NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel fan favorite Ida Zetterström is leaving Arizona with newfound confidence after making positive forward progress behind the wheel of her JCM Racing dragster this weekend at the NHRA Arizona Nationals. The sophomore driver made her Firebird Motorsports Park debut this weekend in front of sold-out crowds.
After a lackluster start to qualifying on Friday afternoon, Zetterström clocked an impressive pass of 3.763 seconds at 327.03 mph in the second round of qualifying. Just moments after crossing the finish line, however, the engine let go and lit up the sky with an explosion.
The JCM Racing team leaped into action and worked to get the car performance-ready before an early qualifying session on Saturday morning. Zetterström had a good-looking pass early on in the third qualifying opportunity of the weekend, but hazed the tires a little after half-track, slowing her down to record a pass of 4.140 at 219.79. On Saturday afternoon, the European world champion showed fans what she’s made of when she sped to a fierce run of 3.897 at 322.65 in the heat of the day.
From the ninth place on the competition ladder, Zetterström faced No. 6 qualifier Justin Ashley in the first round of eliminations on Sunday. Ashley got the starting line advantage over Zetterström, but she stayed hot on his tail to the finish line. While Ashley turned on the win light, Zetterström is buoyed by her team’s overall performance this weekend in Arizona.
“Overall I think we had a strong weekend,” said Zetterström. “We ran well in qualifying and found a lot of things we’ve been looking for, for a while. So, it was a good progress weekend. We did have an explosion in Q2 right before the finish line but the numbers up until then looked like they had the potential to be really good. Even today, on race day, we put down a strong run. It’s quite a hot track out here and we just didn’t have enough facing Justin Ashley. He had a little more than I did on both ends of the track.
“It’s hard to lose again. I feel like I’ve gotten good at losing and I don’t like it. But at the same time, I feel like we made really good progress. We had great turnarounds; we made good runs with the car and good data. So, I feel very good moving into Pomona because this was the kind of progress we wanted to see in Gainesville but couldn’t find because of the tricky conditions. Now I feel like we got the right start to the season to keep going.
“We are rolling into Pomona with some newfound confidence. We had some brand-new stuff in the car this week that I’d never used before. And I feel like it’s getting better and better, I just need some more runs to dial it in. When we can get that together, it’s going to be good.”
The JCM Racing team will head directly to Pomona, Calif. for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, March 28-30.
This story was originally published on March 24, 2025. 
