POMONA, California: One year ago, Khalid alBalooshi was rookie Top Fuel driver for the Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team, the two-time NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Champions owned by, Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani.
AlBalooshi was just beginning to learn how to pilot a Top Fuel car. Now, he is calm, cool and collected, and he is the No. 5 qualifier at the midway point of qualifying for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals outside of Los Angeles. Qualifying resumes today with eliminations set for tomorrow.
AlBalooshi opened 2013 with a smooth 3.802-second pass at 325.77 mph during the first day of the opening round of qualifying.
Yesterday, he improved with a brilliant 3.798 second-pass at 326.16 mph. The Dubai driver is No. 5 with two rounds of qualifying remaining.
“Our Al-Anabi team made two very good runs.” alBalooshi said. “We made good runs in testing last month (pre-season testing in West Palm
Beach, Florida), and Jason (crew chief Jason McCulloch) is doing the same thing here. The Al-Anabi car is running very well, and I know our team is already doing better than we did at this time last year.Our goal this year is to win races and do our best to race for the championship for Sheikh Khalid. We have made a good start.”
AlBalooshi’s team-mate Shawn Langdon has not had the same luck.
Langdon’s silver Al-Anabi car spun the tires on the first day. Yesterday, Langdon was on a spectacular pass when a part on the car failed, and Langdon was forced to abort the run. Langdon has not yet qualified for eliminations, but he will have two attempts to get into the field on Saturday.
“The Al-Anabi car was on an excellent pass before the blower belt came
off the car,” Langdon said. “Even though we had a parts failure, we know how well the car was running before that happened so we’ll be OK.
We have two more chances to qualify, and we are confident we can make Sheikh Khalid proud of our efforts.”
Al-Anabi Racing operates out of multiple locations in both the United States and Qatar. In the United States, the Brownsburg, Ind.-based operation is a two-car NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series team that is managed by Alan Johnson Racing. Sheikh Khalid’s initiative hascreated increased international awareness of the nation of Qatar while highlighting the nation’s international sports outreach.
Alan Johnson is a 14-time NHRA champion in various capacities including crew chief, team owner and team manager. For additional information on the Al-Anabi Racing Team, team manager Alan Johnson or drivers Khalid alBalooshi or Shawn Langdon, please visit www.alanabiracing.com.The Peninsula
