Khalid alBalooshi makes his first-round run in Sunday’s 45th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. PICTURE: Gary Nastase


Agencies/Gainesville, Florida

A day that became with great promise ended quickly for the Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Team, the three-time and defending World Championship team owned by HE Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani. Both Khalid alBalooshi and No. 1 qualifier Shawn Langdon lost in the first round at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals on Sunday, the third of 24 races that make up America’s 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season.  
AlBalooshi, who won the season-opening Circle K Winternationals in California last month, was the No. 9 qualifier and raced good friend Steve Torrence in the first round.  AlBalooshi made a solid pass, 3.833 seconds at nearly 321 mph, but Torrence was a bit quicker and turned on the win light in his lane ending the day for alBalooshi.
With the first-round loss, alBalooshi dropped two spots to fourth place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.  He trails third-place Steve Torrence by 33 and leads fifth-place Spencer Massey by 17 points. “At the start of the week, the track was tricky for lots of people, and a lot of the teams were struggling,” alBalooshi said.
“The Al-Anabi Team made some good runs this weekend, but today, maybe we missed the something in the tune-up.  Steve made a good run against us. Our run was pretty good but not good enough.  I am sure we will be fine for the next race, and I thank everyone on our team for their hard work.”  
2013 NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Champion Shawn Langdon was the No. 1 qualifier at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals. It was his first qualifier of the season and the 14th of his career.  
In the first round, the silver Al-Anabi car launched well but smoked the tyres early in the run allowing veteran driver J.R. Todd, who made an excellent run, to cruise to victory.  Despite the first-round loss, Langdon actually jumped a spot in points on the strength of his performance in qualifying.  
Langdon is now sixth in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.  He trails fifth-place Spencer Massey by 12 points and leads seventh-place Brittany Force by 10 points. “The Al-Anabi car was strong through qualifying, but in the first round today, it just didn’t work out,” Langdon said.  
“We overpowered the race track a little bit, but we really felt like it was going to be a safe run.  In looking at the data, we don’t see anything wrong with the car so we aren’t quite sure yet why it smoked the tyres.  We’re not really all that concerned about the points at this part of the season, but we have to start going rounds on Sunday.  Eventually, we’ll get a couple of wins, and we’ll be right back where we need to be.”
The Al-Anabi Racing team will be back in action from March 28 to 30 at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas.