BAYTOWN, Texas: Victory was within the team’s grasp but did not happen.
Still, for the Qatar Al Anabi Racing Top Fuel Team, the two-time World Championship team owned by Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani, it was a stellar weekend at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals near Houston.
After the best combined qualifying effort of the season, both Qatar Al Anabi Racing Top Fuel teams enjoyed an excellent day of racing.
Al Anabi driver Shawn Langdon was the No. 3 qualifier posting his fourth-consecutive top-four qualifying effort.
After racing in the final round one week ago in Charlotte, Langdon advanced to today’s final round making two final-round appearances in eight days.
He defeated Tony Schumacher, Terry McMillen and his teammate, Khalid AlBalooshi, before losing to Bob Vandergriff in the final round.
With the final-round appearance, Langdon moved up one spot to third place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.
“We are definitely disappointed we didn’t win the race today,” Langdon said.
“Hats off to all of our Al Anabi crew guys because they did a fantastic job today. It was unfortunate we couldn’t get the win in the final because the Al Anabi car ran so well all weekend,” he added.
Dubai driver AlBalooshi was the No. 2 qualifier at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Spring Nationals, it was his career-best qualifying effort.
In eliminations, he defeated J.R. Todd and Spencer Massey before losing to his team-mate, Shawn Langdon in the semi-finals. It was AlBalooshi’s second semi-final appearance of the season. He moves up one spot in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings and is now tied for sixth with Morgan Lucas.
“The weekend started off perfectly,” AlBalooshi said.
He added: “The Al Anabi car has been very good going down the track fast every time except the last run in the semi-finals. The track was tricky all weekend, but thisis racing.”
“Overall it was a good day; we keep doing a good job but losing for some reason, but it was still a good day because we won some rounds. Our car and our team are getting better and better, and we are doing the right direction. Thank you to everybody on our team for his hard work, and thanks to Sheikh Khalid for his support,” he pointed out.
THE PENINSULA
