Al-Anabi St Louis Report
Shawn Langdon – Al- Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (silver)
Qualifying: Shawn Langdon was the No. 5 qualifier at the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals. During the qualifying sessions Friday night and late Saturday afternoon, Langdon needed just 3.780 seconds to reach the finish line. Langdon has qualified in the top-five positions in 14 of the season’s 21 races.
Eliminations: Langdon advanced to his sixth final round of the season. He defeated Pat Dakin, J.R. Todd and Bob Vandergriff before losing to Antron Brown in the finals.
Unofficial Point Standings: Langdon moved up two spots to second place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails points leader Tony Schumacher by 57 points and leads third-place Steve Torrence by 14 points with three races remaining in the season.
Langdon on St. Louis: “It was a great weekend for the Al-Anabi team. We qualified well and ran well in eliminations. We found a major problem with the car early in the weekend, fixed it and really turned a corner on our season. We treated this weekend like the first race of 2014 – we kind of needed to start all over. We made excellent runs all weekend but just got a little too aggressive in the final and smoked the tires during the run. The bottom line, though, is that we have our race car back, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the season.”
Khalid alBalooshi – Al- Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (gold)
Qualifying: Khalid alBalooshi was the No. 10 qualifier at the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals. During the last round of qualifying late Saturday afternoon, alBalooshi reached the finish line in 3.806 seconds at 319.90 mph.
Eliminations: AlBalooshi lost to Steve Torrence in the first round of eliminations when the gold Al-Anabi car smoked the tires immediately when the run began.
Unofficial Point Standings: AlBalooshi drops one place to eighth in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails seventh-place Spencer Massey by 11 and leads ninth-place Richie Crampton by 63 points.
AlBalooshi on St. Louis: “We have been a little behind in qualifying. We have been trying to get better so we can catch lane choice. We did not have lane choice on Sunday. When I saw the cars in front of us smoke the tires, especially Tony (Schumacher) because he has been so good in the last three races, I knew there was trouble with the lane. We smoked the tires like the others did, and our day was done. I know we would have been one of the best cars in the show, but it is what it is. We can try again next week.”
