alBalooshi and Langdon Ready to Storm zMax 4-Wide

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

2013 NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel champion Shawn Langdon enters the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in seventh place in the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.  He trails his teammate, sixth-place Khalid alBalooshi, by six points and leads eighth-place Brittany Force by 32 points.

Langdon and Al-Anabi Racing general manager Brandon Bernstein will attend the first round of the Masters Tournament in August, Ga., on Thursday of this week.  They are attending the first “Major” of the PGA TOUR season as guests of The Coca-Cola Company, and each will be making his first visit to Augusta National Golf Club.

Langdon was the No. 8 qualifier at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas last month; it was the first time this season that he qualified outside the top-four positions.  In the first four races of the season, Langdon has qualified second, fourth, first and eighth.  In Las Vegas eliminations, he defeated his teammate, Khalid alBalooshi, in the first round, but in the second, he raced No. 1 qualifier Antron Brown; the two cars were side-by-side until about half track when the engine in the Al-Anabi car had problems allowing Brown to pull away and win the round.

Langdon’s silver Al-Anabi car has been running well in 2014 despite winning just three rounds in the season’s first four races.  He qualified second at the season-opening race in Pomona, Calif., but lost a very close drag race to his teammate, Khalid alBalooshi (3.73 to 3.76 seconds with a .007 margin of victory), and alBalooshi went on to win the race.  In Phoenix, he was the No. 4 qualifier but lost to race winner Antron Brown in the second round when the engine on the Al-Anabi dragster dropped a cylinder.  In Gainesville, Langdon claimed his first No. 1 qualifier of the season but lost in the first round.  The silver Al-Anabi dragster continues to compete at a very high level despite some unfortunate racing luck.

One year ago at this event, Langdon was the No. 1 qualifier but lost to Spencer Massey and Tony Schumacher in the final round of four-wide eliminations.  The silver Al-Anabi car dominated the 2013 Four-Wide Nationals and seemed destined to win until the car smoked the tires in the finals.  The Al-Anabi Racing Team won at Charlotte in 2010 with driver Larry Dixon, in 2011 with driver Del Worsham in the Four-Wide Nationals and in 2012 with Shawn Langdon – his first-career Top Fuel win.

Langdon’s average qualifying position in 2014 is 3.25; he has one No. 1 qualifier.  He was an excellent qualifier last year; his average qualifying position was 3.75.  He had seven No. 1 qualifiers and qualified in the top-five positions at 19 of the 24 events last year. Langdon has 14 career No. 1 qualifiers.

Langdon prior to Charlotte: 

“The Al-Anabi Team always seems to do well in Charlotte; the Four-Wide Nationals is a once-a-year event, and it’s always nice to change it up a little bit and do something different.  With how the Al-Anabi team has started the season, having a little bit of a change might be a good thing for us.  Going back to a track like zMAX Dragway – where I won my first Top Fuel race and where last year we had a great car through qualifying and eliminations until the final where it smoked the tires – could be a very good thing for us, and I am definitely looking forward to getting back there.

“Every track has different characteristics.  Sometimes the way a team runs the car with its setup just makes it easier to adapt to certain tracks.  There’s really no rhyme or reason to it – it just seems to work out that way. Charlotte is definitely one of the tracks we seem to get along with; we can make some excellent runs there.  Last year at the Four-Wides, we had a great race car.  It’s definitely a confidence booster to go into a track like that where you know you can have a great race.

“To me the format doesn’t matter.  Doing whatever it takes to draw more attention to the sport works for me.  To me, as a driver, it really doesn’t matter if we race two wide or four wide.  You don’t really notice anything different as the driver.  You just do your same thing and stay with you routine.  It’s a matter of getting all four cars ready to stage in a timely fashion so nobody gets hung up on the starting line, but other than that, there’s really no difference to it.  I think the fans are starting to warm up to the format.”

For additional information on team manager Alan Johnson or Shawn Langdon, please visit www.alanabiracing.com to view their full bios.

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

AlBalooshi won the season-opening Circle K NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., last month.  It was the third Top Fuel win of his career, and with that win, he became the first Top Fuel driver to qualify for the 2014 Traxxas Nitro Shootout.  The third-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.  AlBalooshi also qualified for the Traxxas Nitro Shootout last year but was eliminated in the first round.  

 Last month in Las Vegas, alBalooshi was the No. 9 qualifier and raced his teammate Shawn Langdon in the first round.  He made an excellent pass, but Langdon was a bit quicker and won by .0225 seconds.   

One year ago at this event, alBalooshi was the No. 4 qualifier but lost to Doug Kalitta and Bob Vandergriff in the first round of four-wide eliminations despite an excellent first-round pass.  The Al-Anabi Racing Team won at Charlotte in 2010 with driver Larry Dixon, in 2011 with driver Del Worsham in the Four-Wide Nationals and in 2012 with Shawn Langdon. 

AlBalooshi prior to Charlotte: 

“I like racing at Charlotte, and I am looking forward to this weekend.  Our team has been very good at that track; Shawn won his first race there, and our team has won some other races there.  Our team was very good in this race last year – we qualified fourth.  We made another good run but lost in the first round.  So I know our team can win in Charlotte.  We won the first race of the year in California, and I know our team can do very good things this year.  Our team will keep getting better.  I appreciate the hard work everybody on our team is doing.”