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| Castellana takes semi-final finish in houston; leaves with points lead |
 (04-01-09) BAYTOWN, TX – Al-Anabi Racing’s Mike Castellana led the team to a solid semi-final finish at the recently completed O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park during the second event on the 10-race Get Screened America NHRA Pro Mod Challenge circuit.When unfortunate weather circumstances caused the first two rounds of Pro Modified qualifying to be canceled, racers were left with only one qualifying shot on Saturday prior to the first round of eliminations that very evening. With the tuning expertise of Brandon Switzer and Shannon Jenkins of Speedtech Nitrous in his corner, Castellana was able to stick the Al-Anabi Racing/Western Beef ’68 Pontiac Firebird in the No. 6 spot with a 6.08-second, 234mph pass – the only nitrous car in the top half of the field. The New York native faced off against Mike Knowles in the opening stanza and used a stunning 5.994/236.88mph blast to best Knowles 6.001-second, 241.76mph effort. Still considered an incredible feat in nitrous Pro Modified, Castellana’s five-second lap was one of seven in the first round of eliminations, further illustrating the level of competition found in NHRA quarter-mile Pro Modified racing. Lining up opposite of No. 3 qualifier and multi-time event winner Joe Baker, driver of Mike Ashley Racing’s ’68 Camaro, Castellana would go virtually untested as Baker’s car broke traction and never posed a threat to the 6.026/236.84mph combination of the Al-Anabi Racing Firebird. In the semi-final round of eliminations, Castellana met eventual runner-up Rick Stivers for what would have likely been a barn-burner of a drag race, but both cars got out of shape and were forced to abort the run. However, Stivers’ troubles came about closer to the finish line, and ultimately allowed for him to take the win. Castellana was obviously game, though, as evident by his lethal .010-second reaction time, which was his best of the day after back to back .037 lights in the first and second round. “This was a good weekend here in Houston,†Castellana said. “Our Al-Anabi Racing Firebird showed the performance necessary to win, and I felt confident going into the latter rounds that we had a legitimate shot at taking home another win. Both Shannon [Jenkins] and Brandon [Switzer] continue providing me with a great race car and even though we would have liked to have made it to the final, we're glad to be heading to the next event with the points lead. Of course we’d like to win every race on the schedule, but we know that over the long-term it’s critical to consistently go rounds. We’ll head to St. Louis and keep working towards this Get Screened America NHRA Pro Mod Challenge championship.†The next stop on the Get Screened America NHRA Pro Mod Challenge presented by ProCare Rx tour is the O’Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals, May 1st-3rd, 2009, at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois. ABOUT AL-ANABI RACING/QATAR A result of drag racing’s continually increasing popularity abroad, Al-Anabi Racing is based out of the country of Qatar. Qatar is widely-known for working with the United States military forces to build one of the premier U.S. air bases in the Arabian Gulf Region at Al-Udeid. The Qatari philosophy was to obtain the best defense by providing the best facilities for U.S. and coalition forces. At the heart of the Al-Anabi Racing program is His Highness Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani, a member of the ruling family of Qatar, who set a goal of promoting the domestic and international awareness of motorsports in the nation of Qatar through multiple racing teams competing within the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Al-Anabi Racing recently completed construction and held its first events at the new Qatar Race Club (QRC), a state of the art drag strip outside the city of Doha in the nation of Qatar. Visit Al-Anabi Racing’s Sponsors: www.speedtechnitrous.com, www.msdignition.com, www.braswell.com, www.redlineoil.com, www.vistafood.com, www.westernbeef.com, www.aeromotiveinc.com, www.rehermorrison.com, www. spaghettimenders.com |
