HOUSTON: The teams that comprise the Qatar Al Anabi Racing Top Fuel team, the four-time NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Champions owned by Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani, accepted the challenge of a hot race track and air thick with humidity during qualifying for the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, the sixth of 24 events that make up the United States’ 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.
The Al Anabi gold team, with driver Khalid alBalooshi, is positioned in the top half of the field in the No. 8 spot. Al Anabi silver driver Shawn Langdon was 13th quickest of the day. Qualifying was to resume yesterday with eliminations set for today.
Dubai driver alBalooshi made a set of powerful runs in the gold Al Anabi Top Fuel dragster on the first day of the event. In the first session of qualifying, alBalooshi clocked a spectacular 3.854 at a very respectable 315.49 mph speed. His strong run in his sleek dragster was fourth-quickest overall in the opening round.
His second pass of the day was even better, and alBalooshi blasted to a 3.841 at a faster 319.22 mph. Although his own performance improved, so did the performance of others in the category, and alBalooshi finished the day in the No. 8 position in the qualifying order.
“So far, so good for our team,” said alBalooshi. “I’m happy that our car has been down the track twice without any problem. We didn’t see the perfect number that we wanted, but we made a little change to the car before the second round, and I think we figured out exactly what we need. Tomorrow will be a better day for us.
“Our teammate Shawn had some trouble today, but we are not worried,” alBalooshi continued. “If you have smart people around you, you don’t have to worry. He has Alan Johnson and his crew chief, who will figure out what’s going on. Tomorrow, Shawn will have a different car.”
In his first run of the day, Langdon’s silver Al Anabi Top Fuel dragster was quicker at the 330-foot marker on the racetrack than the No. 1 qualifier. However, soon after the initial burst of speed, the power of his car became too much for the racetrack and he smoked the tires. He recorded a 4.489 at 172.70 mph. In the second session, Langdon’s dragster lost traction and he could not make it smoothly down the racetrack. His official time for that round was 7.648 at 88.43 mph.
“We struggled a little bit today with getting this track figured out,” said Langdon. “This is the first track we’ve been to this year that has been quite a bit warmer and with a little bit of humidity in the air. We have had to change a couple of things to accommodate for those conditions, and we just weren’t able to make the right changes in order to get the car down the track. We didn’t have a good day today, but we have a very good team. We will be able to learn from this, and we know that we will come back tomorrow and make two good runs.”
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