New faces in the winner’s circle

Words compiled by Kay Burk - Photos by Todd Dziadosz and Debbie Gastelu


Top Fuel winner al Balooshi
Funny Car winner Mike Neff
Pro Stock winner V. Gaines

 

Cold and rain were the winners this year at Maple Grove Raceway. The cold temps made for some record runs, but in the end, the rain ruled, washing out the competition on Sunday and cutting it short on Monday, Oct. 8, leaving the Pro Stock Motorcycle final round to be run at the next NHRA event in Las Vegas.

In Top Fuel, rookie driver al Balooshi earned his first career victory with a winning performance of 3.910 at 312.42 in his Al-Anabi Racing dragster, defeating current points leader Antron Brown in the final round. Al Balooshi defeated Spencer Massey, Ike Maier and teammate Shawn Langdon en route to the victory. He becomes the first Middle Eastern driver and only the third driver from outside North America to win a Full Throttle Series race, joining Australian David Grubnic and Kenji Okazaki from Japan.