Not to be left out of the record-setting action, Castellana's Al-Anabi Racing teammate "Tricky" Rickie Smith, a seven-time IHRA Pro Stock world champion and the No. 1 Mountain Motor racer of all-time, jumped into the fray with the supercharged contingent during the final round of qualifying on Saturday night with an incredible 5.951/237.67mph lap in his '68 Camaro - the quickest quarter-mile pass in the history of nitrous-oxide assisted Pro Modified racing before Castellana's one-upping effort in eliminations. Smith's noteworthy performance wasn't limited to the quarter-mile, either, as the legal-weight doorslammer tripped the 660ft. beams at 3.895-seconds and 192.32mph - the veteran racer's first dip into the 3.80s.

"Well, you know we wanted to win the deal," said Smith, checking in via cell phone from his home in King, North Carolina. "I think we might have had a shot at them in the semis, but I just missed the call there and it went out and shook. We had a little staging duel up there, and I knew we were going to need four to five hundredths on the tree if we were going to have a shot at it. We had what we needed on the starting line, I think I went .074 to his .123, but that was where our good fortune ended."

Smith continued, "It's pretty amazing to see these cars out here running like they are. Side by side runs in the 5.80s is pretty impressive, and the air out there wasn't really that good. I think it was about 2,100-feet when we ran the .95 on Saturday, and we did that at the NHRA mandated 2,425-pound minimum weight for the nitrous cars. No matter how you cut it, the blower cars have four or five hundredths on us and that's tough to make up."

Beyond all the excitement created by the spectacular performances, Al-Anabi Racing's Burton Auxier and Mike Castellana also retain the Get Screened America NHRA Pro Mod Challenge points lead (Auxier No. 1 - 434, Castellana No. 2 - 409), despite bowing out of the United Association NHRA SuperNationals prematurely in the first and second round of eliminations, respectively.

Castellana pulled into the staging beams alongside Mike Knowles and his supercharged '63 Corvette in the opening stanza, but his career-best 5.94/237mph pass and patented quick .036 reaction time wasn't enough to get around Knowles own personal record 5.933 at 242.45mph.

Dixie, West Virginia's own Burton Auxier locked up the No. 12 qualifying position with a slightly off-the-pace 6.103, yet was able to sneak around veteran Top Alcohol Funny Car and Pro Mod pilot Jay Payne in the first round with a 6.00/237.75mph lap, but fought a wiring problem and was unable to return for the quarter-final round of action.

Mike Castellana and the Al-Anabi Racing team's return to Old Bridge Township Raceway Park could only have been more exciting if the Pro Mod super-crew was able to seal the deal on yet another win in 2009, but with four events remaining and a relatively narrow advantage in the points standings, it's about to really heat up in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge.

Next up for Pro Modified's star-studded multi-car team will be the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, held yearly at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis over the Labor Day holiday weekend.

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.

Courtesy of Wes Buck