Al-Anabi has Good Weekend in Houston alBalooshi Runner, Langdon Semi-Final

Khalid alBalooshi – Al- Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (gold)

Qualifying:   Khalid alBalooshi was the No. 13 qualifier at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals.  During the Friday evening qualifying session, alBalooshi recorded a 3.841-second pass at 319.22 mph.

Eliminations: AlBalooshi reached his second final round of the season.  He defeated Tony Schumacher, Leah Pritchett and No. 1 qualifier Steve Torrence before losing to Antron Brown in the final round of eliminations. AlBalooshi now leads Brown 4-2 in their career head-to-head matchups.

Unofficial Point Standings: AlBalooshi moved up one spot to fifth place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.  He trails his teammate, fourth-place Shawn Langdon, by seven points and leads sixth-place Tony Schumacher by 48 points.

AlBalooshi on Houston: “It was a good day, especially winning the first round with a very close win over Tony.  The Al-Anabi car was very good all weekend.  In the final round, I made a mistake and got the car outside the groove, and it smoked the tires.  I am sorry that happened.  I hope we will keep running this way and even get way better in the next couple of races.  I feel good about how we started this season with a win and a runner up.  Our team is going in the right direction now; both cars are running good numbers.  I think we are in a good way right now. I appreciate the hard work from everyone on our team, and I thank Sheikh Khalid for giving me this opportunity.”

Shawn Langdon – Al- Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (silver)

Qualifying:   Shawn Langdon was the No. 3 qualifier at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals.  Langdon made his best qualifying run during the final round of qualifying on Saturday when he posted a 3.788-second effort at 320.05 mph.  Langdon has qualified in the top-four positions at five of the six races so far this season.

Eliminations: Langdon defeated Troy Buff and Doug Kalitta before losing to Antron Brown in the semifinals.

Unofficial Point Standings: Langdon remains fourth in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.  He trails third-place Steve Torrence by 20 points and leads his teammate, fifth-place Khalid alBalooshi, by seven points.

Langdon on Houston: “Results wise, the Al-Anabi team had a good weekend; we qualified well, made it to the semis and we’re fourth in points.  We still struggled a little with our tune-up, but we’re close.  We’re still learning about some of the changes we’ve made.  We missed it a little in the semis and didn’t make as good a run as we thought we would; we’re still kind of diagnosing everything.  When the car goes down the track, it’s really good so we know we’re close.  When things get right, we’ll be in good shape going forward.  We need to get that first win out of the way.  Once we get over that hump, we are confident we’ll have a great race car again.”