Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Team driver Khalid alBalooshi, near lane, begins his final-round race against 2012 NHRA World Champion Antron Brown on Sunday in St Louis. AlBalooshi’s runner-up finish moved him to eighth place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. Photo Courtesy: Gary Nastase
ST LOUIS, Missouri: In a stunning seven-day reversal, Dubai driver Khalid alBalooshi went from failing to qualify for last week’s race in Dallas to narrowly missing his third-career victory for the Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Team, the two-time World Championship team owned by Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani at the just-completed AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals, the third of six races that comprise the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs and the 21st of 24 races that make up America’s 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season.
AlBalooshi made four excellent runs during qualifying and was the No. 4 qualifier. In Sunday’s eliminations, he defeated Bob Vandergriff, Brittany Force and David Grubnic before losing to Antron Brown in the final round. It was alBalooshi’s third final round of the season, and with the runner-up finish, alBalooshi moved up to eighth place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails seventh-place Clay Millican by six points and leads ninth-place Bob Vandergriff by 58 points, but he is just 53 points out of fifth place.
“It was a good day for our Al-Anabi team especially the final round when the car made another very good run,” alBalooshi said. “We broke the engine in the semifinals, and the Al-Anabi team changed everything in the car for the final round. My crew chief (Jason McCulloch) changed everything in the tune-up. He changed a lot of things, and it was a very different car from the one that won in the semifinals. We made a very good run, and I am so happy with Jason; I am very happy with what our Al-Anabi team is doing. I am very happy with how my crew and my crew chief are working on the car. We had a very good race this weekend, and I know our team will have another good race next week in Reading.”
On the silver side of the Al-Anabi pit area, Shawn Langdon earned his second-consecutive No.1 qualifier, his sixth of the season and the 12th of his career. In eliminations, he defeated Troy Buff before losing to David Grubnic in the quarterfinals when the silver Al-Anabi car smoked the tires during the run. Still, Langdon leaves St. Louis atop the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings; he leads second-place Doug Kalitta by 33 points, and that margin is greater than he had when he began the Countdown do the Championship NHRA play-offs as the top seed three races ago.
“The Al-Anabi team did a great job this weekend,” Langdon said. “We qualified well and got the No. 1 qualifying spot. We made great runs in three of the four qualifying sessions. We were very, very strong in the first round of eliminations with a 3.76 (3.76-second run) that shows the potential of the direction the Al-Anabi team is going. In the second round, the track warmed up a little bit, and we were a little bit too aggressive with our tune-up and smoked the tires. That’s the bad side of things. The good side of things is that the Al-Anabi team leaves St. Louis with the points lead so with three races to go, we are in control of our own destiny.”
The Al-Anabi Racing team will be back in action on October 4 to 6 at the Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pa., the fourth race of six races that comprise the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs.
For additional information, please visit www.nhra.com.
The Peninsula
