Khalid Al Balooshi confident he can return Al Anabi Top Fuel dragster to Victory Lane

The UAE's Khalid Al Balooshi is confident he can get his Al Anabi Racing Top Fuel dragster back in Victory Lane before the season ends. Courtesy Gary Nastase

Khalid Al Balooshi remained in a positive mood about his prospects despite his early exit from the latest round of the NHRA Top Fuel drag racing series in the United States.

The Emirati was knocked out in the first round of eliminations in Sunday’s NHRA Nationals in Brainerd Minnesota.

He had been troubled with technical problems in his Al Anabi Racing car during the weekend and, although he had a clean run in his heat, he was beaten by Spencer Massey.

“We broke a blower belt on one run and dropped a cylinder on some others,” he said. “ The Al Anabi car ran well, but we had some little problems.

“It was not a great weekend for our team, but at least we have a car now. We are testing in Indianapolis this week and we will work on getting our car to be more consistent. We need to work on some things to be sure.”

Al Balooshi’s teammate, world champion Shawn Langdon, fared little better, going out in the second round heats to Tony ­Schumacher.

“In the second round, we made another good run, but we had a fuel pump problem, and Tony got the win,” Langdon said. “It’s not the way we wanted to end the weekend, but the Al-Anabi car is good.”

Al Balooshi and Langdon are back in action on August 29 at the US Nationals in Indianapolis.

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