Second-year Top Fuel driver Khalid al-Balooshi races to the first-round win against rival driver Brandon Bernstein at Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals near Chicago.
Agencies/Joliet (Illinois)
Khalid al-Balooshi, the second-year Top Fuel driver from Dubai, raced to a quarter-final finish near Chicago 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, at the just-completed O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals, the 12th of 24 races that make up America’s 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season.
Al-Balooshi made an excellent qualifying effort on Friday, but when many teams improved their qualifying positions during Saturday attempts, al-Balooshi’s gold Al-Anabi team did not follow suit, and he entered Sunday’s eliminations as the No. 10 qualifier. Still determined, the gold Al-Anabi team made a masterful run in the first round of eliminations and defeated No. 7 qualifier Brandon Bernstein.
However, in the second round, al-Balooshi ran into seven-time World Champion Tony Schumacher who was racing at his home track. The veteran Schumacher took the second-round win from the second-year Top Fuel driver and went onto win the race. With the quarter-final finish, al-Balooshi remains sixth in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.
He trails fifth-place Doug Kalitta by 46 points and leads seventh-place Clay Millican by 37 points. “Our team worked very hard this weekend, but we did not get the result we wanted,” al-Balooshi said. “We made a very good run in the first round, but in the second round against Tony (Schumacher), we smoked the tires. That is not what we wanted for our Al-Anabi team so we will go to Ohio next week and do our best to do better. As always, I thank Sheikh Khalid for giving me the opportunity to drive for his race team.”
On the silver side of the Al-Anabi pit area, driver Shawn Langdon, who entered the event as the points leader, had a qualifying fate similar to al-Balooshi’s and entered eliminations as the No. 9 qualifier. He raced the No. 8 qualifier, rival Steve Torrence, in the first round, and both drivers battled cars that smoked the tires. Torrence made it slightly further down the track before smoking the tires than Langdon and went onto win the round.
The first-round loss was the first for Langdon since Las Vegas in April, eight races ago. Langdon’s first-round loss coupled with a race win for Schumacher, who entered the weekend second in points, means the drivers switched positions in the point standings. Langdon is now second in points trailing first-place Schumacher by 37 points.
“We didn’t have the weekend or the results we were expecting for the Al-Anabi team,” Langdon said. “Qualifying started well on Friday; we didn’t improve on Saturday, but we still felt confident we’d have a good car on race day. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way; we smoked the tires, I tried to recover, and we smoked the tires again. We lost the battle today, but our goal is winning the prize at the end of the year – the Top Fuel World Championship. I know I speak for everyone on the Al-Anabi Racing Team when I say we appreciate the support we get from Sheikh Khalid and the people of Qatar.”