Al-Anabi heads to Sonoma for Round 2 of the Western Swing
Shawn Langdon, Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (silver):
Reigning NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel world champion Shawn Langdon enters the NHRA Sonoma Nationals in third place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails second-place Antron Brown by 164 and leads fourth place Tony Schumacher by 143 points.
Langdon is the defending champion of the NHRA Sonoma Nationals. The team also won at Sonoma Raceway in 2010 with driver Larry Dixon. Langdon was the No. 6 qualifier last year; he defeated Bob Vandergriff, Doug Kalitta, Antron Brown and Morgan Lucas on his way to the winner’s circle.
Langdon has advanced to at least the semifinals at six of the last 10 races. He won his first race of the season and the ninth of his career last month in Bristol, Tenn. He has one win (Bristol), three final rounds (Charlotte, Topeka and Norwalk) and two semifinal appearances (Houston and Englishtown) in the last 10 races.
With his June Bristol win, Langdon qualified for the 2014 Traxxas Nitro Shootout in Indianapolis on Labor Day weekend. Langdon is the defending champion of the special event; last year, he defeated Brittany Force, Antron Brown and Steve Torrence on his way to winning the second-year event and its $100,000 prize. He went on to win the U.S. Nationals the next day.
Langdon has been a solid qualifier this season; he has qualified in the top-five positions at nine of the 14 races; his average qualifying position in 2014 is 4.93. He has three No. 1 qualifiers this season and 16 in his career. He was an excellent qualifier last year when his average qualifying position was 3.75.
The NHRA Sonoma Nationals is the second event of the grueling three-race Western Swing. Racing on three-consecutive weekends is no longer unique as the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series now races on four consecutive weekends somewhat routinely, but what makes these three races so difficult is the distance the crews must drive between races in Denver and Sonoma, Calif., 1,250 miles, between Sonoma and Seattle, 775 miles and then the distance between Seattle and the race shops mostly located near Indianapolis, 2,271 miles.
Langdon prior to Sonoma:
“It will be good to get back to Sonoma this weekend; Sonoma Raceway is one of the nicest facilities we go to, and it’s always nice to be up there in wine country. I always enjoy racing there because I grew up racing Super Comp at Sonoma, and I always have a lot of friends and family there. If the weather is nice, hopefully we can get back to racing in the 3.70s and over 320 mph; that will be fun for everyone.
“Sonoma is a good track for the Al-Anabi team; we’re very familiar with it. It’s always nice to go back to a track as the defending champion. We obviously ran really well there last year so we’re familiar with how to make our car run well at Sonoma – especially when the track heats up on Sunday. The Al-Anabi car isn’t that far off, it’s just taking a little bit of time to get things adjusted to where we need them to make it consistently fast. We just have to keep working at it.
“I also like going to Sonoma because there’s lots to do during the week out there to kind of get your mind off of racing which might be a good thing after a first-round loss in Denver. I’m looking forward to getting out to California to play some golf and do some wine tasting before getting ready to qualify on Friday.”
Khalid alBalooshi, Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (gold):
Third-year Top Fuel driver Khalid alBalooshi enters the NHRA Sonoma Nationals in ninth place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails eighth-place J.R. Todd by 20 points and leads 10th-place Richie Crampton by seven points.
The Al-Anabi team has two wins at Sonoma Raceway; Larry Dixon won in 2010, and Shawn Langdon won last year. One year ago in Sonoma, alBalooshi was the No. 4 qualifier; he defeated Brandon Bernstein before losing to Spencer Massey in the quarterfinals.
AlBalooshi prior to Sonoma:
“Denver was not a good race for our team, and I know we are happy to race in Sonoma this week. I think in Sonoma, everyone will have his car back. We need to forget what happened in Denver. I think over there (in Sonoma), it will be different. We can go back to working on the things we were doing on the car before we changed everything to race in Denver. We have been fighting to find our tune-up this year, and we are very close. Sonoma is a good track for our team; Shawn won the race there last year. We can look back at all our notes from the past to get our car back to being one of the best in the show.”
