MADISON, IL (August 6, 2010) — The day started well enough for Pro Extreme driver KH Al-Thani.
It ended even better.
With his full Al-Anabi Racing crew on hand, Al-Thani put on a thrilling show for them and the capacity crowd at Gateway International Raceway (GIR), going five impressive rounds to win the previously postponed American Drag Racing League (ADRL) Hardee's Independence Drags IV on Friday in Pro Extreme.
In the finals against Frankie Taylor, Al-Thani went an event-best 3.66 at 208 miles per hour to claim the win.
"The real excitement was that we were able to invite our entire team down here," Al-Thani said. "I had to do my best to show them what we do.
"The more pressure there is, the better I get. I know how to cope with pressure."
Al-Thani has done it well in his short ADRL racing career, picking up his second win in just five ADRL races.
He wasn't the only ADRL driver who reached significant milestones on Friday at the completion of the event that was postponed due to rain in early July.
The eliminations made for a festive Friday at GIR, which should carry over to a memorable completion of the Hardee's Gateway Drags III on Saturday.
The rest of the Independence Drags winners on Friday included John Montecalvo in Extreme Pro Stock – his fourth straight ADRL win – Rickie Smith in Pro Nitrous – his third straight ADRL win – Gary White in Extreme 10.5, Ashley Owens in Pro Extreme Motorcycle and Jimmy Sackwich in Pro Junior Dragster.
The wins for Montecalvo, Smith, White and Owens cemented their points lead in their respective classes,
while Al-Thani will jump back into the top five in PX with his.
Al-Thani immediately turned heads on Friday by going a 3.68 in his first run, following that passes of 3.74 and 3.69 in the second and third rounds, respectively, to reach the finals.
Al-Thani then capped his day by breaking the track's E.T. record in the final.
"We very rarely get to (have the whole team together) and everybody on our team did awesome," Al-Thani said.
It was another emotional win for Smith in PN following the tragic passing of his father on Thursday.
But, like he did in Houston two weeks ago, Smith used his father as motivation, getting a hole-shot win in the finals against Jim Halsey, going a 3.89 to continue his incredible run.
"It's been tough because my dad has always supported me," Smith said. "I'm just so thankful to win these. To win those at Houston and this one, it's been all about family."
Halsey will be the No. 1 qualifier for Saturday's Gateway Drags, but Smith cut a .035 light to win by .007 of a second.
Smith's consistency carried over from Houston as well. His '68 Camaro never went slower than a 3.94, and he went 3.91 to beat Dan Stevenson in the semifinals.
"It's pretty incredible, in this day and age, to make all these runs," Smith said. "That's pretty tough. We've won a lot of races, but to do it when these cars are going this fast, it's fooling me. The car is working really good."
The same can be said for Montecalvo, who could enter uncharted ADRL territory with another win on Saturday.
As it is now, the four straight wins are a first for an XPS driver and after going a class-best 4.07 in the finals to beat Jeff Dobbins, Montecalvo joined Joshua Hernandez as the only ADRL drivers to win four straight races.
"We really set the bar high and after we got back from Houston and it took a while to set in," Montecalvo said. "But we said nothing is holding us back from winning again. We've got a great car, a great team and I'm driving well. Right now, we're hard to beat and while it's happening, we're going to ride it out."
Montecalvo and his '08 Cobalt made several more strong passes on Friday and the New York native got better as the day progressed.
He went 4.12 to beat Bob Bertsch and then 4.11 to beat Cary Goforth and earn a finals berth.
Matched up with Dobbins, the pair engaged in an exciting battle on the starting line before Montecalvo took over.
"Jeff is tough and we knew it was going to be fun at the starting line," Montecalvo said. "I felt some pressure before, but I just told myself to have fun and that took the pressure off."
The pressure had been on Owens in PXM after blowing two transmissions in Houston two weeks ago.
The "Fast by Gast" driver and his team didn't get the new motor back until Wednesday, leaving for one long night and some uneasy moments.
But Owens remained calm and picked up his fifth win in 2010, beating Terry Schweigert for the third time this year by going 4.10 at 174 mph.
"This guy is something else," team owner Paul Gast said. "He's doing a great job and he does it all. The real key is getting good data to have good runs. He's the king of good runs and I'm really proud of him and our team."
The quick turnaround impressed Owens, but more trouble came around in the first qualifying round when the bike suffered electrical problems.
Luckily, that was quickly fixed and Owens went 4.14 in a win against Eric McKinney to advance to the finals.
"We turned around quick and everything worked out great," Owens said. "It's always nerve-wracking, but everything went good. To come back from (the electrical problems) was satisfying."
White had his own problems in XTF in Houston, bowing out early after a substantial amount of car trouble.
None of that was present at GIR, as White went 4.00 at 185 mph in the finals to beat Jeff Naiser, earning his third win this season in the process.
"We needed this," White said. "In Houston, we went out in the first round and blew our motor, and that hurt.
"It was tough to recover from and it took a little doing to get back. We needed (the win)."
Things could get decidedly more difficult on Saturday, especially after Spiro Pappas broke a track E.T. record in XTF by going 3.98 to jump to the top qualifying spot.
White, though, will be ready.
"Tomorrow is going to be tough," White said. "It's going to take a 3.90 to win."
In Pro Junior Dragster, Sackwich went 8.11 to win in the finals against Kendall Thiesse. Sackwich was the No. 10 qualifier, but went 8.16 in two straight races to reach the finals.
The final qualifying round for the Hardee's Gateway Drags III begins at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The first round of eliminations is set to begin at 3 p.m.
Along with Halsey (3.87) and Pappas, current No. 1 qualifiers are Al-Thani, Owens and Montecalvo.
