Published: 17 Nov 2014 - 11:41 pm | Last Updated: 19 Jan 2022 - 08:14 pm
POMONA, California: The 24-race season has come to a close for the Qatar Al Anabi Racing Top Fuel Team, the three-time and defending World Championship team owned by H E Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani.
Shawn Langdon reached the quarter-finals, and Khalid AlBalooshi was eliminated in the first round at the just-completed 50th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals on Sunday, the 24th of 24 races that make up America’s 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season and the last of six races that comprise the Countdown to the Championship NHRA play-offs.
Langdon, who was the No.11 qualifier, has now completed his first reign as the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Champion.
He defeated Spencer Massey in the first round before losing to Morgan Lucas, his high school friend and former team-mate, in the second round of eliminations. Lucas went on to win the Auto Club NHRA Finals with a thrilling final round win over newly-crowned 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Champion Tony Schumacher.
For Langdon, a disappointing season comes to a close with a fourth-place finish in the final NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.
“It was a tough weekend for the Al Anabi team,” Langdon said. “We were able to make a good run in the first round; we felt like we had a good handle on it, but it shook the tyres in the second round. We just missed the setup a little bit. It was an unfortunate way to end the year.,” he added.
We really expected better results from the Al-Anabi team this year, but we know, as well as everyone else, that the Al-Anabi team is a great team. We have so many great people on this team; we just had a bad year. That’s really all it was. We’ll be back next year, and we’ll be better – I can guarantee you that.”
AlBalooshi entered the Auto Club NHRA Finals having won both races contested in the state of California earlier this season. The third-year Top Fuel driver hoped to win this weekend to complete the “California Sweep” winning all of the races contested in the Golden State as his teammate did last year, but it did not happen.
AlBalooshi was the No. 7 qualifier and appeared to have a slight competitive advantage over, Dom Lagana, but Lagana eliminated AlBalooshi in that first round matchup.
AlBalooshi finished his third Top Fuel season in eighth place in the final NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings.
“We had a pretty good year; we won two races, but we wanted to do way better in the last race,” said AlBalooshi.
“Our Al Anabi car has been good all year, but sometimes we just missed the setup. We got such a good start this year winning the first race, and I think we thought we could be a top-five team. We wanted to finish the year higher in the points, but we can learn from it and be better next year.”
The Al Anabi Racing team will be back in action February 6-8, 2015 at the 55th annual Circle K NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California when the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season begins. For additional information, visit www.nhra.com.THE PENINSULA
