Qatar Al-Anabi Racing No. 1 qualifier at rain-delayed race

SPEED DEMON: Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon begins his track-record qualifying run with Goodyear tires near Atlanta, Georgia. Langdon claimed his second No. 1 qualifier in the last three races. PICTURE: Ron Lewis

Agencies/Commerce, Georgia

The Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Team, the two-time NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Champions owned by His Excellency, Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani, is the No 1 qualifier for the second time in the last three NHRA races.

Last week, persistent rain showers forced National Hot Rod Association officials to postpone the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals until this weekend, and the Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team has made the most of the rescheduled event so far. This weekend’s race is the seventh of 24 events making up the United States’ 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.  

Today is Mother’s Day in the United States — it is a day reserved nationwide for families to be together as children pay tribute to their mothers.

When the race was rained out last weekend, NHRA re-scheduled the event to this weekend with two qualifying attempts, rather than the usual four, on Friday and eliminations scheduled for Saturday instead of Sunday allowing fans and racers to be together with their families at home for Mother’s Day.  The Al-Anabi team appears to like abbreviated qualifying.

In the first round of qualifying, silver Al-Anabi driver Shawn Langdon was second with a 3.864-second pass in the mid-afternoon heat.  With cooler conditions in the late afternoon, the silver Al-Anabi car blasted down the drag strip with a brilliant 3.791-second run at 324.36 mph setting track records for both elapsed time and speed while scoring Langdon his second No 1 qualifier of the season, his second in the last three races and the eighth of his career.  

“That was a great run for the Al-Anabi team,” Langdon said.  “With only two rounds of qualifying this weekend, we were a little conservative on the first run to make sure we got down the racetrack.  We accomplished that and found a lot of areas that we could improve on, and I think that showed a little bit on the second run.  The Al-Anabi team is really running well right now; if we keep working, we know we can win another race for Sheikh Khalid soon.”

Dubai driver Khalid al-Balooshi was seventh after the first round of qualifying in his gold Al-Anabi car. In his second and final qualifying attempt, al-Balooshi’s dragster was on an excellent run – possibly better than Langdon’s – when the crankshaft on the car broke; the Al-Anabi car went silent and coasted to the finish line.