Al-Anabi Racing ready for Inagural New England Nationals
Shawn Langdon, Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (silver):
Shawn Langdon enters the Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals in second place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails first-place Tony Schumacher by one point and leads third-place Spencer Massey by 85 points.
Langdon enters the New England Nationals having won three races this season, more than any other Top Fuel driver, including two of the last three; he visited the winner’s circle in Topeka, Kan. in May and at Englishtown, N.J. earlier this month. His first win came at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. in February. He now has four-career Top Fuel wins.
Langdon has been a solid qualifier this season; his average qualifying position is 4.50. He was the No. 1 qualifier at three of the last six races taking top qualifier honors at Charlotte, Atlanta Dragway and Topeka, and he has qualified in the top-four positions at six of the 10 events this year. Langdon has nine career No. 1 qualifiers.
Langdon has advanced to at least the semifinals at six of the 10 races this season; he has three wins among five final-round appearances, and he has advanced to the final round at four of the last six races.
Al-Anabi Racing team manager Alan Johnson and crew chiefs Jason McCulloch and Brian Husen know a thing or two about tuning Top Fuel cars on race tracks they’ve never seen before. This weekend’s race at New England Dragway represents the first time the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series has visited the Epping, N.H. race track. It is the first new race track to join the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series since zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C. joined in 2008. Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio joined the series a year earlier in 2007. The U.S. Army team won the inaugural Top Fuel title at both tracks when Johnson was the Army Team crew chief. Both of his current Al-Anabi Racing crew chiefs, McCulloch and Husen, worked with Johnson on the U.S. Army team during those inaugural victories.
With Langdon’s win in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. in February, he has qualified for the Traxxas Shootout. The second-year special event for eight Top Fuel teams and eight Funny Car teams is set for Indianapolis during the U.S. Nationals on Labor Day weekend. Last year, Langdon did not qualify for the event because he did not win a race prior to it nor did he advance into the race from the drawing for non-winners.
Langdon recorded the fastest speed to 1,000 feet in NHRA history last fall in Reading, Pa. when he reached 334.15 mph. In addition, during the same Reading race weekend, his 3.712-second elapsed time was the national elapsed-time record until Antron Brown made a quicker pass in the same weekend. It still stands as the second-quickest 1,000-foot run in NHRA history.
Since December, Langdon has been serving as the Al-Anabi Racing interim general manager. When Chad Head departed the race team in December to join his father’s construction business and drive the Head Racing Funny Car, Langdon stepped in to assist the team with day-to-day operations at the race shop. He will continue in this role until Head’s replacement is hired, but during race weekends, Langdon will focus solely on driving the Al-Anabi Racing silver Top Fuel dragster.
The Al-Anabi Racing Team won a total of two races in 2012 with Langdon and his teammate Khalid alBalooshi each reaching the winner’s circle once. The two-race win total was the lowest season total since the team was founded in 2009. That season, the team won eight times with five in Top Fuel and three in Funny Car; in 2010, Al-Anabi Racing visited the Top Fuel winner’s circle 12 times followed by 10 wins in 2011 when the team fielded two Top Fuel dragsters for the first time. Langdon claimed last season’s first Al-Anabi race win at the season’s 18th race.
Langdon qualified for the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs in each of his four previous seasons driving a Top Fuel car. He finished fourth in the final NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings last season after finishing ninth in 2011, fifth in 2010, and ninth in 2009, his rookie season.
Langdon joined the Al-Anabi Racing team prior to the 2012 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. He won the 2007 and ’08 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Super Comp championships and the 1997 NHRA Junior Dragster championship in the 14-under division making him a three-time NHRA national series champion.
Langdon prior to New Hampshire:
“We didn’t have the weekend we hoped to have last week in Bristol, but are still right there at the top of the point standings basically tied with Tony(Schumacher) for the points lead. It’s going to be like that all year long because there are so many good-running cars. The points battle will stay tight, and it may even get tighter top-to-bottom in the top 10 as the year goes on. We are just trying to keep the Al-Anabi car up top because we really feel like we have a top-running car, and hopefully we can stay there.
