Al-Anabi’s Langdon out in Rd 1, alBalooshi in Rd 2 at Route 66

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

Qualifying:   Shawn Langdon was the No. 9 qualifier at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 Nationals. During the first round of qualifying on Saturday, Langdon recorded a 3.787-second pass at 323.97 mph.

Eliminations: Langdon had a tire-smoking duel with Steve Torrence and was eliminated in the first round.  It was the first time Langdon lost in the first round since the Las Vegas race in April, eight races ago.

Unofficial Point Standings: Langdon dropped one spot to second place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.  He trails points leader Tony Schumacher by 37 points and leads third-place Spencer Massey by 67 points.

Langdon on Joliet: “We didn’t have the weekend or the results we were expecting for the Al-Anabi team.  Qualifying started well on Friday; we didn’t improve on Saturday, but we still felt confident we’d have a good car on race day.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way; we smoked the tires, I tried to recover, and we smoked the tires again.  We lost a battle today, but our goal is winning the war at the end of the year.”

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

Qualifying:   Khalid alBalooshi was the No. 10 qualifier at the O’Reilly Route 66 NHRA Nationals.  During the Friday qualifying session, alBalooshi recorded a 3.798-second pass at 326.32 mph.  The second Friday qualifying session was cancelled due to rain.

Eliminations: AlBalooshi defeated Brandon Bernstein before losing to event winner Tony Schumacher in the second round of eliminations.

Unofficial Point Standings: AlBalooshi remains sixth 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 on Joliet: “Our team worked very hard this weekend, but like Shawn’s team, we did not get the result we wanted.  We made a very good run in the first round, but in the second round against Tony (Schumacher), we smoked the tires.  That is not what we wanted for our Al-Anabi team so we will go to Ohio next week and do our best to do better.”