Team Al-Anabi ready for Auto-Plus Nationals at Maple Grove this Weekend

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

Khalid alBalooshi enters the Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals, the fourth of six events that comprise  the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs, in eighth place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.  He trails seventh-place Clay Millican by six points and leads ninth-place Bob Vandergriff by 58 points and is just 53 points out of fifth place.

For the first time in his brief Top Fuel career, alBalooshi is set to return to a race track as its defending champion.  One year ago in Reading, alBalooshi won the Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals and captured the first Top Fuel win of his career during his rookie season.  After qualifying ninth on a cold, rainy weekend during which national performance records were being set with impressive regularity, alBalooshi defeated Spencer Massey, Ike Maier, his teammate Shawn Langdon and eventual 2012 Top Fuel champion Anton Brown on his way to the winner’s circle.

 Khalid alBalooshi Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs Summary

AlBalooshi prior to Reading: 

“Sunday was a good day for our Al-Anabi team especially with what happened to our team in Dallas the week before.  Our team was very good in St. Louis.  We made very good runs on race day, and our team worked very hard to make the Al-Anabi car one of the best in the show.  I wish we had won the race, but it was still a very good day for our team.  I am very proud of what our crew chief (Jason McCulloch) is doing on the car and what our crew guys are doing on the car. It does not matter what the condition, the car is very quick. It is way different feeling now than it was after Dallas. We got three round wins in the Countdown in St. Louis, and I will be even more comfortable in the car at the next race.

“I am very excited to back to Reading this week.  From last year when I won the race there, I have been thinking about when I go back there.  Everybody runs fast in Reading, and a lot of the records were broken there last year.  I know our car is running well, and I am very excited to back there with our Top Fuel car.

“I think it will feel good to get back to Reading because I know I have done this before. I will not have any thoughts about not being able to win there because I won there last year, and that will give me an advantage. With Jason and the rest of our Al-Anabi team, I am always confident.  I don’t know exactly which tune-up he will use in Reading, but I know I will have a nice hot rod for the race in Reading.  Our Al-Anabi car will be ready to race over there.

“We are in eighth place but we are really close to fifth.  Our plan is to win rounds and earn points.  That is what we did in St. Louis.  I hope we can win four rounds this weekend in Reading.”

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

Shawn Langdon enters the Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals, the fourth of six events that comprise the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs, in first place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.  He leads second-place Doug Kalitta by 33 points with three races remaining in the season.

The Al-Anabi team has won three races in four final-round appearances in the last four races at Maple Grove Raceway.  Former Al-Anabi driver Larry Dixon won the Auto-Plus Nationals in 2009 and ’10.  Former Al-Anabi driver Del Worsham was the runner-up in 2011, and Langdon’s teammate, Khalid alBalooshi, won the Auto-Plus Nationals last year when Langdon was the No. 5 qualifier; he defeated Bob Vandergriff and Doug Kalitta before losing to alBalooshi in the semifinals.

Langdon was the No. 1 qualifier last weekend in St. Louis – it was his second-consecutive No. 1 qualifier, his sixth of the season and the 12^th of his career.   In eliminations, he defeated Troy Buff before David Grubnic upset him in the quarterfinals.

Langdon entered the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs as the top seed.  A first-round loss in Charlotte dropped him back to second place in the point standings.  His runner-up finish in Dallas took him back into a tie for the points lead entering the third Countdown race, and he left St. Louis with a 33-point lead – a larger advantage than he had when the Countdown began.

Shawn Langdon Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs Summary

Langdon has five wins in nine final-round appearances this season, and he has advanced to at least the semifinals at 13 of the last 17 races.  He visited the winner’s circle at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., in February, Topeka, Kan., in May, Englishtown, N.J., in June, Sonoma, Calif., in July and Indianapolis on Labor Day weekend.  He has six-career Top Fuel wins.

Langdon has also been a solid qualifier this season; his average qualifying position is 4.19.  He has six No. 1 qualifiers taking top-qualifier honors at Charlotte1, Atlanta Dragway, Topeka, Seattle, Dallas and St. Louis, and he has qualified in the top-five positions at 16 of the 21 events this year. Langdon has 11 career No. 1 qualifiers.

Langdon recorded the fastest speed to 1,000 feet in NHRA history last fall in Reading, Pa. when he reached 334.15 mph.  In addition, during the same Reading race weekend, his 3.712-second elapsed time was the national elapsed-time record until Antron Brown made a quicker pass in the same weekend and set the record.  Langdon’s run still stands as the second-quickest 1,000-foot run in NHRA history.

Langdon prior to Reading: 

“The Al-Anabi team left St. Louis with the points lead so with three races to go, we are in control of our own destiny, and that is how we want it.  Our lead is three points bigger than it was when we started the Countdown, but losing in the second round at St. Louis was still a little disheartening because with Massey and Kalitta losing in the first round, we had a great opportunity to extend our points lead and widen the gap, but Sunday played out how it did.  We were very happy to get alBalooshi in the final round and get him some more points for the Countdown.  In the grand scheme of things, the Al-Anabi car is very strong right now, and we are very excited to be going to Reading this weekend.

“A lot depends on the weather in Reading, but if the weather cooperates, you might see some 3.69s or 3.68s (3.69-second passes or 3.68-second passes).  Reading has the capability of being a throw-down race so we are going to be prepared for that possibility when we arrive.  We want the Al-Anabi car to be ready because if there’s an opportunity to get a national ET (elapsed time) record and pick up those extra 20 bonus points, we want to be the ones to do it.

“We have to race smart before we can race aggressively.  The first session, we need to make a smart, conservative run to hopefully get us in the back of the pack for the second session so we can be one of the last cars to run Friday night. Then, if the opportunity presents itself, and we feel we can try to make a record-setting pass, we’ll go for it.  But it’s a really a call the crew chiefs have to make at the last minute.  It’s all a guess until then, but it should be fun.

“There aren’t too many times as a driver that you really can’t wait to see what everybody’s gonna run.  When you do, you make a run and then you go back up there so you can see what everyone else is running.  To have the opportunity to get a car to run in the 3.60s, the pass has to be absolutely perfect, but before that, the conditions have to be there.”