David Frieburger
Category
đźš—
MotorTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Welcome, everybody.
00:08 It's another episode of the Hot Rod Pod, Where It All Began.
00:10 Brian Lone's lead broadcaster for the NHRA.
00:13 John McGann, the editor-in-chief of Hot Rod magazine.
00:15 John, we're back at the PRI show.
00:17 I corralled Fry Burger for this episode,
00:19 but we're talking to Ida Zetterstrom.
00:21 And why is that cool?
00:22 It's cool because if I top fuel champion,
00:25 I'd never met her before, but super poised, really cool
00:28 person, and she's coming to NHRA race for next year.
00:31 Yeah, she is.
00:32 She's landed a contract with JCM Racing
00:34 to race in the NHRA series in top fuel,
00:36 something very few European champions have ever
00:39 been able to do.
00:40 She has a breath of fresh air in the sport,
00:41 and she's the subject of this episode of Hot Rod Pod.
00:44 Hey, everybody.
00:45 Welcome to this episode of the Hot Rod Pod, Where It All
00:47 Began.
00:48 I'm your host, Brian Lone, who, other than doing this job,
00:51 is also the lead broadcaster for the NHRA drag racing series.
00:54 I'm joined by one very interesting person
00:56 and David Fry Burger.
00:57 And me as well.
00:58 Thank you, Brian.
00:59 I appreciate it.
01:00 The super interesting person is Ida Zetterstrom,
01:02 who is a 2023 FIA Top Fuel World Champion.
01:05 And as we make this show at the 2023 PRI show,
01:09 Ida has kind of broken the internet this week as well.
01:12 She had an absolutely fantastic day yesterday,
01:14 almost one year from having met me,
01:16 which I think is critical, at least to my part of the podcast.
01:19 She regrets that.
01:20 Exactly.
01:20 Is that she did get a top fuel ride here in the United States
01:23 for NHRA with Joe Maynard Racing.
01:25 Yeah.
01:27 Yesterday was a huge day for me.
01:28 And something I've been waiting for for a good while.
01:30 It felt like a huge relief after letting this news out.
01:34 Because holding a secret like that isn't that easy.
01:36 And we're going to get into that over the course of the show.
01:39 Because Ida, if you need somebody
01:41 to hold data inside themselves that is important and critical
01:44 not to be released, this woman did the seemingly impossible
01:47 in drag racing, which is to keep a big secret for about a couple
01:51 of months, right?
01:52 It hasn't actually been that long
01:54 since I had to sit and hold on this precious secret.
01:57 But long enough for me to feel like it needs to come out.
02:01 So there are no secrets in the traveling circus
02:03 that is the NHRA.
02:04 And you had it locked down tight.
02:06 Thank you.
02:07 And so David, I think before we get
02:08 into really talking about Ida, I think
02:10 we need to kind of set up why this is such a kind
02:12 of a magnificent story.
02:14 And why it kind of defies the odds in a whole lot of ways.
02:17 Because you and I know, but maybe you don't at home,
02:19 like the expense to run a top fuel
02:22 dragster in the United States is just enormous.
02:25 These teams have million dollar, multi-million dollar budgets.
02:27 These cars are $100,000 plus a weekend to operate typically.
02:31 And Ida's been doing it in Europe,
02:33 where everything is way more expensive.
02:35 And it's much tougher to do.
02:36 So I think the reason that we're both excited to talk to her
02:39 is because this story is really one for the ages.
02:42 I also like it because it's the American dream,
02:45 having been executed in Europe and then brought here.
02:48 It's absolutely perfect.
02:49 So let's start, I guess, with her background,
02:51 which begins, surprisingly enough for me,
02:53 with junior dragsters, which I didn't know was a program
02:55 there.
02:56 Yeah, yes.
02:56 I started in junior dragster when I was eight.
02:58 My dad built me a car, and that's where we started.
03:01 I know right now you can actually
03:02 be even younger than eight.
03:03 But when I started, eight, that was the age.
03:06 Did that, of course, when you were 12.
03:08 You could run a modified dragster, moved up a class.
03:11 I actually ran Lissy Mewsey's old dragster from over here.
03:14 How cool is that?
03:14 Yeah, patch it that on over.
03:16 So that was cool.
03:17 Ran that for several years.
03:19 When I was 16, I was able to license in Super Comp
03:22 with a team called Quarter Mile Racing over in Europe.
03:25 So they had purchased a car from over here in US, took it over.
03:28 Their daughters were licensing in it.
03:30 And my dad helped them out with bringing the car over from US.
03:34 And when the daughters had license, my dad said, get in.
03:36 And that was--
03:38 I think I had just turned 16.
03:40 I was a little bit too small for that car.
03:42 So I had a garden chair pillow behind my back and underneath.
03:46 This was before we had the hybrid devices and so on.
03:50 So it was just my moped helmet and my uni dragster suit.
03:54 And I did a licensing process.
03:56 I had to do it twice, though, because when I did it
03:58 the first time, I ran a, let's see, 820.
04:02 And you were only allowed to do 890 in Super Comp.
04:05 And not lower than that when you were 16.
04:07 So I had to come back and do it again and go a little slower.
04:10 But no, that was a great time.
04:12 They let me run the car a few times.
04:14 I never competed in Super Comp.
04:16 But I got to run the car a few times on some events.
04:19 And then I had a few years off, actually,
04:21 where I didn't really know what to do.
04:23 I didn't have the money to go and race by myself.
04:27 And of course, being in school.
04:29 So that was a tough time.
04:31 But then I started doing bikes a few years later.
04:33 Yeah, so the motorcycle deal, to me, is very interesting.
04:36 Because motorcycle drag racing in the United States
04:39 is popular, but it's a pretty underappreciated subset
04:43 of the sport.
04:44 My understanding in Europe, profile-wise, though,
04:46 is that motorcycles get a little bit more attention
04:47 than maybe we give them here.
04:48 Oh, absolutely.
04:49 And I mean, over here, there's many events
04:51 that are just motorcycles.
04:52 I mean, I came over here in 2018 to run a man cup event
04:55 over here, and there was only bikes.
04:57 A lot of bikes, really impressive.
04:59 But over where we run, the bikes run in the same series
05:03 as the car, just the same as a pro stock bike
05:05 does over in NHRA.
05:07 And the class that I ran, Super Street Bike, was a pro class.
05:10 So the same way as pro stock bike is a pro class over here,
05:12 we have Super Street Bike over in Europe being a pro class.
05:16 And to give the audience context of this,
05:18 I think you ran 6.88 on the bike, first woman into the sixes.
05:22 And it's a 200 mile an hour bike, no wheelie bars.
05:25 Yeah, no wheelie bars, street tires.
05:27 In Europe, we have a rule that it
05:29 has to be a 68 inch wheel base.
05:30 I know that there's a class over here in the US that's
05:32 called Pro Street Bike.
05:33 That was a class that I ran when I came over here.
05:35 They have a little bit different rule book.
05:37 You can usually have a longer swing arm than that.
05:39 Most of them are a little bit above 70 inches or so on.
05:44 So it is a little bit different rules over in Europe.
05:46 But yeah, it's very cool.
05:48 I mean, it's 750 horsepower turbo bikes on a street tire,
05:51 no wheelie bars.
05:53 If you want to see action, go see that class.
05:55 High wheelies, you get good at doing wheelies.
05:59 Wow.
06:00 Where did you make your first six second run?
06:03 I did it in Finland.
06:03 So the year before, we won the championship in 2019.
06:07 And then I was just at the edge of running that six.
06:10 I ran a 7.01, 7.02, 7.03, 7.01.
06:14 And people said, oh, it's coming soon.
06:15 It's coming soon.
06:16 And you're like, yeah, don't tell me.
06:19 So that was the last race of the year in 2019.
06:22 And we were that close.
06:24 We went back, and we did a whole new setup on the bike.
06:26 And we expected it to take a little while before we found it.
06:29 First race in Finland the year after.
06:31 It was COVID times then, so we were only
06:33 allowed to run in Finland.
06:34 We did a short season over there.
06:35 But first race over there, we ran our first six.
06:37 So that was a 6.98 on that event.
06:40 Came back on second event in Finland and ran a 6.88 and 6.89.
06:45 And I think for our audience listening to clarify the accent,
06:47 you're born in Sweden, live in Finland currently.
06:49 Yes.
06:50 So I speak Swedish normally.
06:51 I don't speak any Finnish.
06:53 But yeah, I live on an island between Sweden and Finland.
06:55 And it's a Finnish island.
06:57 And that was also when there was COVID times
06:59 and everything shut down, we were only
07:00 allowed to race in Finland.
07:01 Since we were on a Finnish island,
07:03 we were not allowed to cross the border.
07:05 So we went over there and raced.
07:06 And when we ran that 6.88, that was at the time
07:09 the second quickest in Europe.
07:11 So it was a really big deal.
07:13 It was definitely quickest ever in Scandinavia.
07:16 And right now, those numbers doesn't hold up anymore
07:18 because there's been quicker bikes.
07:20 We're still in the top 10 several years later.
07:22 So I think it's very cool.
07:23 And nonetheless, I think 2017 championship on the bike.
07:26 Is that right?
07:27 No, 2019 we won the bike.
07:29 2019?
07:29 Yes.
07:30 And then we won, of course-- we won the Finnish championship
07:32 in 2020.
07:33 But that was a really small championship.
07:34 But the funny thing with the 2020 season
07:36 was that the guy that I was battling out
07:38 for championship in 2019, he's also Finnish.
07:41 So we were able to battle it out one year after.
07:44 So that was really cool.
07:45 You were concurrently licensing in Top Fuel then?
07:47 No, I started my licensing process in Top Fuel in '21.
07:50 So I did the season in Finland in 2020 when it was COVID.
07:54 And we were very much still aiming
07:55 on doing a full season on the bike in 2021 in Europe.
07:59 But as that season didn't happen,
08:02 they kept saying, oh, that race is canceled.
08:05 That race is canceled.
08:06 We moved over to just focusing on Top Fuel.
08:10 So before we move on to the Top Fuel step,
08:13 running for a championship and competing
08:15 at the level you did in the motorcycle,
08:17 was that the first exposure you had
08:18 to how drag racing can get serious in terms of--
08:23 the relationships can get complicated, right?
08:24 When all of a sudden, you become somebody that's fast,
08:28 you become maybe not everybody's best friend.
08:31 How did that motorcycle help form you,
08:34 at least competitively?
08:35 Yeah, I think competitively, I've
08:37 kind of been in that state since I was a kid.
08:40 Because when we started racing in the junior classes,
08:43 my dad has always been one to--
08:45 he wants you to race.
08:47 I'm the same.
08:48 I want to race.
08:49 I want to win.
08:49 I not just want to be there to participate.
08:51 For me, this is a big deal.
08:53 So being 10 or 12 years, sitting and studying
08:56 other people's time slips before the race starts,
08:58 and making sure that you always stage the same way,
09:02 you go in shallow, you know how to start on the tree,
09:05 and you just do things in a certain way
09:08 and do it the same every time.
09:10 We had a thing that we always did when we ran in juniors,
09:13 because the qualifying were set on the reaction times.
09:18 So the best reaction times, top qualifier.
09:20 But if you spend your whole day aiming for a trip zip,
09:23 where are you on race day?
09:25 How would you know how to actually do it?
09:27 So we were never aiming to make a triple zero reaction
09:31 time and being number one.
09:32 We aimed on being top half of the qualifying sheet
09:35 and have a solid, really good reaction time
09:38 and do the same thing all the time.
09:39 Because usually, if you ended up with number one qualifier,
09:42 that was a good thing, because they didn't really
09:44 know where they were.
09:45 And chances were--
09:46 They're going to go red.
09:47 They either saved, and they didn't want to be safe,
09:50 and they had a bad reaction time, or they went red.
09:53 So we tried to have a strategy of just doing everything
09:56 the same all the time and being good racers.
09:58 So we did have a lot of success in the Junior Dragster League,
10:01 but we never ran a series.
10:02 Because my dad worked with a promo team,
10:05 so we went on the races where they went,
10:07 which meant that I was always the one came in and messed up
10:09 someone else's points.
10:10 Ah, see, that's good.
10:11 [LAUGHTER]
10:11 Which, as we're going to get to, is what you're
10:13 going to try to do again this year.
10:15 Right.
10:15 [LAUGHTER]
10:16 Yeah, so I've been training since I was eight.
10:18 [LAUGHTER]
10:19 No, but stuff like that is, of course, in racing,
10:23 you can't always be everyone's friend.
10:25 I have never come into this and tried
10:27 to not be friends with anyone.
10:28 I am a friendly person.
10:30 I want to do that.
10:31 But I also know that when you're going to race,
10:34 when that helmet comes on, everybody, it's game on.
10:37 And I think that was the same when
10:38 we came into the bike scene.
10:39 I mean, there wasn't a lot of women doing it.
10:41 And everybody said, oh, that's very cute
10:43 that you want to do this.
10:44 That's fun.
10:44 Everything I can help you with.
10:46 And then all of a sudden, when you start going quick
10:47 and start winning races, it's not
10:49 whatever I can help you with.
10:50 Then you have your certain teams that are definitely
10:53 looking out for you and want to do the best.
10:55 But there will also be some of the teams that are kind of
10:57 like, yeah, you don't get any more help from over here.
10:59 You seem to do it all right.
11:00 Well, I think part of this, though, is, I mean,
11:02 we still need to transition into the European top fuel story.
11:06 But getting the ride here, your reputation,
11:09 the amount of people who love you here
11:11 is amazing for somebody who's a European star.
11:13 Because let's be honest, Americans
11:15 are ignorant of anything going on
11:16 in the entire rest of the world.
11:17 You've done such a great job of getting your foot in the door,
11:20 knowing everybody.
11:21 And I've never heard a bad word about you.
11:22 Oh, thank you.
11:23 So you talk about being cutthroat in the race car.
11:25 But maybe that's the reputation that you
11:28 haven't brought here just yet.
11:29 I mean, to me, just personally, because having met you
11:32 a couple of years ago, because you've
11:35 made such frequency of being here,
11:37 you've made it a commitment to yourself to get over here,
11:40 whether it's for the US nationals,
11:42 whether it's for big events.
11:43 And it's not just like sending some emails
11:45 or checking in on social.
11:47 You are physically coming here.
11:49 And I have to believe that that had a big factor in what
11:51 we're going to be talking about here as far as your development
11:53 as a US driver.
11:54 And it definitely did.
11:55 And I mean, we can just look at things like the PRI show.
11:58 I mean, I came here two years ago the first time.
12:01 That was the time I met with Edinburgh,
12:04 which has been a major part of my racing program in Europe.
12:07 And I would never have been able to do that
12:09 if I wouldn't have come here.
12:11 Second thing is I met up a bike racer over here
12:13 when I was there.
12:13 I was signing autographs in a booth over here.
12:15 A bike racer came over.
12:16 We talked.
12:18 And then fast forward to last year in India
12:22 for the big event.
12:23 He introduced me to another racer over there and said,
12:25 hey, you want to meet my friend, this top fuel racer?
12:28 They helped us out.
12:28 It's actually Mike Salinas.
12:29 And we were spending a lot of time
12:31 with Mike Salinas on that event.
12:32 They showed us around.
12:33 And I was super appreciative of that.
12:35 And then fast forward another year,
12:36 and Mike Salinas introduced me to Joe.
12:39 And that's where we're at right now.
12:41 So if I hadn't been here two years ago,
12:43 Edinburgh would never happen.
12:45 And I don't think I would have had the same chance.
12:47 When we were chatting at Pomona, we
12:48 were also talking about how much of all that
12:50 came through social media and your skills there,
12:52 which has been great.
12:53 And I mean, social media, that's the same.
12:55 The guy that I met here, I wouldn't
12:56 have met him if that would have been through social media.
12:58 Because that's also-- we were both bike racers following
13:01 each other from different kinds of sides of the world
13:03 and coming together on events like this.
13:05 And social media, for me, has been
13:07 such a big part of my program.
13:10 And I think when I started racing with the bike
13:12 and I started sharing my story-- and back then, I mean,
13:15 when we did the bike programs, we had two Super Street bikes.
13:18 And we built our own engines.
13:19 We built our own program with everything,
13:21 which meant that there was a lot of hours in the garage, which
13:24 also meant that there was a lot of content I could share
13:26 about what we did that people didn't really understand,
13:29 you know, behind the scenes.
13:30 And of course, we have lower budgets over in Europe
13:33 than over here.
13:34 But it's also harder with many things,
13:36 because many parts are more expensive,
13:38 because you also have to ship it.
13:40 It takes longer to get it, and so on.
13:41 And I think it opened the eyes for many people on how
13:44 it is to actually race in Europe.
13:46 I think the passion that it takes
13:48 to do it over there, the passion and dedication, is massive.
13:51 And if you are a race fan, I think
13:53 that you like that story, too.
13:55 And I was just able to show what we do and what we love.
13:59 And then I noticed that people wanted to know more
14:01 and wanted to see more.
14:02 And when that started, of course,
14:04 that attracted some of our first sponsors in Super Street bike.
14:08 And that was also big partners in the industry.
14:10 And this just continued to grow.
14:12 And it was the same when I saw that, OK,
14:16 I think that the step to go into top fuel,
14:18 this is the right time to do it.
14:20 That was mid-COVID.
14:21 It wasn't an easy thing to do.
14:23 But I reached out to all my sponsors.
14:25 And I told them that, yeah, I know
14:27 they're all down for doing a European season with the bike.
14:30 But I think that this would be a wise move for us to do.
14:33 This is where I want to position myself.
14:35 And our plan was to do three years in the European series
14:38 with the bike and then try to license for top fuel.
14:40 So this was maybe one or two years prior to that.
14:43 But they all agreed.
14:45 And they all said that we don't really
14:47 care what you drive as long as it's used,
14:48 because we have built up a connection.
14:51 Equity and connection, yeah.
14:52 So that was really cool for me.
14:54 Because all of my sponsors, they said that, yeah,
14:56 we want to be a part of it.
14:57 And we understand that we're going
14:59 to need to step up, because this is a bigger step.
15:01 And that was big for me.
15:02 And for those of you who have seen her dragster
15:04 on social media, it's got Edelbrock all down the side.
15:07 Yeah.
15:07 It's cool.
15:08 Which I don't exactly expect for a European car.
15:10 And you've also got support from Dodge.
15:12 Yeah, so funny story with Edelbrock.
15:15 Like I said, it came together here from the first time.
15:17 That was the first interaction I had with someone
15:19 when I came to the PRI show.
15:21 Went down for breakfast in the morning.
15:23 Was going to grab a bagel.
15:24 You know, in US, you usually have
15:26 the ones where they go like this,
15:27 and then they flip down on the side and go-- yeah.
15:29 Mine just--
15:30 Oh, the toaster oven.
15:31 Yeah, exactly.
15:32 And my bagel just flipped right over the toaster oven
15:34 down to the floor.
15:35 And I stood there looking at it.
15:37 And some guy laughed at me and said, yeah, I saw that before.
15:39 And that was a guy from Edelbrock doing carburetors.
15:43 We sat down and talked for a long time.
15:44 And then when we had had breakfast together,
15:47 we ran into each other on the floor
15:49 at the show grounds for a bit.
15:50 He introduced me to the marketing people on Edelbrock.
15:52 And that's how it's been.
15:53 That wasn't Smitty, was it?
15:55 Who was the Edelbrock guy?
15:56 It was Brent.
15:57 Oh, OK.
15:57 Yeah.
15:59 So let's talk about the transition from the bike
16:01 into the top fuel car and on a couple of elements.
16:03 One, I want to talk about the financial element,
16:06 pulling that together.
16:06 And two, again, in the United States,
16:08 if you want to go race a top fuel car,
16:10 you can call somebody up.
16:11 And after one of 22 national events,
16:13 you can get it on the car on Monday
16:15 and start your process of doing this.
16:17 Yeah.
16:17 That's not how it works in Europe.
16:18 No.
16:19 So first of all, I called Anita Mekele,
16:21 which was the current European champion.
16:23 And she's also living in Finland.
16:25 And I asked her, what do you think I should do?
16:27 Would it be a possibility to license with you guys?
16:30 And so on.
16:31 And she said that they were not doing any licensing.
16:34 But she recommended me to reach out
16:35 to Rune Fjeld, who has licensed most of the drivers in Europe
16:39 and has a really good program for it.
16:41 I reached out to Rune, who--
16:43 I mean, we had never spoken to each other before.
16:45 And he said that he wanted to think about it.
16:48 And we talked a little later about it.
16:49 And he said that, OK, we can set something up.
16:53 This was, again, mid-COVID.
16:55 The only tracks that were really open that you could run on
16:58 was in Santa Pod in UK.
17:00 And that's also where the car is located.
17:03 So me and Kim flew down.
17:06 We had to be in quarantine for two weeks
17:09 before we could start.
17:10 So we quarantined at the racetrack
17:12 on the back of the race shop in an RV without an AC.
17:16 And it was very hot out that weekend.
17:18 Kim is her boyfriend.
17:19 Yeah.
17:19 And also engine builder on the bike.
17:21 Yeah.
17:21 And he was also my head's guy on the top fuel.
17:23 So we stayed there.
17:26 There was also-- there was racing going on.
17:28 But we were not allowed to go out.
17:29 So it was a big event in UK going on right outside of our--
17:33 so we saw the cars pass by.
17:35 But we could sit in the window and wave.
17:37 So this was a really special situation.
17:39 Also, we had never met Rune and his wife, Lindsay.
17:42 But they ended up having to, of course, go get groceries
17:44 and make every meal for us and come and deliver.
17:46 Because we weren't allowed to leave.
17:48 But when we were done with the installation of that,
17:51 then we could start getting the car ready for me and so on.
17:55 And it's actually a car that Leah Pruitt ran over here
17:59 in Europe--
17:59 in US before it came to Europe.
18:01 So I'm actually running with her old seat mold and everything.
18:04 Because it was--
18:05 Oh, that's cool.
18:06 And we're kind of the same height.
18:07 So it worked out really well.
18:09 And then we licensed on an event-- started our licensing
18:12 process on an event called Bug Jam.
18:13 So this is not a big race.
18:16 Oh, it's a Volkswagen.
18:17 Bug Jam.
18:18 Yeah, exactly.
18:18 It's a Volkswagen event.
18:19 Wow.
18:20 And since everyone can come with their normal street drives,
18:23 you can understand how the track was like.
18:25 So that was not easy.
18:27 I was basically all over the track.
18:29 And every time we tried to make a full pass,
18:31 we couldn't make it down because the track just wasn't there.
18:33 And I had tire shake.
18:34 I smoked the tires.
18:36 I tried basically everything you could do as a driver.
18:39 And I had one of the guys that I'd worked on cars
18:42 for many, many years.
18:43 He said, I've seen you do more driving now
18:46 than most drivers do in a season.
18:48 But we didn't because the track just wasn't there.
18:50 But I'm really happy for it, though,
18:51 because I got to learn very much very quickly.
18:54 I knew how all of that felt. So that was good.
18:58 But then we got to come back and do our full pulls on a D--
19:02 not European finals, they called it, since it was COVID.
19:05 We couldn't be in the rest of Europe.
19:07 So we came in there, and they basically
19:08 said, if you can get your full pass in within the first two
19:11 passes, and you can use that as a qualifying time,
19:13 you can run the event.
19:16 So we licensed on a 3.86, which was the--
19:19 I think it was third or fourth fastest in Europe then.
19:22 It was the quickest licensing pass ever.
19:24 And qualified number one and won that event.
19:26 So it was a strong start for me.
19:28 It was a smaller event than the normal European events,
19:30 but it was still a big deal for me.
19:31 Brian, when you were like 20 minutes late,
19:33 Ida and I were chatting.
19:35 And she was talking about how the groove
19:37 on the European tracks is so much narrower.
19:40 And it's given her a lot of driving experience
19:42 because of that.
19:43 Yeah, so the tracks, of course, they're
19:45 prepped differently in Europe.
19:46 And the tracks are generally more different
19:49 than the Detroit tracks over here.
19:50 I'm going to have to find out exactly how much.
19:53 But we usually don't prep it as long
19:55 as you guys prep over here.
19:57 So usually, we run the cars quite loose at the top end,
20:00 usually use a little bit more wing for more downforce,
20:03 which usually shows on the miles per hour.
20:04 Sure, the speed's down some.
20:06 Yeah, speed's down more in Europe.
20:07 But also, the groove is--
20:09 on most of the tracks, it's very, very narrow.
20:11 So sometimes, you can see the car sitting there.
20:14 And it's almost like the groove is smaller
20:16 than the actual rear tires.
20:17 So many of the tracks, it's so crucial
20:20 to not get out of the groove.
20:21 Because, of course, you know if you get out of the groove,
20:23 you run into all sorts of issues.
20:25 Oh, yeah.
20:26 Nothing good comes of that.
20:27 Yeah, and if you get out, you can't get back in.
20:29 That's the thing, that if you leave it too long
20:31 and you slide out of the groove, it
20:33 doesn't matter if you have the steering wheel 180 degrees.
20:36 It's not coming back.
20:37 So that's definitely something that I
20:40 got to notice the first season I did it,
20:42 that sometimes I wasn't as quick as getting the car back
20:46 in the groove as I needed to be.
20:47 But this season, I felt like it's been a whole other thing.
20:50 And I think that that's knowledge
20:51 that I will be able to bring over as a driver.
20:54 And yeah, I'm happy for that.
20:55 And I wanted you to--
20:56 sorry-- give the audience the context of how sketchy that
21:00 might be by our standards, to also say
21:03 that you hold the record at both ends now,
21:05 3.773 at 321 miles an hour.
21:08 Yeah, so we ran both those in the same pass, actually.
21:13 And that was back in at main event in Santa
21:15 Pod in this year, actually.
21:17 So that was the semifinals of that event.
21:19 And it was a big run for us.
21:20 It was a big match-up, too.
21:22 So important run, huge miles per hour, huge speed for us.
21:26 We have always been a little down on speed.
21:28 We had good ET.
21:30 But we haven't really been able to be right up there
21:32 to play on the speed.
21:33 So for me, coming into that event,
21:36 my top speed had been 301.
21:38 Yeah, so add 20 miles.
21:41 So the next question, naturally, is
21:44 are you more excited to potentially see a 360 ET
21:47 or a 330 mile an hour speed over here in a Tesla?
21:50 I actually don't know what I'm more excited about.
21:52 I've always been an ET person.
21:54 Because that's basically--
21:55 That's what wins your race.
21:56 Yeah, exactly.
21:56 That's what you race for.
21:57 But of course, running those high miles per hour,
22:00 that is very cool.
22:03 What was, in general terms, what was
22:05 the financial commitment you had to make to get that license?
22:07 What did it cost you out of your pocket?
22:11 Well, I mean, it depends on how many events you do.
22:14 But let's say you pay $20,000 to $30,000 to get a license.
22:20 It depends a little bit on how you do it.
22:22 Of course, a lot less expensive than it is over here in the US.
22:25 But usually, if you have a good track over here in the US
22:27 and you have a good sunny day, you
22:29 might knock it out in a day or two, which in Europe,
22:32 it can take longer, just because it depends so much
22:34 on the tracks.
22:35 Like I said, we tried to make full passes several times,
22:37 but we could just not get there.
22:38 So it depends a little bit on how many events you do.
22:42 But in general, racing is cheaper in Europe,
22:47 not parts-wise and all of that.
22:49 But if you look at running a top fuel season in Europe,
22:51 I mean, for a season in Europe, I
22:55 can run one or two events over here.
22:57 Yeah, it's a huge difference.
22:58 But then you also have to look at other things like, OK,
23:01 first of all, yes, we do use a lot of used parts.
23:03 So a lot of things aren't brand new.
23:06 We buy things over here, either repair them or just run them
23:09 as it is, because the teams over here just make one or two passes
23:12 with them and pull them up.
23:13 So that is one thing of it.
23:15 But then also, our crew guys aren't on payroll.
23:18 They are not paid to come in and do this.
23:20 So I mean, over here, you have a team of maybe 10 guys,
23:23 and they're all, of course, on payroll,
23:24 and everything is moving as a business.
23:27 While we're over there, I mean, I
23:28 have four crew guys on my top fuel dragster.
23:31 And then, of course, Rune, that owns
23:32 the team that tunes all three cars.
23:34 But my four crew guys, they are not paid.
23:36 Of course, we pay their travel and their food.
23:40 But they live on air mattresses in the race trailer.
23:42 So I mean--
23:43 Hardcore.
23:43 Yeah, it's commitment in a whole other way.
23:45 And of course, that also means that the money to race over
23:48 there will be less.
23:50 So your life at this point still seems
23:53 like a life of glamour and drag racing,
23:55 but you were an electrician through all of this?
23:57 Yes, I mean, that's--
23:59 Yeah, yeah, I was.
24:00 Yeah.
24:01 That's what I'm educated for, and that's
24:03 what I worked for for several years.
24:04 Like house construction.
24:06 Yeah, so houses.
24:07 I did most houses, a little service, things like that.
24:09 And then also, we have big industries on our island.
24:12 So we do ships and stuff like that.
24:15 So I've been a lot in that ship factory.
24:16 And it's good if you don't want to eat chips,
24:18 because when you've been there for a while,
24:19 you don't want to see them anymore.
24:21 So it's a good diet, the chips.
24:23 But yeah.
24:24 She's saying chips, like potato chips.
24:25 I thought she meant--
24:26 Not ships across the ocean, but the stuff that he and I
24:29 eat bags and bags of.
24:31 So if you want to stop eating them, go there and work.
24:33 So you just get sick of seeing those.
24:35 But no, so I've done a lot of that.
24:37 And then after a few years, I got the opportunity
24:40 to go into management on the same company.
24:43 So I worked in management for a few years,
24:45 and I did manage the shop that we had there.
24:47 We did electric and plumbing.
24:49 So I also sold heating solutions and bathroom renovations
24:51 and stuff like that.
24:53 So no, it was several good years of my life.
24:55 I was almost 10 years at the same company doing that.
24:59 And that was really cool.
25:00 But then when I started racing Top Fuel and traveled more,
25:03 and of course, as my sponsorship agreements grew,
25:06 it was harder to be there.
25:07 And I felt like, OK, this is still working.
25:10 I better pull out before it doesn't work anymore.
25:13 But then you also had the radio show.
25:15 Yeah, so when I quit that, I started my own company
25:18 working marketing.
25:19 So I still have that now.
25:21 So I done marketing for, well, of course, my race team,
25:24 but also other race teams, and also
25:25 helped some racers with their social media and so on.
25:28 But then I also done other things.
25:30 So this year, I was going to be the pit commentator
25:33 for the Swedish Touring Car Series.
25:36 They had some issues getting cars delivered, though.
25:38 So it hasn't been as many events that we wanted to do.
25:40 But that was still very cool.
25:42 Yeah, you were funny.
25:42 If Pomona would have asked you about that,
25:44 and you said, well, there were electric cars, so no one cared.
25:47 [LAUGHTER]
25:49 There were electric cars, but they didn't get delivered.
25:52 So we didn't have anything to run.
25:54 So that was the thing.
25:55 They were struggling with parts.
25:56 I mean, it's a really cool series.
25:57 They're making a big move and going fully electric,
26:00 got big partners with them and so on.
26:02 So I think it's a really cool thing they're doing.
26:05 I'm all for the combustion engines.
26:07 Oh, absolutely.
26:08 So I won't be participating in the race,
26:10 but it was still very cool personalities behind that.
26:13 And it was a very cool chance to be able to talk to all of them.
26:15 So I've done that, and then also the radio show in the morning.
26:18 So I went up every morning and did the morning radio
26:20 show in the local station.
26:23 We, as people, become these--
26:25 we were an aggregation of all of our experiences,
26:28 and that's how we navigate things.
26:30 The management experience, to me,
26:32 probably is the most valuable thing
26:34 that you've had in this trip you've
26:36 been taking in drag racing, because that allows you to make
26:39 some pretty informed decisions.
26:41 It allows you to probably manage some expectations.
26:44 When that golden thing is hanging right there,
26:47 I think if you have that experience
26:49 in actually operating a business,
26:50 it makes you step back and go, wait a second.
26:52 Yeah.
26:53 And I mean, I've had-- this year in particular,
26:55 I've had several opportunities that I've kind of--
26:57 I've felt like, oh, this is good, but is it right?
27:00 Like, is it-- yeah.
27:01 And just taking a step back and then kind of taking it
27:03 with ease and been like, I really want to do this,
27:06 but I'm not sure if it's the right move for where
27:08 I want to go.
27:09 And I think that what I'm doing right now,
27:11 this is what feels for me that is the right move,
27:14 both from business side of it, but also for-- this
27:17 is what feels right for me.
27:19 Plus, what a radical life change.
27:21 Moving to a different country.
27:23 As we speak right now, she doesn't even have an apartment.
27:26 We're in Indy, where she's moving here,
27:28 like living out of the car or something.
