Al-Anabi fight Minnesota mechanical challenges

Agencies/Brainerd, MinnesotaThe Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Team, the three-time and defending World Championship team owned by HE Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani, fought mechanical challenges during the just-completed 34th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals yesterday, the 17th of 24 races that make up America’s 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season. After qualifying third, reigning World Champion Shawn Langdon made his best run of the weekend in Sunday’s first round of elimination. His 3.776-second pass moved him into a second-round matchup with seven-time NHRA World Champion Tony Schumacher. Langdon was on another excellent pass when the fuel pump on the silver Al-Anabi car failed allowing Schumacher to take the round win. Langdon remains third in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings with one race remaining in the regular season.“The Al-Anabi team made some really good runs this weekend; we qualified third and felt good about race day,” Langdon said. “The 3.77 we ran in the first round of eliminations was our best run of the weekend. In the second round, we made another good run, but we had a fuel pump problem, and Tony got the win. It’s not the way we wanted to end the weekend, but the Al-Anabi car is good. We have some things to work on in the Indy test this weekend, and we’ll be ready to defend our US Nationals title on Labor Day weekend.”Khalid al-Balooshi was the No. 10 qualifier at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. He made a fabulous run in the first round of eliminations on Sunday – by far his best of the weekend – a 3.798-second gem, but Spencer Massey was a touch quicker and reached the finish line first. Al-Balooshi is now tied with Brittany Force for seventh place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. “Our car was pretty good in qualifying, but we had some problems,” al-Balooshi said. “We broke a blower belt on one run and dropped a cylinder on some others. The Al-Anabi car ran well, but we had some little problems. On Sunday, we ran a 79 (3.798-second run), but Spencer made a good pass and ran a 78 (3.781-second pass). It was not a great weekend for our team, but at least we have a car now. We are testing in Indianapolis this week, and we will work on getting our car to be more consistent. We need to work on some things to be sure we are ready for the Indy (the US Nationals) and the Countdown (Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs).” The Al-Anabi Racing team will be back in action August 29 – September 1, 2014 at the 60th annual Chevrolet Performance US Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana.