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NORWALK, OH (June 21st - June 23rd, 2019) – Former World Champion, Khalid Al Balooshi raced to his first victory of the 2019 season during E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series competition at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.
In only his fifth NHRA event with a turbo-charged power adder, Bahrain 1 Racing’s alBalooshi powered past Q80 Racing Team’s Jose Gonzalez in the final round with a 5.765 seconds at 259.01 mph against Gonzalez’s 5.801 at 258.81. The win notches up alBalooshi’s fifth in his Pro Mod career.
alBalooshi qualified in ninth position, and had to pick off a number of heavy-hitters on his road to the finals. This list included the number one qualifier, Mike Castellana, Todd Tutterow and team-mate Rickie Smith. Brad Personett called the tuning shots as usual and his efforts were rewarded in the final round as it was Personett’s first Wally for 2019. He also won here back in 2017 when he tuned Shane Molinari to a win against Troy Coughlin.
Meanwhile, Jose Gonzalez made a best qualifying run of 5.748 at 259.71 which placed him in sixth qualifying position. On race day his road included Doug Winters, Brandon Snider and current championship leader Steve Jackson.
In the final, the Q80 Racing team, tuned by Steve Petty, just came up short against alBalooshi. The finals appearance though, places Gonzalez in second place on the championship ladder. “We are thrilled for alBalooshi, it was such a great finish for him, however with four rounds to go for 2019, we are excited to have an opportunity to catch Jackson and that’s precisely what we will be focusing all our efforts on” said Petty. “We want to finish this season with a Championship under our belt”.
Next stop of the NHRA E3 Spark Plugs Pro Mod calendar is Aug 28th to Sept 2nd 2019 – Chevrolet Performance US Nationals in Indianapolis.
