Team Al-Anabi – buy the Numbers – Headed to Norwalk
Shawn Langdon, Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (silver):
– Shawn Langdon enters the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in second place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails points leader Tony Schumacher by 37 points.
– Langdon has advanced to the final round of eliminations six times in 12 races this season and has three wins in his six final-round appearances. He has advanced to the final round at three of the last five races and has advanced to at least the semifinals at six of the last eight.
– Langdon enters the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals having won three races this season. He visited the winner’s circle at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. in February, Topeka, Kan. in May and at Englishtown, N.J. in June. He has four-career Top Fuel wins.
– Langdon has been a solid qualifier this season; his average qualifying position is 4.67. He was the No. 1 qualifier three times this season taking top qualifier honors at Charlotte, Atlanta Dragway and Topeka, and he has qualified in the top-four positions at seven of the 12 events this year. Langdon has nine career No. 1 qualifiers.
– In 2009, ’10 and ‘11, the Al-Anabi Racing Team was the No. 1 qualifier and went on to win the Top Fuel trophy in Norwalk making the team three-time Top Fuel champions of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. 2010 NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon won in both 2009 and ’10 as the No. 1 qualifier. 2011 NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel champion Del Worsham won as the No. 1 qualifier. With Tony Schumacher’s Norwalk win in 2007 when Alan Johnson was his crew chief, Al-Anabi Racing team manager Alan Johnson has been either the crew chief or team manager for the Top Fuel team winning four of the six previous NHRA events at Summit Motorsports Park. Last year, however, Langdon was the No. 10 qualifier and lost to Spencer Massey in the first round of eliminations during a race weekend that was plagued by excessive heat.
– When Langdon won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. in February, he 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 Norwalk:
“If we had a report card on the first half of the season, I would give the Al-Anabi team an A-minus. We’ve done very well in the first half of the year, but in drag racing, there’s always room for improvement. That’s our goal for the next couple of races: improve on what we have tried to accomplish in the first half of the year and get this Al-Anabi car prepared for the Countdown (Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs).
“Our goal for this weekend is to win the race and hopefully, take the points lead back. Our stats have been very good this year. We are halfway through the season, we have been to the final round at half of the races, and we’ve won half of the final rounds we’ve raced in so we just have to keep plugging away at it and keep trying to get a little bit better every time the Al-Anabi car goes down the race track.
“I enjoy Norwalk with the exception of the heat; last year was very hot. The Bader family puts on a good show, and they always do a great job attracting big crowds so the stands are always packed. They put on a really good fireworks show for Fourth of July weekend, and I just enjoy racing there. The track itself it very good, and if the conditions stay cool, there’s always a possibility we’ll be throwing up some very fast numbers.”
Khalid alBalooshi, Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (gold):
– Khalid alBalooshi enters the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in sixth place 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.
– AlBalooshi was the No. 10 qualifier last weekend at Route 66 Raceway; he defeated Brandon Bernstein before losing to event winner Tony Schumacher in the second round of eliminations. AlBalooshi advanced to the final round of eliminations at the Toyota NHRA Summernationals in June. 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. AlBalooshi has qualified in the top six at eight of the season’s 12 races.
– One year ago at Summit Motorsports Park, alBalooshi was the No. 3 qualifier; it was the best qualifying effort of his rookie season. However, David Grubnic upset him in the first round of eliminations when the engine on the Al-Anabi dragster had problems. It was at this point last season when things began to turn around for the rookie Top Fuel driver although his first-career Top Fuel round win would have to wait until the next race in Denver.
– In addition to his final round in New Jersey, alBalooshi has two semifinals in 12 races this season. With his quarterfinal appearance at Route 66 Raceway last weekend, the Dubai native has 12 round wins in the season’s first 12 races. Last year, his 12th round win of the season was the first round at Las Vegas during the season’s 22nd of 23 races. His sophomore season is going much better 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 Norwalk:
“I am looking forward to racing in Norwalk this weekend. We had a good car there last year. We qualified third, and we were winning the race in the first round. There was a problem with the engine, and we lost the race so I am hoping we can have a good weekend there this year.
“My second year driving the Al-Anabi Top Fuel car is much better than last year, but it’s still tough because the cars are so close. Two or three years ago, some cars were better than the rest, but now, all of the cars are very fast, and everybody is very close. From the time I started Top Fuel after driving Pro Mod, everything is different. The biggest thing for me is seat time; seat time is everything. When you get more seat time, things come around easier.
“Our Al-Anabi team goal is for every crew guy, the crew chief and the driver to do the best we can do every time we run the car. There is no need to keep thinking about one thing to do on every run. The goal for our team is to do the best we can do every time.”
