Qatar Al-Anabi Racing driver Khalid al-Balooshi performs a pre-run burnout prior to his second round matchup with Doug Kalitta. (Picture: Ron Lewis)
For the first time since 2008, 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, did not race in the final round of eliminations in the just-completed 30th annual NHRA Nationals yesterday, the 22nd of 24 races that make up America’s 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season and the fourth of six races that comprise the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs.
Khalid al-Balooshi, who captured his first career Top Fuel win in Reading in 2012, advanced to the quarter-finals at the NHRA Nationals. He defeated 2012 World Champion Antron Brown in the first round with a spectacular 3.777-second effort—by far his best run of the weekend.
In the second round, he faced veteran driver Doug Kalitta, the Top Fuel points leader for the overwhelming majority of the season.
Al-Balooshi was brilliant again, making an even quicker run and posting 3.751-second elapsed time, but Kalitta’s 3.749-second run was two thousandths of a second quicker, and the Dubai driver was eliminated.
For the first time since 2008, an Al-Anabi driver did not race for the win at Maple Grove Raceway. Al-Balooshi remains eighth in points.
“Our team made two very good runs today—our best of the season,” Langdon said. “But in the second round, Doug was even faster. All of the cars were fast this weekend—somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. You do the best you can, and it is what it is. We hope we can do better when we get to Las Vegas.”
Shawn Landon, the No. 7 qualifier, raced two-time 2014 winner Richie Crampton in the first round.
But as soon as Langdon hit the throttle to begin the run, the silver Al-Anabi car smoked the tires, and Crampton cruised to victory.
Langdon, who won this race a year ago, would be unable to defend his title. With the first-round loss, Langdon dropped two spots to fourth place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings and now trails points leader Tony Schumacher by 148 points with two races remaining in the season.
“It was a rough day for the Al-Anabi team, it was a tough way to go down,” Langdon said. “We had a problem with the car that we need to get sorted out.
"This is not the way we wanted to leave Reading. We had good weather all weekend, and the track was good. We’ve been really turning the corner with the Al-Anabi car lately, and we felt like we had a great shot. It just didn’t work out. We need to get things worked out before the last two races.”
The Al-Anabi Racing team will be back in action from October 31 to November 2 at the 14th annual NHRA Toyota Nationals in Las Vegas.