27:30 But one of the benefits is a mutual friend of ours,
27:32 Kevin McKenna from National Dragster,
27:34 has got her hooked up with an immigration attorney, who
27:36 he got through the Andretti IndyCar team,
27:39 because they hire a lot of European engineers.
27:41 So if you're going to move somewhere,
27:43 this is probably the spot.
27:44 Yes, it feels like it.
27:45 And also, they have a spare room.
27:47 So he said that, yeah, if you ever have to come over,
27:50 you don't have an apartment, just
27:51 we have your room ready for you.
27:53 So I have a good thing going with people around here
27:55 that are my friends and are opening their homes
27:59 and their help to get me over here.
28:01 And I really much appreciate that.
28:03 But it is a big move.
28:05 Big lifestyle change.
28:06 Yeah.
28:07 You mentioned offers.
28:08 And I wanted to move that-- two things.
28:10 One, we don't have to mention the guy's name.
28:13 But you received an offer via social media
28:16 from a top fuel guy who's going to be racing next year
28:19 to come over and be his backup girl.
28:21 [LAUGHTER]
28:22 Yeah.
28:22 How-- really.
28:24 How much now are you looking forward
28:26 to drilling this guy on the starting line
28:28 and just driving down his throat?
28:30 I mean, sometimes I get-- when people do that--
28:33 Real thing.
28:34 Yeah, I mean, I get--
28:35 Scumbag.
28:36 We'll talk.
28:36 Yeah.
28:37 [LAUGHTER]
28:38 I have people saying stuff like that sometimes.
28:40 And for me, it's just like, I usually don't--
28:43 I don't answer more than like, oh, ha ha, funny.
28:45 No, not really for me.
28:47 But of course, it gives you more kind of purpose
28:50 to show him that that's not what I'm about.
28:52 And I think that if you've been following me long enough,
28:54 you know that I'm here to be a racer.
28:58 And I want to be good at what I'm doing.
29:00 And I'm not here to try and be the backup girl
29:02 or whatever it is.
29:03 And I saw also, when the news drops,
29:05 there were so many great comments, so many people
29:09 that were generally happy for me.
29:11 I was overwhelmed.
29:12 And then, of course, there's always
29:13 that one scumbag that kind of goes like, oh, here they go
29:16 again.
29:17 They bring in the blonde girl that only going to sit there.
29:20 And it's only marketing.
29:21 She doesn't even know how to drive.
29:22 She has zero experience and blah, blah, blah.
29:24 And the good thing about that is I looked at it,
29:27 and I felt, OK, he don't know me.
29:29 I mean, he can't be a follower of me.
29:31 Because if he were, he would know that that's not true.
29:34 But I had a lot of other people backing me up there
29:36 and being like, OK, so European Championship
29:39 doesn't mean anything.
29:40 And she has been doing this for 21 years in racing.
29:43 She has a lot of experience.
29:45 And so it's not about hiring someone out
29:47 of a marketing purpose.
29:49 And then I went over to Twitter instead of Facebook.
29:51 And all of a sudden, I saw on Twitter
29:53 that someone said, finally, someone choosing
29:55 the talent over the money.
29:56 And that's something that means a lot to me.
29:59 Absolutely.
30:00 When you look who's driving fuel cars these days, that's great.
30:04 And now we get into what's happening here, I think,
30:06 which is she's going to be on a team that
30:08 includes Tony Schumacher, most winning
30:10 top fuel racer of all time, and also Tim Wilkerson.
30:13 Yeah, this is the JCM, Joe Maynard, the Maynard family
30:16 racing team, JCM Racing.
30:18 They announced the news at the PRI show
30:20 that Ida is now becoming part of the team.
30:23 And they have brought you in.
30:25 And this is kind of in a developmental stage, right?
30:27 You're going to be getting in the race car.
30:29 I mean, you should tell us more than me mentioning this to you.
30:31 But the announcement gets made.
30:33 So what is step number one?
30:34 And what does 2024 as a season look like?
30:37 Yes, 2024 as a season, it's still a little bit unsure
30:41 exactly when we'll start, exactly which event.
30:43 We know that we will be doing a minimum of five events.
30:46 I know we're aiming for at least five to 10,
30:48 but hopefully more.
30:50 I mean, this is all things that we're working on right now.
30:52 We just felt like we wanted to drop the news because we're
30:55 in the stage where we know this is happening,
30:57 but we don't know exactly how everything is going to look.
30:59 We're building a team.
31:01 We're building a car.
31:02 We're building this whole program.
31:04 So we will definitely be out-- or I can't say how soon.
31:06 But I will be at every event, even if I'm not racing.
31:09 I will be doing as much testing as just possibly we can.
31:13 So we will be testing in Gainesville, obviously,
31:16 maybe even before that if we can.
31:18 And then-- and every event, when there's testing going on,
31:22 I'll be there.
31:22 And if I won't be in a car racing,
31:24 I'll be on the side taking care of our partners
31:27 and doing marketing things on the side.
31:29 So and of course, learning from Tony,
31:31 that will be my teammates.
31:32 You told me backup car to begin with,
31:34 but they're actually assembling a new car for you.
31:36 Yes, they have a Tony's car and a backup car.
31:39 And the plan is, of course, to build another car.
31:41 And we will have at least two cars and a backup car.
31:43 So I think that is a really wise move.
31:45 And I think many of the two car teams, they do exactly that.
31:48 And I think that was going to be really good for us
31:50 to have cars that are all the same
31:52 and for us to be able to step into any of them if needed.
31:56 And we were able to chat earlier in the show,
31:57 but I'm going to ask you the same question then.
31:59 Why is this the opportunity that is the go one?
32:02 Because you've had others.
32:03 Other people have approached you with different things,
32:05 including a pretty solid team with a funny car
32:08 offer last year.
32:10 Why was that not the right one?
32:11 And why were some of the other dragster offers not right?
32:14 Yeah.
32:14 I mean, I didn't even know that you
32:15 knew about this funny car deal.
32:16 [INTERPOSING VOICES]
32:18 When you announced that, or when we talked about that
32:20 when we did our announcement, I was like, oh,
32:22 that was news that I would hold them in,
32:24 but someone must have leaked them.
32:25 But no, that was a really big deal.
32:27 And that was a good team.
32:28 And that was absolutely something
32:30 that I just didn't say no to right away.
32:32 I had to do a lot of hard thinking about that.
32:34 And as we talked about before, racing the bikes
32:37 and doing other things, I love a challenge.
32:39 And I definitely feel that that would have been absolutely
32:42 had-ass to do.
32:43 But I also felt like that is not where I'm at right now.
32:46 I'm 100% in for Top Fuel and to do this in NHRA.
32:50 And that's where I've been wanting to go for so many years
32:52 now, and that's what I've been working towards.
32:54 So taking a step and doing something totally different
32:57 feels like I'm going off my path,
32:59 and I'm not ready to do that.
33:00 I mentioned when we talked yesterday, too,
33:02 that it would be different if we were 10, 15 years down the road
33:05 and I felt like I've done Top Fuel.
33:07 I've done what I wanted to do.
33:09 I want a new challenge.
33:10 Yes, funny car might be just that.
33:12 But right now, it works exactly with what I wanted to do.
33:16 And for me, it's been so important
33:17 to be able to continue with my partners.
33:20 And all the relationships we've built up
33:23 and that we have been working so hard on,
33:25 that's something that I don't want to just throw out
33:27 the window because we're coming to US and we're going to do big--
33:30 it's like, no, for me, everything
33:31 I've built up in Europe with both my European sponsors
33:34 and my US sponsors, that has so much value for me.
33:37 And that's something that I want to cherish and take with me.
33:39 And this fits for that because this
33:42 is a place where I will be able to use my contacts
33:45 and I will be able to build this together with Joe
33:48 so that we have the perfect program for me coming into this.
33:52 While some of the other rides that we were looking at,
33:55 either we were in a situation where
33:57 there were a lot of great sponsors on the car already
34:00 and I would step in as just a driver
34:02 and I felt like I wanted to be more than just a driver.
34:04 I wanted to be able to use the assets that I have from doing
34:08 this in Europe and actually managing a lot of it.
34:12 And a lot of the sponsors that these teams had
34:14 would have collided with the sponsors
34:16 I have, which also meant that I couldn't be bringing my over.
34:20 But also that some of the rides that I've been offered to do,
34:23 either like, yeah, you can rent my car very cheaply
34:26 or even drive without a cost if you just come over.
34:29 But it hasn't been competitive cars.
