Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team manager Alan Johnson, left, Dubai native Khalid al-Balooshi and crew chief Jason McCulloch celebrate al-Balooshi’s win in Norwalk, Ohio on July 7. Picture: Gary Nastase
By Our Correspondent/Morrison, Colorado
|
Khalid al-Balooshi’s second-career Top Fuel win two weeks ago in Ohio was monumental for the second-year Top Fuel driver, and the entire Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team, the two-time World Championship team owned by His Excellency Sheikh Khalid Hamad al-Thani, will reap the benefits.
This weekend’s 34th annual Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals is the 15th of 24 races making up the United States’ 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, and it begins the 25th annual Western Swing, three races on consecutive weekends in Denver, Colorado, Sonoma, California and Seattle, Washington. Qualifying is today and tomorrow with eliminations set for Sunday.
The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ Top Fuel class is ultra-competitive with many teams capable of winning on any given race weekend. So al-Balooshi’s win two weeks ago was a huge achievement. He defeated the reigning champion and the weekend’s top qualifier on his way to the winner’s circle, and with the win, although he remained sixth in points, he inched closer to the top of the standings. The Dubai native now trails fifth place by 27 points and fourth place by just 36 points.
“Winning the race in Norwalk was very good for our Al-Anabi team,” al-Balooshi said. “We have been waiting for this day since we won the race in Reading (Pa.) last year. This win is good for everyone who works with our team, (team owner) Sheikh Khalid, (crew chief) Jason McCulloch, (team manager) Alan Johnson, our crew – we were all very happy. I have tried my best all season; everyone on my team has tried his best all year, and now we have another win.”
Indeed they do, and with that win, al-Balooshi qualified for the Traxxas Nitro Shootout in Indianapolis in September; it is a special event for race winners, and racing in the Traxxas Shootout is quite prestigious. In addition, with his climb in the point standings, al-Balooshi has not yet clinched a playoff berth, but he has made a major move in that direction. If both Al-Anabi teams make the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs, it would be a major achievement for the team.
“The win was good, but we have more work to do,” al-Balooshi said. “This week, we go back to Denver where I won my first Top Fuel round. It will be good to be back there. Our team is stronger than it was last year, and now we are getting more points. We have to keep working to make our team better and better and better. I said before the season to watch our team this year because we were going to do something special. The win in Norwalk was special, but now we want to do something special again soon.” And qualifying for the playoffs would be just that.
Silver Al-Anabi driver Shawn Langdon enters the Western Swing as the points leader, albeit by a single marker over seven-time champion Tony Schumacher. This weekend’s race is called the Mopar Mile-High Nationals because the race track, just outside Denver, is more than a mile above sea level, and racing at such altitude is difficult on the engines. Bandimere Speedway, site of this weekend’s event, is one of only four race tracks on which the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series races at which the Al-Anabi Racing Team has not yet won a race. With both Al-Anabi teams running well this year, perhaps this is the year the team conquers the difficult racing conditions in Denver.
“Denver is tough because the air is so thin up there,” Langdon said. “They call it the Mile-High Nationals because we’re racing more than a mile above sea level. You basically go to Denver with a whole different combination and change everything in your setup for this one particular race. There’s no other place we go where we can even test for conditions like these at this one particular race. We go there, look back at notes from the previous years for things we’ve learned in the past and try to improve our tune-up. You just change so many things that it’s very difficult to be able to go there and have a good handle on it from the first run. I have all the confidence in the world in the Al-Anabi team, and I know we can win the race this weekend.”