BRISTOL, Tennessee: 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, have qualified for eliminations at the 14th annual Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, the 10th of 24 events making up the United States’ 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.
Dubai driver Khalid alBalooshi made two consistently solid qualifying attempts in the Eastern Tennessee Mountains and is currently the No. 6 qualifier.
AlBalooshi made a very good run in the evening session and was sixth with a 3.842-second effort.
In the night session, the second-year Top Fuel driver made an excellent pass and improved on his previous run with a 3.824-second pass at 324.20 mph.
“Our team made two good runs today, and we were consistent,” alBalooshi said.
AlBalooshi added: “In the night qualifying session, we made a run that was a little bit better than the first run, and we are sixth. Some other cars ran better than we did, but we will have two more chances to get better. I know everybody on our team will be ready to race on Sunday, and everything will be ok.”
On the silver side of the Al-Anabi pit, NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel points leader Shawn Langdon is the No. 7 qualifier at the mid-point of the qualifying process.
Like his team-mate, Langdon had a very good run in the evening session. Langdon’s 3.826-second effort was good enough for second after the first attempt.
In the night session, Langdon was on a brilliant pass when the tyres on the silver Al-Anabi car began to lose traction, and Langdon was forced to abort the run.
As other cars improved, Langdon dropped from second to seventh after the second qualifying attempt.
“We were trying to make the Al-Anabi car the No. 1 qualifier,” Langdon said.
Langdon added: “We just put a little too much power in our setup and overpowered the race track so the car smoked the tyres. We have two more qualifying attempts to improve our position, and the Al-Anabi team will definitely be ready to race on Sunday.”
The driver pointed out: “We have won the last two races, and we are going to do everything we can to make it three in a row for Sheikh Khalid.”
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