Anita Makela
A native of Finland, Anita got her first exposure to drag racing during a trip to Ohio, USA at the age of 16. She was so enamored with what she saw that upon her return to Finland she purchased a Pontiac Trans Am and began both cruising and street racing.
Anita’s true drag racing career began in 1987 when she purchased a gas-powered Competition Dragster. She teamed with Simo Patoharju as her engine guru and notched wins at both Motopark in Finland and Santa Pod in England. However, her final run at Santa Pod ended badly when the chutes failed to deploy and the car was totaled. She had a new Competition Dragster built over the winter and won the Finnish Championship in both 1988 and 1989.
In 1990 Anita made the switch from Competition Dragster class to Pro Comp in the seat of a Top Alcohol Dragster and in both 1994 and 1996 she notched the European Championship in this class. Along the way she also managed to record the fastest speed and quickest Elapsed Time for the class in Europe.
1996 was a major change year when she and Top Fuel racer, Tommi Haapanen were married and Anita took her first ride in a Top Fuel dragster. In 1997 Anita obtained her TF license, took over the controls of Peter Lantz’s Top Fuel dragster and placed third in the 1998 FIA European Top Fuel Championship. In 2000 she won the FIA European Top Fuel Championship title and became the first racer to win this title in two categories.
After a four year hiatus to concentrate on raising a family and expanding the family business, Anita replaced Tommi as the driver of the family-owned TF and from 2009 to 2015 she finished in the fop five of the FIA European Top Fuel Championship six times, posting four race wins and the European ET and speed records along the way.
With the tuning advice of the Lagana brothers, in 2016 Anita won two races and claimed her second FIA European Top Fuel Championship title and repeated her Championship form again in 2918. Anita’s best year ever was 2019 during which she won four of the six FIA Championship races and claimed her fourth FIA European Top Furl Championship title.
The 2020 covid pandemic changed her plans for defending the FIA Championship title but she and Tommi still attend select races and compete in exhibition races. A quick recap of Anita’s career shows she won a FIA record number of fifteen Top Fuel races and is still leading the all-time cumulative points total for Top Fuel drivers in the history of the FIA European Championship.
Anita was inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2019 and remains a fan favorite wherever she goes.
