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The first three races were good, but everyone knows this team can do even better. And if you are driving for the Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team, the two-time World Championship team owned by His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani, you enter the event with the confidence of having both cars in the top five in points and some impressive team history on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. |
This weekend’s 14th annual Summitracing.com NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas is the fourth of 24 races making up the United States’ 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.
Qualifying is today and tomorrow with eliminations set for Sunday. The last time Dubai’s Khalid al-Balooshi raced in Las Vegas last October, he made an impressive semifinal run. After qualifying fourth, he defeated 2012 Top Fuel Champion Antron Brown and J R Todd before losing to Tony Schumacher in the semifinals. With his win at the race prior in Pennsylvania, al-Balooshi had then won six consecutive rounds of racing.
Fast forward to this weekend, and al-Balooshi enters the fourth race of the season in fifth place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings; he has a semifinal and two quarterfinal appearances already this season. The Dubai, UAE native has now won at least one round of competition at each of the last 12 races dating back to last season; that first-round win streak is the longest in the entire class.
“Our Al-Anabi team is doing better than we did early last season; we all want more good runs, and we are working on that,” Al-Balooshi said. “We stayed in Gainesville after the last race to test, and I think we had a good test. We know we must keep getting better and better every race. What I know I can tell you is that last year, we did not find our luck until the summer. This year, we started the season much better, and I know our team will have a good year. I know everyone will work his hardest, and our team will get better and better with each race weekend. I also know I must do a better job driving the car, and I am working on that.”
After competing in Gainesville, Florida in March, al-Balooshi travelled to Doha, Qatar to race in the Qatar Mile, a competition in which competitors drive one mile, from a standing start, to determine who can reach the top speed in one mile. The race is held on an old airport runway; al-Balooshi finished second after winning the inaugural Qatar Mile event in February. Shawn Langdon enters the Summitracing.com NHRA Nationals in third place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. One year ago, the Al-Anabi Racing Team entered the fourth race of the season with Langdon in fifth place and his teammate al-Balooshi in 11th place in the Top Fuel point standings. This season, Langdon enters the season’s fourth race in third place with alBalooshi currently fifth.
“I think our cars are running better for a couple of reasons,” Langdon said. “Alan (team manager Alan Johnson) and the crew chiefs kind of took a step back and went through a learning process last year trying some different things in the different areas of performance that affect how the car runs.
“ I also think there was a transition period for both Al-Balooshi and me with both of us being new to the team last year. We had to get used to being with a new team and get acclimated to how the al-Anabi team operates. So I think it was a big learning experience for all of us last year, but as the year went on, we began to find our chemistry about the same time the cars began to find their performance. I think the way we were running at the end of last year has carried over to this season, but now our job is to keep getting better every time we make a run.”
The Al-Anabi Racing Team won races at Las Vegas in 2010 and ’11; team manager Alan Johnson and both Al-Anabi crew chiefs were also a part of Las Vegas race wins in 2004, ’05, ’06 and ’08. Mix that excellent history with a little racing luck, and you might have a recipe that puts the Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team back in the winner’s circle.
“You always have race tracks where you just, for some reason, feel comfortable as a driver,” Langdon said. “I am sure for crew chiefs it’s the same thing; it’s nice for me to know how much success Alan, Brian and Jason have had in Las Vegas.”
