Qatar Al-Anabi racing Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon races in the second round of eliminations at the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals in Ennis, Texas, south of Dallas. Langdon is 41 points off the points lead with four races remaining in the season. PICTURE BY: GARY NASTASE
ENNNIS, Texas: For the third consecutive race, Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Team, the two-time, defending NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel World Championship team owned by Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani, earned the No. 1 qualifier with silver Al-Anabi driver Shawn Langdon.
It was Langdon’s fourth No. 1 qualifier of the season and the fifth of his career. His team-mate, Khalid alBalooshi, qualified seventh at the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals, in the 19th of 23 races that make up the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. It also acts as the second of six races that make up the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Play-offs.
After struggling in Friday’s qualifying, Langdon made two dazzling passes on Saturday to earn No. 1 qualifier honors.
The silver Al-Anabi car was the quickest in each of the Saturday qualifying sessions.
In the race session, Langdon defeated Scott Palmer in the first round before facing event winner Antron Brown in the second.
Both cars launched well, but both also spun the tyres turning the race into a tyre-smoking battle among two championship contenders.
Brown finished with a tenth of a second before Langdon and won the round.
With his first-round win, Langdon recorded the fastest speed of the entire weekend, a 323.50 mph effort.
Langdon dropped one place to fourth in the NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel point standings.
He trails third-place Tony Schumacher by 17 points and leads fifth-place Morgan Lucas by 42 points.
He trails co-points leaders Antron Brown and Spencer Massey by 41 points with four races remaining in the season.
“The Al-Anabi car was great in qualifying yesterday, and we made a good run this morning to get to the second round where we ran Antron,” Langdon said.
“We knew he would run well, and we just tried to go a little too fast on a hot race track. Both cars smoked the tires, and he got us. We know we leave Dallas a couple of rounds out of the points lead with four races left, but we saw last weekend in Charlotte that things can change quickly so we’ll go to St. Louis next weekend and be ready to go when we get there,” he added.
In the gold Al-Anabi car, Dubai rookie driver Khalid alBalooshi was the No. 7 qualifier. He defeated Terry McMillen in the first round before losing to Brandon Bernstein in the second round of eliminations.
Despite the second-round loss, alBalooshi moved up to 11th in the NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel point standings. However. because he did not qualify for the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Play-offs, the highest he can finish in the point standings this season is 11th.
He leads 12th-place Clay Millican by 29 points with four races remaining in the season.
“The Al-Anabi car made very good passes this weekend,” alBalooshi said. “I thought we would get to the semifinals, but it did not happen this time. The car is running well, and I know we can get to the semifinals soon – hopefully next week. Everyone on our team is doing his job, and I thank them for their hard work all season,” he added.
The Al-Anabi Racing team will return to action on September 28.
THE PENINSULA
