Shawn Langdon, Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (silver):
Residence: Avon, Ind.
Hometown: Mira Loma, Calif.
Date of birth: Sept. 3, 1982
Crew chief: Brian Husen
Al-Anabi Racing Team Owner: His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani
Al-Anabi Racing Team Manager: Alan Johnson
Alan Johnson Racing Owner: Alan Johnson
2013 wins/final rounds: 1/1 (1.000)
Career wins/final rounds: 2/8 (.250)
2013 No. 1 qualifiers: 0
Career No. 1 qualifiers: 6
Best points finish: 4th (2012)
Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs appearances: 4 (2009, ’10, ’11, ‘12)
First start: Pomona 1, 2009
Career-best elapsed time: 3.712 seconds (Reading, 2012)
Career-best speed: 334.15 mph (Reading, 2012)
■ Shawn Langdon enters the Summitracing.com NHRA Nationals in third place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails second-place Tony Schumacher by 58 points and leads fourth-place Doug Kalitta by 20 points.
■ What a difference a year makes. One year ago, the Al-Anabi Racing Team entered the fourth race of the season with Langdon in fifth place and his teammate Khalid alBalooshi in 11th place in the Top Fuel point standings. This season, Langdon enters the fourth race of the season in third place with alBalooshi currently fifth.
■ The Al-Anabi Racing Team won races at Las Vegas in 2010 and ’11, but team manager Alan Johnson and both Al-Anabi crew chiefs were also a part of Las Vegas race wins in 2004, ’05, ’06 and ’08. One year ago at Las Vegas, Langdon was the No. 5 qualifier but lost to Antron Brown in the first round of eliminations.
■ With Langdon’s win in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., he has qualified for the Traxxas Shootout. The second-year special event for eight Top Fuel teams and eight Funny Car teams is set for Indianapolis during the U.S. Nationals on Labor Day weekend. Last year, Langdon did not qualify for the event because he did not win a race prior to it nor did he advance into the race from the drawing for non-winners.
■ Langdon will join 11 other NHRA drivers in a Wednesday, April 17 softball game against NASCAR drivers in Kannapolis, N.C. just north of Concord where zMAX Dragway is located. Proceeds from the event will be donated to charities selected by each team. The NHRA team has designated Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and the NASCAR drivers have selected The Armed Forces Foundation.
■ Langdon recorded the fastest speed to 1,000 feet in NHRA history last fall in Reading, Pa. when he reached 334.15 mph. In addition, during the same Reading race weekend, his 3.712-second elapsed time was the national elapsed-time record until Antron Brown made a quicker pass in the same weekend. It still stands as the second-quickest 1,000-foot run in NHRA history.
■ During the 2012 season, the Langdon legend of starting-line excellence was clear. Langdon led the Top Fuel class in 2012 reaction time leaving the starting line quicker than any other Top Fuel driver with an average reaction time of .057 of a second. He left the starting line before his opponent an astounding 72% of the time, which also led the Top Fuel class last season.
■ Langdon was the No. 1 qualifier five times last season, more than any other Top Fuel driver. He led the field into eliminations during events in Phoenix, Indianapolis, the September Charlotte race, Dallas and the NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif. last November. During the 2012 season, Langdon qualified in the top five at 16 of the 23 races.
■ Since December, Langdon has been serving as the Al-Anabi Racing interim general manager. When Chad Head departed the race team in December to join his father’s construction business and drive the Head Racing Funny Car, Langdon stepped in to assist the team with day-to-day operations at the race shop. He will continue in this role until Head’s replacement is hired, but during race weekends, Langdon will focus solely on driving the Al-Anabi Racing silver Top Fuel dragster.
■ The Al-Anabi Racing Team won a total of two races in 2012 with Langdon and his teammate Khalid alBalooshi each reaching the winner’s circle once. The two-race win total was the lowest season total since the team was founded in 2009. That season, the team won eight times with five in Top Fuel and three in Funny Car; in 2010, Al-Anabi Racing visited the Top Fuel winner’s circle 12 times followed by 10 wins in 2011 when the team fielded two Top Fuel dragsters for the first time. Langdon claimed last season’s first Al-Anabi race win at the season’s 18th race.
■ Langdon qualified for the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs in each of his four previous seasons driving a Top Fuel car. He finished fourth in the final NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings last season after finishing ninth in 2011, fifth in 2010, and ninth in 2009, his rookie season.
■ Langdon joined the Al-Anabi Racing team prior to the 2012 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. He won the 2007 and ’08 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Super Comp championships and the 1997 NHRA Junior Dragster championship in the 14-under division making him a three-time NHRA national series champion.
Langdon prior to Las Vegas:
“Both Al-Anabi cars are really in pretty good shape, and our silver Al-Anabi team has been running well. We tested after Gainesville to fine-tune some things a little more. We have both cars in the top five in the point standings so we’ve had a good start for the Al-Anabi team as a whole. We’re definitely looking to step up the performance on both cars, but we are just trying to take it slowly. As long as we can keep ourselves in the thick of things in the point standings, we are confident we can continue to progress and get our cars running faster and faster.
“I think our cars are running better for a couple of reasons. I think it’s partly the direction that Alan (team manager Alan Johnson) and the crew chiefs are going this year. They kind of took a step back and went through a learning process last year trying some different things in the different areas of performance that affect how the car runs. There was a transition period for both alBalooshi and me with both of us being new to the team last year; we had to get used to being with a new team. We had to get acclimated to how the Al-Anabi team operates. So it was a big learning experience for all of us last year, but as the year went on, we began to find our chemistry about the same time the cars began to find their performance. I think the way we were running at the end of last year has carried over to this season, but now our job is to keep getting better every time we make a run.
