JOLIET, Illinois: Sometimes, a race track just suits a team’s racing setup, and for the Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team, the two-time World Championship team owned by Sheikh Khalid Hamad Al Thani, one of those race tracks is Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois, a facility within view of the world-famous Chicago skyline.
The 16th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals is the 12th of 24 races making up the United States’ 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.
The team has won two Top Fuel titles at Route 66 Raceway and advanced to two semifinals. The team won at Joliet in 2010 with driver Larry Dixon and went on to win the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Top Fuel World Championship. The next year, driver Del Worsham won at Route 66 and went on to win the team’s second consecutive Top Fuel World Championship.
Dixon advanced to the semifinals in 2009, and current driver Shawn Langdon was a semifinalist last year.
Driver Khalid AlBalooshi said: “That is one of the reasons the Al-Anabi team is so good. Everyone on our team does his job perfectly every day. This team has won two World Championships for Sheikh Khalid, and that was his vision when he started the team. I am proud to race for him, and I hope that one day soon, maybe this weekend, our team will win another race.”
THE PENINSULA
