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Shawn Langdon reached the final round of eliminations for the Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Team, the three-time and defending World Championship team owned by His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani on Sunday. |
With Langdon’s final-round appearance at the just-completed third annual AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals,
the 21st of 24 races that make up America’s 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing
season and the third of six races that
comprise the Countdown to the
Championship NHRA Playoffs, he moved up to second in points.
The reigning world champ, the No. 5 qualifier, was simply in brilliant form all weekend. The silver Al-Anabi car made four excellent qualifying runs, and on race day, the car continued the consistency it displayed earlier in the weekend.
Langdon defeated Pat Dakin, J.R. Todd and Bob Vandergriff to advance to the finals, where he met 2012 world champion Antron Brown. Both cars started of spectacularly, and Langdon was ahead halfway through the race.
Because the car had been brilliant all weekend, it was set up to make another strong run – but it was set up a touch too aggressively, and it smoked the tires during the run allowing Brown to reach the finish line first.
Points leader Tony Schumacher, who won the first two races of the playoffs, lost in the first round. With his first-round loss and Langdon’s final-round showing, the reigning world champ is now second in points just 57 markers out of first place.
“It was a great weekend for the Al-Anabi team,” Langdon said. “We qualified well and ran well in eliminations. We found a major problem with the car early in the weekend, fixed it and really turned a corner on our season.
“We treated this weekend like the first race of 2014 – we kind of needed to start all over. We made excellent runs all weekend but just got a little too aggressive in the final and smoked the tires during the run. The bottom line, though, is that we have our race car back, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the season.”
On the gold side of the Al-Anabi pit area, Khalid alBalooshi made a valiant effort for the Al-Anabi team but lost to Steve Torrence in the first round of eliminations. The instant alBalooshi hit the throttle, the gold Al-Anabi car smoked the tires indicating some sort of race track problem with the lane he was in.
After alBalooshi’s run, teams with lane choice began choosing the opposite lane from the one alBalooshi was in.
With the first-round loss, alBalooshi dropped one spot to eighth place in the NHAR Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails seventh-place Spencer Massey by 11 and leads ninth-place Richie Crampton by 63 points.
“We have been a little behind in qualifying,” alBalooshi said. “We have been trying to get better so we can catch lane choice. We did not have lane choice on Sunday. When I saw the cars in front of us smoke the tires, especially Tony (Schumacher) because he has been so good in the last three races, I knew there was trouble with the lane. “We smoked the tires like the others did, and our day was done. I know we would have been one of the best cars in the show, but it is what it is. We can try again next week.”
The Al-Anabi Racing team will be back in action from October 3-5 at the
30th annual NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pennsylvania.