34:31 It's been teams that maybe say, we can get you into the low 8s
34:34 or on a really good day, a high 7.
34:36 But first of all, that would be slower than we've done in Europe.
34:41 She means 3.8, 3.7.
34:44 So and then also, of course, if I
34:49 were to know that I go into a race and I look at it
34:51 and I feel like I might not qualify,
34:53 I might not make it past first round.
34:55 Like, if I make it past first round,
34:56 that means someone else would have had to red-lit
34:58 or spin the tires.
34:59 And that's not how you want to win.
35:00 I mean, if you win, yeah, you take a run like that.
35:05 But that's not what you want to be positioned in,
35:07 that that's the only chance you have at winning.
35:10 And I don't feel like it's fair to me
35:12 because it's not fair to what I want to show my potential.
35:15 It's not fair to my sponsors because it's hard to pitch
35:18 to them and say that, oh, we're doing this in Europe.
35:20 We have a great thing going, winning races,
35:22 winning championships, setting records.
35:24 But we want to go over to US and might not qualify
35:27 or might not make it past a few rounds.
35:29 Plus, it's going to cost more.
35:30 So it's like, it's not a good sell.
35:33 It's not a good value for them.
35:35 But then also for the teams coming into that
35:37 because that's also hard.
35:38 If I were to sit with a team that I know
35:41 doesn't have the potential to be quicker than what we are
35:43 running, you will still have all the fans on the internet that
35:46 doesn't understand that.
35:47 They're going to ask, why are you not as fast as the other?
35:49 Why are you slower?
35:50 You can't handle US and all that.
35:52 And I'm going to have to answer for that.
35:54 And how am I going to answer?
35:55 I'm going to say, the team is not good enough.
35:57 That's not good.
35:58 There's a no-win situation.
35:59 Exactly.
36:01 I can't say that I'm a bad driver.
36:03 I can't get the car down.
36:04 Or I can't say the team is not good enough to do that.
36:09 One guy who never had a problem doing that
36:10 was Don Garletts late in his career.
36:12 Two funny stories.
36:13 Two funny stories.
36:14 Garletts had a guy he brought in in the early 2000--
36:18 I'm sorry, mid '90s to drive a Top Fuel Dragster.
36:20 Well-established former Funny Car champion.
36:22 The guy lost on a hole shot.
36:24 And Don Garletts looked straight into the TV camera
36:26 and said, I have the worst driver in the pits.
36:28 [LAUGHTER]
36:30 And then secondly, he made a comeback in the early 2000s.
36:33 And they were trying to qualify the car in Gainesville.
36:36 And they had all these problems getting down the racetrack.
36:38 And again, top end, they turned the camera on him.
36:40 And he said, these guys have no idea what the hell they're
36:43 doing.
36:43 [LAUGHTER]
36:45 He can get away with it.
36:46 I guess the rest of us probably can't.
36:47 Yeah, I feel like I probably don't want
36:49 to come over here and do that.
36:50 Yeah.
36:51 You know what it sounds like to me,
36:52 from hearing your story and your passion on the business
36:55 side of things?
36:56 Long-term, you want to be a team owner, don't you?
36:58 That's not something that I feel like I want right now.
37:01 But it's also because I feel like I don't have enough
37:03 knowledge of top fuel racing.
37:05 I mean, me and Kim owned the team
37:07 when we raced with the bikes.
37:09 But with that, we had all the control
37:11 ourself and all the knowledge.
37:12 And we didn't need as many guys from the outside
37:15 and as much of that.
37:16 So I feel like right now, I'm very far away from that point.
37:21 But you never know down the road one day.
37:24 What does your dad think of this?
37:27 Is it one of those things where your dad kind of saw this
37:29 as an inevitability, like, oh boy,
37:31 she's going to figure out a way to pull this off?
37:33 Or is he kind of astonished?
37:34 I don't know, really.
37:35 It's his birthday today, so happy birthday, dad.
37:37 Happy birthday.
37:38 No, but I think he's very happy for me.
37:40 I think he sees how important this has been for me.
37:42 He knows that I've been a racer since the first time we raced.
37:46 In my opinion, there's racers and there's
37:48 people that like to race.
37:49 And I love both of them.
37:51 Some people just love to be in a race car,
37:53 and they just do it because it's so fun.
37:54 And then if you go out early, you say, oh, that's fine.
37:56 We can have a beer or we put the coffee maker on.
37:59 But for me, I'm a racer.
38:02 I want to do this.
38:03 And I think he's seen that from a really early age.
38:05 I think for him, it was more strange
38:07 maybe that I went into racing bikes
38:09 than that I went to Top Fuel, because I've always
38:10 said I wanted to do Top Fuel.
38:12 When I was 10 years old, I saw a video of myself
38:17 from a TV interview just the other day.
38:19 When I sat there and I said, when I'm 18,
38:21 I'm going to race Top Fuel.
38:22 And then I turned 18, and I was like, yeah, that's
38:26 not happening anytime soon.
38:29 When you're 18, you don't really understand how much it
38:31 goes into racing a Top Fuel.
38:33 But it took me 10 more years.
38:35 I was 28 when I licensed in Top Fuel,
38:37 or when I did my first full season in Top Fuel.
38:39 So I think that he always known that I wanted to do that,
38:42 but maybe not that I wanted to come over here.
38:45 I think when I started talking about that,
38:48 I think he's always been super supportive.
38:50 But he kind of also were a little bit like, yeah,
38:53 you know, that's reaching quite far, though.
38:55 But yeah, if you want to do it, I'm sure you can pull it off.
38:59 So I hope he's proud.
39:03 I think for me, one of the things that's
39:05 going to be interesting to continue conversations with you
39:08 down the line is going to be the adjustment of not just
39:12 the move to a new country, but there's
39:13 going to be a big profile change here.
39:15 And you already have a high profile.
39:16 Hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram.
39:18 You have a very strong presence in social media.
39:21 But this is going to be kind of a next level
39:22 adjustment, in my opinion.
39:24 I feel like the reaction to the announcement was very big,
39:27 and it was very positive.
39:28 I think a lot of people, as you said,
39:29 you're always going to get a couple of idiots that have
39:31 some sort of wayward opinion.
39:33 But of all the things to adjust to,
39:35 I think that's going to be the one that's
39:36 going to be most interesting for me
39:37 to watch and kind of experience with you to a degree.
39:40 Driving the race car, I can't not
39:42 think you're not going to love these racetracks.
39:44 Yeah, no, I believe you.
39:46 But in terms of that, is there anything
39:48 that worries you, is there anything
39:49 that makes you nervous about increased
39:51 levels of attention, increased levels of scrutiny,
39:53 blah, blah, blah?
39:54 I don't think it's something that worries me.
39:56 But what I do feel like, of course, right now,
39:59 I have a strong social media presence,
40:00 and we do a lot there.
40:01 But right now, it's all under my control.
40:04 I'm the only one that makes my content and posts my content
40:07 and do everything.
40:08 I also know that coming over here
40:09 and doing the races over here, it's
40:11 going to be a little different.
40:12 I'm going to have to get a little bit more outside help
40:15 on some things.
40:16 That being said, I'm not leaving my social channels
40:18 or my own identity over there.
40:21 But there are going to be more people that are, of course,
40:25 covering events over here than it's been before,
40:28 because I'll basically have to create most of it myself
40:30 when we're in Europe.
40:31 And then we also look at the TV shows, the broadcasting things.
40:35 And we haven't had that in Europe.
40:36 I mean, we have some live streams,
40:38 but the live streams, those are usually
40:39 you see the cars go down track, but it's not a lot of us on it.
40:42 It's not a lot of the actual profiles talking.
40:45 And I think that that's going to be a big difference.
40:47 Right now, if I do an interview, it's usually quite a long time
40:50 after the actual run.
40:51 It's not as you get out of the car.
40:54 It moves fast up there at the top end.
40:56 And then for me, if I'm very stressed
41:01 or if I'm very tired or so on, I sometimes
41:05 struggle a little bit with my English.
41:07 It's just I can sometimes have issues finding certain words.
41:10 Because English is not my first language.
41:14 So of course, that's something I kind of
41:15 have in the back of my mind.
41:18 Hope I will be able to sound good on the broadcast
41:22 like that.
41:23 But I think--
41:23 Listen, you've seen clips of some of our existing drivers.
41:27 You're about three years ahead of them
41:29 already in your comprehension of the language.
41:32 I think usually when you do things on the fly,
41:35 so to say that when you get out of the car
41:37 and you do something right away, you
41:39 do say what you really feel.
41:40 And those are the interviews that I love the most.
41:42 So I do look forward to that, that not everything being--
41:44 I'm not saying it's scripted as it is right now.
41:46 It's just that when you talk about a run two hours after it
41:49 happened, you have already processed it
41:51 10 times over in your head.
41:53 But when you talk about it when you just got out of the car,
41:55 that's when you actually say what's on your mind.
41:57 That's usually what I do right now with my crew.
42:00 When they come over there and I jump of the car,
42:02 I give them everything that happened.
42:04 And they just look at me like, OK.
42:07 So yeah.
42:07 One cultural adjustment I think she's
42:09 going to have in the pits anyway is that from what I know of you,
42:12 you neither gossip nor complain.
42:13 Yeah.
42:14 You're going to have to fix that real quick.
42:16 You're not going to fit in.
42:18 Yeah, I think that's probably a difference over here too.
42:21 That's maybe something that feels a bit different.
42:23 Because over here, I know that there's a lot of-- in Europe,
42:26 it feels like people have their favorite racer.
42:28 But many of them, they just come because they love racing.
42:31 They're like, oh, I love Pro Stock or Pro Mod
42:33 or Top Fuel.
42:34 And they love all of it.
42:35 Like, it doesn't matter who it is that does it.
42:37 While over here, I feel like there's
42:38 a lot of people that are like, oh, we love this person
42:40 or we love that person.
42:41 Absolutely.
42:42 We love that person.
42:42 We hate that person.
42:43 Because that's-- yeah.
42:44 So I think that that's something that's
42:46 going to be very new to me to see how that part will be.
42:50 But I'm hoping I'll be able to navigate that too.
42:54 What do you feel-- and I don't even really have an answer to this.
42:57 But what do you feel the expectations are for you
42:59 as a driver among the people that you'll be racing against?
43:02 I think it's interesting.
43:04 It comes in as kind of a wild card, right?
43:06 You're a champion.
43:07 People know you're a champion.
43:09 But we also know so little about FIA drag racing here.
43:13 It's not like Tony Stewart's getting into a Top Fuel car.
43:15 Everybody immediately goes, well, that guy's
43:16 just going to be killing everybody right out of the gate.
43:19 What do you think the perception is of you as a driver?
43:21 I'm not 100% sure.
43:22 I think it could be a little divided.
43:24 Because I think there are drivers that have experience
43:27 racing over in Europe or racing in Australia
43:30 or know a lot about the sport around the world
43:34 and know what it takes to do it over there.
43:36 And I think maybe they understand a little bit
43:38 what I will be coming in with, what I bring to the table.
43:40 And then I think there's probably
43:41 some people that look at her and say, Ida who?
43:44 I've never heard about her.
43:45 So I think it's going to be very different.
43:47 Is that a benefit?
43:48 Sorry.
43:48 Is the Christmas tree the same there?
43:50 Is it LEDs?
43:51 Does it have the same counts?
43:52 No.
43:53 I know someone told me before that your reaction times
43:55 in Europe absolutely suck.
43:56 And I can only agree.
43:58 But the thing with that is that we don't have the LED lights.
44:01 And I know that that is usually a little help of it.
44:04 But then also, we don't work with the reactions
44:07 of the race cars over in Europe.
44:08 And that's a huge difference.
44:10 I mean, if you look at a slow-mo video of a car over here,
44:12 when you see the blades opening, you see the car twisting.
44:15 When you look at a slow-mo when I run over in Europe,
44:18 you see the blades opening.
44:19 And then it's like, hold on.
44:20 And then you see the car twisting.
44:22 And that makes a big difference.
44:23 So I had an issue with this in the beginning
44:25 because I asked--
44:28 Rune runs the team.
44:29 I said, why am I so bad at this?
44:31 Why can't I really get it to be better?
44:34 And he said, you just have to aim
44:36 for what's the lowest in the class
44:38 and try to always be the lowest.
44:39 Because you can't have a reaction time
44:41 like they do in the US.
44:42 Because then something is wrong.
44:44 You're guessed.
44:45 So that's something that will be very interesting to me
44:48 to see because I've had the lowest average reaction
44:50 time in Europe.
44:52 And to see what that translates to over here
44:53 in a car that is reacting quicker and an LED light.
44:57 This is probably ignorant questions on my part.
44:59 But is the rollout the same?
45:00 Is the ProTree 400 dial the same?
45:03 Yes.
45:03 Yes, it is.
45:04 I mean, even over here, this is something
45:07 that some teams struggle with or work on.
45:09 Clay Millican is a great example of this.
45:11 I mean, you and I are both very tight with Clay Millican,
45:14 a fellow top fuel driver.
45:15 And they made some changes in the way that car reacted.
45:19 And all of a sudden, he went from being a mid-pack guy
45:21 to being where he should have been as a top tier lever.
45:25 And the car is that mechanical system.
45:28 The way that the clutch begins to engage,
45:30 how the fuel system is set up is going to--
45:33 it could be 100th.
45:33 It could be more than 100th.
45:35 And the thing for us in Europe is, of course,
45:36 when I talked to Rune about this,
45:37 he said there is a lot of things we can do.
45:39 But the problem for us is there's a few different things.
45:42 First of all, we have three cars and one guy handling all of them.
45:46 It's not really that much time extra to do it.
45:48 And then since we don't have any testing--
45:50 I mean, if we're running for a championship,
45:51 you don't want to start messing with things
45:53 to try and make it better, but then also not
45:55 knowing where you're at or how big of a difference
45:57 it's going to make.
45:58 So you want to do all of these things
46:00 when there's actually testing going on.
46:02 And when we came to Norway this year,
46:04 we were going to do show runs there.
46:06 We said, let's take this exhibition event
46:09 to kind of see if we can amp up this a little bit.
46:12 But it turns out that it rained the whole week,
46:15 and then we got in one pass.
46:17 So you've got some pretty hairy stories from racing in Europe.
46:23 I want the Hockenheim story, the shutdown area Hockenheim story.
46:28 We talk about how kind of hardcore drag racers are
46:30 over here, and they are.
46:32 But when you need to do this in a top fuel dragster
46:35 on an unprepped road course with a shutdown area like this,
46:38 this is an old school racer story here.
46:41 I remember the first time I came in racing with the bike
46:44 over there.
46:44 And I had never been to Hockenheim.
46:46 Hockenheim is a fantastic event.
46:47 It's very cool.
46:48 And this is on Hockenheim circuit.
46:49 It's F1 course, basically.
46:51 Yes, exactly.
46:51 Yeah.
46:52 So you have the drag strip, and then it kind of
46:54 merges in with the F1 course, which
46:56 means that the actual track kind of merges together.
46:59 So the first time I was going to run there with the bike,
47:03 you are not allowed to walk the track.
47:04 They close the track, and you are not
47:06 allowed to walk on the track and see it.
47:08 So everybody just told me that if you're on the right side,
47:11 you're going to have to merge together with the others.
47:13 They also told me that when the bike runs,
47:15 they will like you to turn on the first exit where
47:19 the junior dragster turn.
47:20 We do 110 miles per hour on the bike.
47:23 So they said, just screw that guy and go past him.
47:25 So when I flew by in 200 and I tried
47:28 to merge into the other lane, I saw
47:30 that there was a dude standing in the middle of the track
47:32 being like waving, like, you can turn here.
47:34 I was like, no, thank you.
47:36 I'll continue a little further.
47:37 So that was a new experience for me.
47:40 That guy wasn't there the year after,
47:42 so I think someone told him that maybe that
47:44 wasn't the place to stand.
47:45 When you're on the top field, there's
47:47 no guy standing in the middle of the lane,
47:49 so I think no one is brave enough for that.
47:50 But the tracks kind of do go together a little bit at the end.
47:54 So the right one, you kind of have to go in with the other one.
47:58 And this is all fine when you do it in the middle of the day,
48:00 because usually you see it.
48:02 But we also run the night run.
48:03 And over here, a night run means that it's night
48:06 and there's lights.
48:07 Over there, it means that it's night, and that's it.
48:11 And they have, like, fireworks on the side.
48:14 Now they've actually matched the fireworks
48:16 so they are running after the car.
48:17 But before, you could actually have the fireworks go off
48:20 before the car, which means you see absolutely nothing
48:22 what you're doing.
48:23 You're blinded.
48:24 And the first time I was doing a night run in the top field
48:26 there, they said that there would be lights at the end.
48:29 Yeah, there were a flashlight at the 1,000 foot.
48:32 I didn't run until the 1,000 foot.
48:34 We usually never do, because that run doesn't
48:35 count for qualifying.
48:36 It's just a show run that we do when we're there.
48:39 So the first time I ran, and it was just--
48:41 I saw a little flashlight, and it was pitch dark.
48:43 You saw nothing.
48:44 It's like, I know there's a wall here somewhere,
48:46 so I'm merging a little bit here.
48:48 And then all of a sudden, it stopped,
48:49 and it was totally black.
48:50 Like, you didn't see anything.
48:52 You don't know where to turn.
48:53 You don't know where you are.
48:54 And then you're just waiting for a tow car to come and get
48:57 you, basically.
48:57 So it's like being the Greek.
48:58 It's like being Chris Kahemasinis.
49:00 Yeah, it's bringing back those 1960 vibes.
49:04 Yeah, a little old school.
49:06 But it's a really cool event.
49:08 But when you're running those-- now when you've done it,
49:10 and you know it, it's a whole other thing.
49:12 But the first times you do it--
49:13 I mean, and if you ever run a night show when there's
49:16 actually--
49:17 or like a night race when there's lights,
49:19 it feels so much quicker.
49:20 I remember my first night pass that I made, it was on the bike.
49:23 I think I did 205 or 208 miles per hour on that one.
49:28 And it just felt like I was doing 300 on the bike,
49:30 because all the lights flashing like that
49:32 by you, basically, when you run, it just
49:34 makes it feel so much quicker.
49:36 And that was in South Georgia when I ran the bike.
49:38 Funny thing there is there's perfect lighting
49:40 until you turn off the track.
49:42 Oh, yeah, there's nothing.
49:42 There's no light on the bike.
49:44 So I stopped, and I heard someone say, how did you do?
49:46 And I was like, ah, I had no idea there was someone there.
49:50 So yeah, it's a little special to run at night.
49:53 On the FIA circuit, how many permanent tracks
49:55 are there versus--
49:57 I don't want to call them makeshift tracks, but versus
50:00 impermanent tracks?
50:01 Yeah, I understand what you mean.
50:02 Yeah, well, basically, on the European circuit,
50:04 it's only Sweden and UK, so Santa Paula.
50:07 Those are the only ones that are permanent tracks.
50:09 Santa Paula is basically the only one
50:10 that has other events that are actually run all year round.
50:14 And then you have, of course, TRP is a great track,
50:16 but they only usually have those two drag races a year
50:19 that are on the schedule.
50:20 And then Hockenheim isn't a permanent track.
50:22 I mean, like you said, it's a Formula 1 track.
50:24 So they do circuit track racing and other stuff,
50:26 and they fix it just for that.
50:27 And my understanding is they can't spray traction compound?
50:29 Do they not use traction compound on Hockenheim,
50:31 or do they use it?
50:32 They do, but I think they--
50:34 I mean, they scrape everything off after the event.
50:36 So it's not like they can--
50:37 it's a new track every year, let's say it like that.
50:39 And some years, it's better than you expected,
50:41 and some years, it's not.
50:43 So to tie together American and European drag racing,
50:46 this is trivia you know, Brian.
50:47 Do you know why Santa Paula is called Santa Paula?
50:50 I actually don't.
50:51 Brian.
50:52 OK, so Santa Ana, California, was
50:54 the first commercial drag strip in the United States.
50:57 The Poddington Air Force Base is where that place went.
51:02 And so when they formed this racetrack,
51:03 they took the Santa from Santa Ana and the pod from Poddington,
51:07 and here we have Santa Pod.
51:08 I heard a good story about Santa Pod,
51:10 and you probably know if it's true or not.
51:12 But it's very hard to predict the weather on Santa Pod.
51:14 If you look at an app, it's totally--
51:16 it's never correct.
51:18 And what I understood is, of course,
51:20 this was an old war airfield, and it was placed there
51:23 because someone had done a study for two years of where in UK
51:27 is the most unpredictable weather, Santa Pod.
51:30 Sounds like a perfect place for a drag strip.
51:32 Yeah.
51:33 Right there.
51:34 Yep.
51:35 I'll buy it.
51:36 I mean, it could be accurate.
51:37 I don't know if it's accurate or not, but that's what I heard.
51:40 It could be accurate.
51:41 In terms of the places that you have looked forward
51:45 to racing here in the United States
51:47 as you now look into this 2024 season, is it Indy?
51:51 Is it Pomona?
51:52 As that kid growing up in Sweden,
51:54 wanting to drive a top fuel dragster,
51:56 dreaming about racing one specific place, where is it?
51:59 Well, Indy is, of course, very special.
52:01 And I remember just a year before I licensed in top fuel,
52:04 and of course, knowing that that's what I want to do.
52:06 Or maybe if it was just right when we did it,
52:10 I know that there was a video coming out on YouTube from--
52:14 oh, what's his name?
52:15 React?
52:16 Oh, React 204, Corbin Howick.
52:18 Yes.
52:18 Yes.
52:19 So he did a great video on the Indianapolis race.
52:21 And it's like, watching it, I get goosebumps.
52:23 So that race is very special.
52:26 And then, of course, I've been to Vegas.
52:27 And that track very intrigues me, too.
52:30 I think it's a very cool track.
52:31 So I think that will be very awesome.
52:33 I would have loved to go to Bandamere,
52:35 because that's always a place when we see it in photos
52:37 and in videos.
52:38 And I said, I want to race there one day.
52:40 So I'm a little gutted that I won't be able to do that.
52:42 But that would definitely have been high on my list.
52:45 Great conversation.
52:46 Fantastic story.
52:47 And why don't you go ahead and plug your social handle,
52:49 so people know where they can follow you.
52:51 Yeah, well, so I do most of my things on Instagram.
52:54 And over there, I have a strange name.
52:56 It's Dragster FIA.
52:58 That might need to change, I'm guessing.
53:00 I tried to change it.
53:01 But since it's verified, you can't.
53:03 So that was the hard part.
53:04 I wanted to change it, actually, a while ago.
53:06 But I had it for so long.
53:08 And it grew big.
53:08 And now it's very hard to change.
53:09 Although, I think it's kind of cool.
53:10 Because you get to carry that piece of your identity
53:13 with you, right?
53:13 And they kind of fly the FIA flag.
53:15 Yeah.
53:15 And that has nothing to do why the name was like that.
53:18 So Dragster FIA was something my dad called me
53:20 when I was a kid.
53:21 He said, "Dragster FIA" in Swedish.
53:22 And when you are trying to create an account,
53:24 every damn word is always taken.
53:27 So I used that.
53:28 Wow.
53:28 Because that wasn't what was taken.
53:30 And then all of a sudden, it grew.
53:31 And it grew bigger.
53:32 And I had it posted on things.
53:35 It was in articles, and in videos, and on hero cards,
53:38 and so on.
53:38 And it was hard to change.
53:39 And now, when it was verified, I can't.
53:41 But if you search for Ida Sätteström, us still show up.
53:44 So you find me there.
53:46 And it's the same on Facebook, and Twitter, and so on.
53:49 Ida Sätteström.
53:50 And on YouTube, it's Ida Sätteström Drag Racing.
53:53 So for this year in Europe, we've
53:54 been trying to make one video from each FIA event.
53:57 We still have two that actually isn't posted yet.
53:59 So we're working on the Hockenheim one
54:01 and the final one.
54:02 So those will be coming out quite soon.
54:05 Ida, thank you very much for taking the time.
54:07 Thank you for having me.
54:08 Sincere congratulations.
54:09 I'm fortunate to know you for a couple of years before this.
54:12 And it makes me beam with pride for our sport,
54:15 because you're going to bring something to it
54:16 that we don't have.
54:17 And it's going to be pretty great.
54:19 Yes, fantastic.
54:20 I'm so happy for you.
54:21 Thank you.
54:21 It's just been great to watch.
54:23 I appreciate it.
54:23 Thanks for having me.
54:24 That's a wrap on this episode of the Hot Rod Pod,
54:26 Where It All Began.
54:27 Fry Burger's here.
54:28 Ida's here.
54:29 She'll be the top-fueled dragster.
54:30 Make sure you pay attention across social media.
54:33 I'm Brian Lownes.
54:33 We'll be back soon with another episode.
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