about that moving on to the next race. We qualified well. This was the best qualifying spot we’ve had so far this year, then we had tough luck on race day. We’re learning and getting more data to be able to improve our program. I’m trying to get even better as a driver. We as a team are getting even tighter together. I feel like it’s just a matter of time before everything comes together and we have better results.”
Zetterström and her upstart team will return to the JCM Racing shop in Brownsburg, Ind., to prepare for their next race on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series tour, the Texas NHRA FallNationals, Oct. 11-13, at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas.
This story was originally published on September 30, 2024. 
