Qatar Al-Anabi racing advance in Chicago

Al-Anabi silver driver Shawn Langdon advanced to the semifinals for the first time since March and was four thousandths of a second away from making the final round in Joliet, Illinois near Chicago. The Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Team, the two-time, defending NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel World Championship team owned by HE Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani, continues to improve at the mid-point of the season. The just-completed O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals was the 11th of 23 races making up the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Langdon was the No. 3 qualifier; in eliminations, he defeated Bob Vandergriff and Doug Kalitta before losing to Antron Brown in the semifinals. The margin of victory was four thousandths of a second. Langdon remains seventh in the NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel point standings. He trails sixth-place Doug Kalitta by 40 points and leads eighth-place Brandon Bernstein by 80 points. “It was a great weekend for the Al-Anabi team,” Langdon said. “I would say maybe the best we’ve had this year because in three of the four qualifying sessions, we had the second- quickest car. We qualified third, and in every elimination round, we made a solid run.” “We didn’t beat ourselves. The Al-Anabi car was a great race car today, but that’s how drag racing goes. We were just on the wrong end of a great drag race, and we have no reason to hang our heads. Everyone did a great job.” In the gold Al-Anabi car, Dubai rookie driver Khalid alBalooshi was the No. 8 qualifier at Route 66 Raceway. He was in the final Top Fuel pair of the first round, and just before he was about to run, rain moved into Joliet causing a three and a half hour rain delay. When racing resumed, alBalooshi lost to Hillary Will. AlBalooshi remains 13th in the NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel point standings. He trails 12th-place Terry McMillen by 35 points and leads Hillary Will by 138 points. “Everybody on our team is doing his job, and we are working as hard as we can, alBalooshi said. “We will keep working until we can race like Sheikh Khalid expects us to race. I know we can find our racing luck, and when we do, everything will be OK. I know all of our hard work will pay off one day. ” The Al-Anabi Racing team will return to racing next weekend, July 6-8, 2012, at the sixth annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. from gulf times.