GEORGIA: Third year Top Fuel pilot Khalid AlBalooshi continued his strong season in a shortened qualifying session yesterday for the Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team, the three-time NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Champions owned by H E Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani.
AlBalooshi, who was only able to make one qualifying attempt, is eighth while his teammate, 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Champion Shawn Langdon, is 13th at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals near Atlanta, Georgia, the seventh of 24 events that make up the United States’ 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.
Dubai native AlBalooshi opened qualifying with a very solid 3.836-second run at nearly 320 mph and was sixth after the first session.
Poised to make a run at his first-career No. 1 qualifier as a Top Fuel driver, AlBalooshi was excited to make his second run. Multiple delays, including two for brief rain showers, pushed the second qualifying attempt late into the night with temperatures rapidly falling.
In addition, 2012 World Champion Antron Brown suffered a scary crash but thankfully walked away from his mangled race car.
However, the ensuing cleanup pushed the event into air temperatures that were no longer safe for racing, so the National Hot Rod Association cancelled the rest of the evening session.
AlBalooshi was not able to make his second qualifying attempt; his run remained good enough for the eighth position as two drivers made evening runs quicker that alBalooshi’s before the remainder of the session was cancelled. He will have two chances to improve his starting place for race day today.
“We started the day with a good first run and I think we were going to make a very fast run,” AlBalooshi said.
“Jason (crew chief Jason McCulloch) said he was going to push the car, and I was really excited to make this run. “We did not get to make that run because of all the delays.
There’s nothing we can do about it, but I know our team will be ready to make that strong run.”THE PENINSULA
