Al-Anabi Racing’s Mike Castellana Looks to do it Again at the “Big Go”
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (September 3, 2009) – Only a handful of the sport of drag racing’s best ever can call the winner’s circle at the historic O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis familiar territory. For Mike Castellana, Rickie Smith and the Al-Anabi Racing Pro Modified team, the “Big Go” has always seemed to be a place where things simply come together; like they did just a year ago when Castellana took the NHRA Pro Mod Challenge victory, beating out Joshua Hernandez in the final round.
Once again led by world championship driver and tuner Shannon “The Iceman” Jenkins, Castellana is more confident than ever going into this weekend’s festivities.
“Winning Indy last year was one of the biggest accomplishments of my racing career, and an ever bigger deal for this team,” said Castellana. “The U.S. Nationals is the crown jewel of drag racing, we’re excited, and I believe we know what it’s going to take to win – consistency on race day.”
Castellana continued, “Of course, it’s going to take performance, too. With Shannon [Jenkins, crew chief] calling the shots, though, that shouldn’t be a problem.”
The Al-Anabi Racing team has proven, especially in 2009, that horsepower and on-track performance is their specialty. Castellana buried the NHRA Pro Mod Challenge nitrous elapsed time mark in Englishtown, laying down a 5.942-second, 237.21mph blast, right in front of his teammate “Tricky” Rickie Smith, a seven-time IHRA Pro Stock world champion, who posted a 5.95/237mph combination. Given the opportunity, the team looks to do the same this weekend in Indy.
Castellana, who recently took delivery of a brand-new ’70.5 Chevy Camaro, is confident that 5.80s in the quarter-mile at well over 240mph are a possibility for the nitrous-oxide injected combination, and has credited a big part of the team’s success as of late to the combination of Speedtech Innovative Nitrous Solutions and Reher-Morrison Racing Engines.
Currently leading the Get Screened America NHRA Pro Mod Challenge points is Al-Anabi Racing’s Burton Auxier. Auxier has enjoyed one of the most incredible seasons of his professional racing career, but well knows the challenges that lay ahead.
“It feels good,” Auxier said of his current points lead, “but there’s a lot of pressure that comes along with it. It’s late enough in the season now that everyone has tested and ironed out their combination; it’s really going to be tough to stay at the front of the pack. These guys are really running good; I hope that we can run hard this weekend, be consistent, and go some rounds.”
Auxier also felt the new engine program from Reher-Morrison along with the multi-stage tried and true Speedtech Nitrous systems plumbed onto the intake manifold have shown unbelievable promise.
Auxier commented, “At Columbus we ran a 3.91 to the eighth-mile without much of a tune-up. We’re still trying some things, trying to find what this combination really wants, but we’ve been able to run really well, and once we give this thing what it really wants – I think we’re all going to be surprised.”
There’s a lot of racing left to do in 2009, but the primary goal for Al-Anabi Racing this weekend will be to put a team car in the winner’s circle, but for two-thirds of the team it’ll be to make history and win the NHRA Pro Mod Challenge at Indy twice.
The trio of Pro Modified giants will take to the legendary quarter-mile at O’Reilly Raceway Park for the first round of qualifying at 5:00 p.m. Friday evening, with two rounds scheduled on Saturday at 3:00 and 5:00 pm, and a final qualifying shot on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Elimination rounds will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday evening and conclude on Monday afternoon.
ABOUT AL-ANABI RACING/QATAR
A result of drag racing’s continually increasing popularity abroad, Al-Anabi Racing is based out of the country of Qatar. Qatar is widely-known for working with the United States military forces to build one of the premier U.S. air bases in the Arabian Gulf Region at Al-Udeid. The Qatari philosophy was to obtain the best defense by providing the best facilities for U.S. and coalition forces. At the heart of the Al-Anabi Racing program is His Highness Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani, a member of the ruling family of Qatar, who set a goal of promoting the domestic and international awareness of motorsports in the nation of Qatar through multiple racing teams competing within the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.
Al-Anabi Racing recently completed construction and held its first events at the new Qatar Race Club (QRC), a state of the art drag strip outside the city of Doha in the nation of Qatar.
