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St. Louis Home Of First All Al-Anabi Racing Final Round

MADISON, Illinois (August 10, 2009) – It wasn’t a question of if there would ever be an all Al-Anabi Racing final round in ADRL Pro Nitrous, but a question of when it would happen. The seventh stop on the National Guard American Drag Racing League tour at the organization’s home track, Gateway International Raceway, just outside of St. Louis, Missouri would be the place it happened, and host one of the defining moments of His Highness Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani’s team-owning career.

In the final round of Pro Nitrous action, teammates Mike Castellana and K.A. Balooshi met for the first-ever all-Al Anabi Racing final, with Castellana taking the win over Balooshi, who rolled the beams when the line lock failed to hold the car, by way of an early shut-off 4.57 at just 118mph.

Prior to this matchup, though, Castellana’s Team Al-Anabi ’70.5 Camaro had been the class of the field, posting a 3.91 in the second round of qualifying on Saturday morning, followed by a stunning 3.94 during the final qualifying session in the 95-plus degree afternoon heat. Castellana entered eliminations from the No. 2 position and continued to impress, marching past Terry Murphy, Lee Adkins and Johnny Pilcher en route to the final against Balooshi.

Balooshi’s beautiful ’68 Camaro was equally hard on the competition, qualifying No. 1 with a 3.909 at 191.24mph, and propelling the “Beast from the Middle East” past Earl Folse, David Pierce, and perhaps most notably, John DeFlorian, Jr., who was quickly being considered a favorite for the final as the event wore on.

“It was great to have the Sheikh here this weekend and be able to see all his cars do so well,” said Castellana, from the National Guard ADRL winner’s circle. “This team is really on a roll now and it feels great to get a win and be a part of our success.”

Balooshi, who is on a tear as of late in the essentially unlimited nitrous-oxide only category, was equally excited with the outing.

“It was great to race Mike [Castellana], my teammate, in the final,” said Balooshi, who is still pursuing his first career ADRL win. “We’ve been in back to back finals and I feel that’s a testament to the power and consistency we’ve been displaying lately.”

Balooshi continued, “These new engines are bad; they are just extremely powerful and we definitely had something for them in the final, but as soon as I brought the RPMs up it started to roll through the beams. Mike and the new car have been on a roll, though, making run after run – right down the track. Rickie [Smith, crew chief] has given me a fast car every time I’ve let the clutch out; I’m sure it would have been a good race.”

Perhaps the biggest upset of the event came in the first round of action when Shannon “The Iceman” Jenkins suffered an early exit; something very out of character for nitrous racing’s most revered competitor.

After qualifying No. 3 with a 3.928 at 190.30mph in the SPEEDTECH Nitrous/Al-Anabi Racing ’68 Camaro, Jenkins met fellow Alabama native Johnny Pilcher in the opening stanza. Both cars left together, but a flash of fire as “The Iceman” was headed towards the finish line slowed the car, most assuredly on a 3-second run, enough to let Pilcher take the win with his best pass of the weekend – a 4.006 at 183mph.

“We broke a rocker arm,” Jenkins said. “Just broke an exhaust rocker arm on number three cylinder. Didn’t hurt a damn thing, but my feelings and a rocker. No burning it up or anything like that; I don’t burn up motors – they ought to know me better than that by now.”

Despite his premature departure from competition, Jenkins went right into the crew-chief mindset to ensure that an Al-Anabi Racing hot rod took home the win – and that was just the case.

“We’re going on 10 years together,” said Jenkins of his racing partnership with Mike Castellana. “When Mike wins, when any one of our team cars win, it’s a big deal to me. I take a lot of pride in it, and I am just as happy for these guys as I am when I’m the one doing the winning.

“This just shows the quality and the effort put forth by this team. It was great to have two Al-Anabi cars in the final, but just as exciting to see four SPEEDTECH Nitrous cars in the semis. It just goes to show you the quality, consistency and performance of our SPEEDTECH Nitrous program, especially on one of these Reher-Morrison motors.”

Coming out of the ADRL Hardee’s Gateway Drags II, Team Al-Anabi Racing has seen the final round of four of the last seven races and won three of them. With the championship-deciding SPEEDTECH Battle for the Belts only two races away, there could not be a better time to be on a roll.

Visit Al Anabi AWESOME Motorsports Sponsors:  www.speedtechnitrous.com , www.redlineoil.com, www.msdignition.com, www.braswell.com, www.vistafood.com, www.westernbeef.com, www.aeromotiveinc.com, www.rehermorrison.com, www. spaghettimenders.com

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