Ida Zetterström might not be well-known yet to American drag-racing fans. 

But the Scandinavian Top Fuel phenom, who is visiting the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park this weekend, said she “was hoping one day I can come over here and do some racing. That would be definitely the dream." 

"It's my first year at [the U.S.] Nationals,” Zetterström said. “We've been to some of the NHRA events, but never U.S. Nationals before." Getting the chance to race here in a dragster one day, she said, “would be something just extraordinary. I mean, Indy's the biggest one you can do.” 

The intimidation factor of racing at this history-laden facility, she figured, wouldn’t be all that great. 

“I mean, I would be a rookie, but I'm a rookie in Europe, too. And to race with people that are better than you and have more experience, that's how you grow. So I think you should never be afraid of racing with people that have more experience. That's what will get you better." 

What struck Zetterström when she got her first glimpse of this event was its size and scope: "It's so big, so many cars. Also, when it's going on for so many days . . . I mean, for us, there's some fantastic racing going on in Europe, but we don't have the car counts that you guys have over here, and it's spectacular." 

Zetterström, 28, born in Stockholm, Sweden, and living in the Aland Islands of Finland, has an impressive resume already.  

Just two years after she started racing in the class Super Street Bike, the European version of the U.S. class Pro Street Bike in 2017, she won the Scandinavian championship. She was the first woman to do so. 

Zetterström grew up spending time in her Pro Stock and Pro Modified drag-racing dad’s shop and tagged along and observed as he worked for other teams, as well. She started her own driving career at age eight in a Jr. Dragster and at 16 earned her Super Comp license. 

However, she said, "I always dreamed of running Top Fuel since I was a little kid. I ran Juniors since I was eight, and then I moved over to Super Comp bike. I had a racing bike for about six, seven years. But Top Fuel was always still the dream, and I worked on it in the background. I contacted Rune Fjeld  Motorsport and asked if we could start working on license and Rune put me in one of the cars, and we licensed. And from there, it goes." 

She did say that she never has “been in a canopy car, so I will only race the open cars. I would be in whatever I'm able to get in." 

In Indy, she was a spectator, and she said, “Well, it's not easy coming as a spectator, but I mean, to come to Indy [with] 25 Top Fuel [cars], everything . . .  I can't complain.”