TOPEKA, Kansas: He is the reigning World Champion. He won this race a year ago, but Shawn Langdon has yet to reach the Winner’s Circle for the Qatar Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team, the three-time and defending World Championship team owned by Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani.
Perhaps this weekend, at the 26th annual NHRA Kansas Nationals, the eighth of 24 races making up the United States’ 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, will be his time.
Qualifying is set for tomorrow and Saturday with eliminations scheduled for Sunday.
Langdon and his silver Al-Anabi team were dominant in Topeka last year; they were the No. 1 qualifiers, and they marched through eliminations taking down some of the finest teams in Top Fuel on the way to victory.
It was a riveting performance and a key part of the team’s run to the world title.
Fast forward to 2014 where Langdon and the team are fourth in points, and while they have not yet won a race, they are only 45 points behind where they were this time last year.
A significant points move is possible at any time, and a return to a race track on which the team has been successful could lead to more success.
“We still haven’t gotten that first win of the season yet, but going to a familiar track like Topeka, where we’ve had a lot of success and going back as the defending champion, we’ll probably have more confidence rolling into Topeka this week than any other track,” Langdon said. “You go to a place where you’ve familiar with the track and the weather conditions, and good things can happen. Last year, we made some really strong runs at Topeka where we were able to separate ourselves from the field by a couple hundredths of a second. Hopefully we can duplicate what we did there last year, learn from what we’ve been working on with the Al-Anabi car this year, continue to make strong runs this weekend and especially on Sunday.”
Khalid alBalooshi was also fast in Topeka last year. The third-year Top Fuel driver was the No. 4 qualifier, and just missed a semifinal appearance.
With a race win among two final-round appearances this season, the Dubai native is having his best Top Fuel season so far despite a disappointing result last weekend near Atlanta when weather and difficult track conditions plagued the event.
“Our team did not have its best luck last week in Atlanta, but we did the best we could,” alBalooshi said.
“The weather was hard on everyone. The track was tricky. We did our best, but it wasn’t good enough. I am happy we are going to the race again this week because we have a good hot rod. Our team does a good job in Topeka; Shawn won the race there last year, and our gold Al-Anabi car was also good. I think everyone on our team is excited to go to Topeka because our team does a good job at that track. We hope we can find our racing luck this week.” The Peninsula
