Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon makes a run under threatening skies in Indianapolis. RIGHT: Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani (left), and Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Team Manager Alan Johnson talk during the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event in Sonoma, California in this July 2013 file picture.
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana: Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani, Al-Anabi Racing and Alan Johnson have agreed to a five-year contract extension, the team announced yesterday.
The Al-Anabi Racing team will continue to develop international awareness of the State of Qatar and highlight the nation’s international sports outreach through National Hot Rod Association competition.
Like the last five years, Alan Johnson will continue to manage the Top Fuel portion of Al-Anabi Racing, a two-time NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Championship team, at least through the 2018 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. The team will continue to field two Top Fuel dragsters piloted by current drivers Khalid alBalooshi and Shawn Langdon.
“I am very pleased that we have the opportunity to build on our successful five years and want to thank Alan Johnson and all of the team members of Al-Anabi Racing who brought two championships and a winning esprit de corps to Al-Anabi Racing,” Al-Anabi Racing team owner Sheikh Khalid bin Al Thani said.
“I know without the hard work of all the team members, we could not have had the record this team has amassed in our first five years. Our extension allows us to continue to invest in technology to push the envelope for even faster times.”
“We are extremely happy to extend our relationship with Sheikh Khalid, Al-Anabi Racing and the State of Qatar,” Al-Anabi Racing team manager Alan Johnson said.
“We are very proud of our team’s accomplishments in its first five years. Through our working and personal relationships with Sheikh Khalid, we have enjoyed learning a great deal about the Qatari culture as well as Sheikh Khalid’s vision and commitment to the sport of drag racing and this great race team. Our relationship with Sheikh Khalid has been very rewarding in many ways.
“We look forward to the challenge of improving our performance both on and off the race track in the next five years. Since this race team began operation in 2009, our goal has been to win races and championships for Qatar and Sheikh Khalid – that will not change. In the next five years, everyone on our team will continue striving to be the best Top Fuel team in drag racing worldwide while providing additional international awareness of the State of Qatar, its industries, Motorsports and education initiatives.”
The team was extremely successful in its first five years finishing just two points out of the Top Fuel championship in 2009, its inaugural season.
The following year, the team won the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Championship with driver Larry Dixon, and in 2011, team Al-Anabi successfully defended its World Championship with driver Del Worsham.
The current drivers began driving for the team in 2012, and this year, Langdon and the silver Al-Anabi team enter this week’s US Nationals leading the field by 121 points while alBalooshi and the gold Al-Anabi team enter the US Nationals in fifth place in the point standings.
To date, the team has won 36 races including two races the team won in Funny Car before Worsham made the switch to Top Fuel for the 2011 season.
Meanwhile, at the world’s largest and most prestigious drag race with some 1,000 cars competing in 12 classes, the clear winner so far is the weather.
Both teams that comprise the Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team, the two-time NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Champions owned by Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani, entered the weekend hoping to win the Traxxas Nitro Shootout and the Chevrolet Performance US Nationals, the 18th of 24 events making up the United States’ 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.
Qualifying resumes today with eliminations set for Labour Day, a national holiday in the United States.
During the opening round of qualifying, both Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel teams, as well as most of the other teams, had trouble managing the oppressive late-summer Indiana heat and a very hot race track.
Neither Al-Anabi car made it down the race track yesterday night. The Peninsula