“We are looking forward to racing in New Hampshire this weekend. It’s a new place for NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing so we don’t have any data on the track or history of runs to guide us, but that’s basically where my trust in the Al-Anabi team comes in. These guys do an excellent job preparing the car, and they do an excellent job tuning the car for the conditions when the car goes down the track. For me as a driver, it’s a matter of trying to keep the car going straight, getting to the finish line as quickly as I can, letting these guys do their job and hopefully giving them an opportunity to flex their muscles a little bit.
“It’s always exciting to go to a new track and see things you haven’t seen before. We have an opportunity to go to downtown Boston and see a Red Sox game. Going to a new market is an opportunity for our sport to get some new fans, and we are excited to go Boston and New Hampshire. I know New England has some hard-core Motorsports fans, and I’m looking forward to introducing them to our sport this weekend.”
Khalid alBalooshi, Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (gold):
Khalid alBalooshi enters the Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals in a career best fifth place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails fourth-place Antron Brown by 82 points and leads sixth-place Doug Kalitta by 15 points.
AlBalooshi advanced to the final round of eliminations at the Toyota NHRA Summernationals earlier this month. It was his first final-round of the season and the second of his two-year Top Fuel career.
AlBalooshi has been a solid qualifier this season; he qualified second, his career best, at both Houston Raceway Park and Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J. The Englishtown race marked the fifth-consecutive race at which one of the Al-Anabi cars qualified first or second. AlBalooshi has qualified in the top six at eight of the season’s 10 races.
AlBalooshi now has a final round appearance and two semifinals in 10 races this season. With his final-round appearance at Englishtown, N.J., the Dubai native has 11 round wins in the season’s first 10 races. Last year, his 11th round win of the season was the final round at Reading, Pa. when he won his first-career Top Fuel race at the season’s 21st race. His sophomore season is off to a much better start than his rookie season in 2012.
AlBalooshi captured the first Top Fuel win of his career during his rookie season last year. On a cold, rainy weekend during which national performance records were being set with impressive regularity, alBalooshi defeated Spencer Massey, Ike Maier, his teammate Shawn Langdon and eventual 2012 Top Fuel champion Anton Brown in the final round of the Auto Parts Nationals in Reading, Pa.
AlBalooshi’s rookie year was a story of two very different half seasons. In the first half of the season, alBalooshi was defeated in the first round of eliminations at all 12 races. However, after getting his first Top Fuel round win at Denver in July, alBalooshi advanced to at least the second round of eliminations at10 of the last 11 races of the season including each of the last nine. He had a win and a semifinal in the last three races, and before he lost in the Las Vegas semifinals at the second-to-last race of the year, he had won six consecutive rounds of racing.
AlBalooshi chose the No. 99 for the Al-Anabi Racing gold dragster as a tribute to Al-Anabi Racing team owner His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani because nine is Sheikh Khalid’s favorite number.
AlBalooshi, the first Middle Eastern driver to compete in a major United States Motorsports series, joined the Al-Anabi Racing Team as a Pro Mod driver when it was formed in 2009 racing in both Arabian Drag Racing League and American Drag Racing League competition. He is the 2011 NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod champion. Prior to joining the Top Fuel portion of the Al-Anabi Racing Team in 2012, he had 158 career race wins in various classes of competition.
AlBalooshi prior to New Hampshire:
“We are having a good year this year; last year, I had a good car but I did not find my racing luck. This year, I have a better car, and I am finding some luck. I am doing better, the team is doing better, and I think in the end, this year will be way better than last year. I missed the light (left the starting line late) last week in Bristol (Tenn.), and we lost the race. I need to catch a way better light because our crew gives me a very good car, but I left what happened last week in Bristol. I will try my best this week to put my team in way better position.
“I am not worried about racing on a race track we have not seen before. My job is the same –cut a good light, keep the car straight and open the chute at the finish line. It will be the same for me, but it will be harder on Jason (crew chief Jason McCulloch). He has to start from the beginning, but I am not worried because I know our Al-Anabi crew is very good. Jason and the crew will make sure everything will be OK.”
