JCM Racing Post Race Recap: Pomona 1

NHRA Winternationals

Event 3 of 20

In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip

Pomona, Calif.

March 28 – 30, 2025

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Ida Zetterström Ready to Regroup and Refresh After Pomona

After years of watching the historic NHRA Winternationals from afar, 2023 FIA European Top Fuel champion Ida Zetterström eagerly approached the opportunity to compete in this weekend’s 65th running of the event at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. The weekend proved challenging for Zetterström and her JCM Racing Top Fuel team, between a tough qualifying effort and a first-round exit on Sunday morning. Zetterström isn’t dwelling on it, though, choosing instead to look forward to her four-wide debut in Charlotte in one month.

Zetterström, who recorded career-best numbers at last year’s NHRA Finals at Pomona to close out her rookie season, made her best pass of the weekend in the first qualifying session on Friday. In fact, her 3.741-second pass at 334.24 mph wasn’t far off from those career-best numbers set last November. That performance put her No. 8 in the field after Q1, and various traction issues in the following three sessions prevented Zetterström from moving up in the qualifying order.

Zetterström’s No. 12 qualifying position paired her up with the most recent winner on tour, past world champion Shawn Langdon, in the first round of eliminations on Sunday. She made a relatively clean pass, a 3.806 E.T. at 278.40 mph, but it wasn’t quick enough to get around Langdon and his 3.668-second effort.

“I've ended up racing against world champions like Doug Kalitta or Langdon, or Justin Ashley, who's the best leaver in the class, every race day,” Zetterström said. “We want to find some more momentum to qualify higher and also be able to have that consistency going rounds. I think that will build my confidence, too, and that will make me a better driver, so it's all just a combination of things. And I'm not saying that if we ultimately qualify higher we're going to have an easier target because no one is easy out here.”

Zetterström and the JCM Racing Top Fuel team will have a one-month break from competition, as their current plans have them running 10 of the 20 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series events. That doesn’t mean they’ll rest, though. Zetterström, who moved from the Aland Islands of Finland to the Indianapolis area to pursue her Top Fuel dreams, is actively seeking funding to add more races to the team’s schedule. She is not scheduled to compete at the next NHRA Mission Foods race, the Four-Wide Nationals, April 11-13, at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“If we had the funding to go race all the races, that's absolutely what we want to do, but we know we're in a situation where we don't have that funding,” Zetterström said. “At this point, I’m happy that we have a break in the schedule. Obviously, I would be even happier to chase the championship, but we're going to make a lot of good use out of this time. We have some things we know we want to tackle when it comes to the car. We’re also going to work on some other stuff that might make it more comfortable, basically, for me as a driver in the car. I feel like this has not been an accurate representation of who I am as a driver. I need some new, fresh momentum going into Charlotte. Charlotte will be a four-wide race, so that will be a brand-new thing for me. I think it might be good to get this time off for us to regroup and come back and show what we can actually do.”

Zetterström will return to the NHRA Mission Foods Series tour April 25-27 at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.

Qualified:

No. 12 (3.741 E.T. at 334.24 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:

E1: 3.806 E.T. at 278.40 MPH defeated by Shawn Langdon 3.668 E.T. at 331.28 MPH

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Bandero Café Funny Car Team Continues to Make Progress in Pomona

With cool conditions and 19 Funny Cars vying for a spot on the NHRA Winternationals elimination ladder, the competition was stout at the 65th running of the annual event at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. In what was nearly an all-three-second field, Alexis DeJoria used her 3.921-second run from the weekend’s final qualifying outing to secure the No. 9 seed in the stacked Sunday show. Racing at her hometown facility, DeJoria was looking to add more round wins to her 2025 total, but dropped cylinders ended the Bandero Café Funny Car team’s day after the first round of eliminations.

DeJoria opened her weekend with a loss of traction in the first qualifying session followed by tire shake in the second, but the team bounced back impressively on Saturday, sending DeJoria and her Bandero Café Funny Car down the track in 3.982 seconds to move into the No. 12 spot. Crew chiefs Mike ‘Zippy’ Neff and Todd Smith returned to the line for the final session and turned up the wick even more, tuning DeJoria’s machine to an impressive 3.921 E.T. at 324.75 mph to advance three spots to ninth. During both runs, one of DeJoria’s parachutes failed to deploy, but the seasoned racer was able to get her car safely stopped before reaching the end of the shutdown area.

DeJoria drew No. 8 seed Matt Hagan as her first-round opponent on race day. Against Hagan, DeJoria was solid leaving the starting line but as soon as she stood on the throttle, her machine made a hard move toward the retaining wall, forcing DeJoria to lift off the pedal while Hagan made a full pull in the opposite lane to advance.

“Coming into Pomona, we were super excited,” said DeJoria, the first woman to run a sub-four-second Funny Car pass while competing at the 2014 Winternationals. “We started the season off so strong. I love coming out here. The conditions were prime for running quick and fast. Friday’s qualifying sessions didn’t go so great. The car shut off at the top end in Q1, and then we scuffed a piston in the burnout. We just had some mechanical issues bite us, but we’re chipping away at it. Saturday, we made good runs. We ran that 98 and put something on the board that we could work with, and then backed that up with a 92, so I was really happy about that and felt good going into race day. We had some issues with one of our parachute lines during both of those runs, but thankfully, I got the car stopped before the sand trap. On race day, I had a decent light, but we dropped cylinders all on one side of the car right at the hit. I knew it wasn’t going anywhere, so I lifted, and Hagan ran an 88 and that was it for us.”

The Bandero Café team leaves California ranked 10th in the Funny Car standings and is looking to the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas, the fourth event on the 20-race schedule, to add more points to their total. DeJoria has a history of success at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with two of her six Funny Car wins taking place at the facility where she was also the No. 1 qualifier at the 2021 Fall event.

“Vegas isn’t too far off, and we’re excited about that race. Lady Luck has been kind to me there in the past, and we’re hoping for more of that. We’re a brand-new team, and I’m so proud of this group for everything they’ve accomplished in such a short time, and I know when we get this thing figured out, we’re going to be trouble. I’m happy to be working together side-by-side with these guys. We’re looking for a good Vegas outing. We’re going to stay and test there after the race weekend, and we’re going to get it figured out.”

Qualifying for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, the first of two consecutive four-wide-style events, begins at 12:30 p.m. PT on Friday, April 11.

Qualified:

No. 9 (3.921 E.T. at 324.75 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:

E1: 9.685 E.T. at 86.38 MPH defeated by Matt Hagan 3.884 E.T. at 324.59 MPH

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car Point Standings (Unofficial):

1 Jack Beckman 271

2 Paul Lee 212

3 Matt Hagan 197

4 Chad Green 194

5 Austin Prock 171

6 Ron Capps 164

7 Dan Wilkerson 160

8 Bob Tasca III 153

9 Cruz Pedregon 141

10 Alexis DeJoria 139