“A lot of guys on this Al-Anabi team have had a lot of success in Las Vegas. You always have race tracks where you just, for some reason, feel comfortable as a driver. I am sure for crew chiefs it’s the same thing; it’s nice for me to know how much success Alan (team manager Alan Johnson), Brian (silver Al-Anabi crew chief Brian Husen) and Jason (gold Al-Anabi crew chief Jason McCulloch) have had in Las Vegas. It is a very nice facility; it’s one of the nicest facilities we go to each year. The track surface there is pretty good so I just think it’s a track where Alan, Brian and Jason feel comfortable. They have good setups for the track, and I think having the success these guys have had at Las Vegas allows them to have that confident, comfortable feeling before anyone even steps foot on the track.”
For additional information on team manager Alan Johnson or Shawn Langdon, please visit www.alanabiracing.com to view their full bios.
Khalid alBalooshi, Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (gold):
Residence: Los Angeles, Calif.
Hometown: Dubai, UAE
Date of Birth: July 27, 1979
Crew Chief: Jason McCulloch
Al-Anabi Racing Team Owner: His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani
Al-Anabi Racing Team Manager: Alan Johnson
Alan Johnson Racing Owner: Alan Johnson
2012 wins/final rounds: 1/1 (1.000)
Career wins/final rounds: 1/1 (1.000)
2012 No. 1 Qualifiers: 0
Career No. 1 qualifiers: 0
Career-best points finish: 11th (2012)
Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs appearances: None
First professional start: Pomona1, 2012
Career-best elapsed time: 3.735 seconds (Reading 2012)
Career-best speed: 328.46 mph (Reading, 2012)
■ Khalid alBalooshi enters the Summitracing.com NHRA Nationals in fifth place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails fourth-place Doug Kalitta by four points and leads sixth-place Spencer Massey by six points.
■ The last time he raced in Las Vegas last October, alBalooshi made an impressive semifinal run. He was the No. 4 qualifier. He defeated 2012 Top Fuel champion Antron Brown and J.R. Todd before losing to Tony Schumacher in the semifinals. One year ago at this event, alBalooshi was the No.7 qualifier; he lost to Terry McMillan in the first round of eliminations.
■ AlBalooshi’s sophomore season is off to a much better start than his rookie season in 2012. He advanced to the semifinals in Pomona and the quarterfinals at both Phoenix and Gainesville giving him four round wins on the young season. Last year, alBalooshi did not win his fourth round until the 17th race of the season in Indianapolis. The Dubai, UAE native has now won at least one round of competition at each of the last 12 races dating back to last season; that first-round win streak is the longest in Top Fuel and Funny Car.
■ After competing in Gainesville, Fla. Las month, alBalooshi traveled to Doha, Qatar to race in the Qatar Mile, a competition in which competitors drive one mile, from a standing start, to determine who can reach the top speed in one mile. The race is held on an old airport runway; alBalooshi finished second after winning the inaugural Qatar Mile event in February.
■ AlBalooshi captured the first Top Fuel win of his career during his rookie season last year. On a cold, rainy weekend during which national performance records were being set with impressive regularity, alBalooshi defeated Spencer Massey, Ike Maier, his teammate Shawn Langdon and eventual 2012 Top Fuel champion Anton Brown in the final round of the Auto Parts Nationals in Reading, Pa.
■ AlBalooshi’s rookie year was a story of two very different half seasons. In the first half of the season, alBalooshi was defeated in the first round of eliminations at all 12 races. However, after getting his first Top Fuel round win at Denver in July, alBalooshi advanced to at least the second round of eliminations at10 of the last 11 races of the season including each of the last nine. He had a win and a semifinal in the last three races, and before he lost in the Las Vegas semifinals at the second-to-last race of the year, he had won six consecutive rounds of racing.
■ AlBalooshi chose the No. 99 for the Al-Anabi Racing gold dragster as a tribute to Al-Anabi Racing team owner His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani because nine is Sheikh Khalid’s favorite number.
■ AlBalooshi joined the Al-Anabi Racing Team as a Pro Mod driver when it was formed in 2009 racing in both Arabian Drag Racing League and American Drag Racing League competition. He is the 2011 NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod champion. Prior to joining the Top Fuel portion of the Al-Anabi Racing Team in 2012, he had 158 career race wins in various classes of competition.
AlBalooshi prior to Las Vegas:
“Our Al-Anabi team is doing better than we did early last season, but we all want more good runs. We are working on that. We stayed in Gainesville after the race to test, and I think we had a good test. What I know I can tell you is that last year, we did not find our luck until the summer. This year, we started the season much better, and I know our team will have a good year. I know everyone will work his hardest, and our team will get better and better with each race weekend. I know I must do a better job driving the car because I did not do a good job in Florida. I am working on that, and I will do better.”
For additional information on team manager Alan Johnson or Khalid alBalooshi, please visit www.alanabiracing.com to view their full bios.
About Al-Anabi Racing:
Al-Anabi Racing operates out of multiple locations in both the United States and Qatar. In the United States, the Brownsburg, Ind.-based operation is a two-car NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series team that is managed by Alan Johnson Racing. Sheikh Khalid’s initiative has created increased international awareness of the nation of Qatar while highlighting the nation’s international sports outreach. Alan Johnson is a 14-time NHRA champion in various capacities including crew chief, team owner and team manager. For additional information on the Al-Anabi Racing Team, team manager Alan Johnson or drivers Khalid alBalooshi or Shawn Langdon, please visit www.alanabiracing.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment