Dirt
on in the final—especially with an .060 starting
line advantage.
Ahmed Al-Juhail’s .011 light bought him plenty
of breathing room against No. 1 qualifier Naser
Al Shatti’s .156 in the 4.50 Index Dragster final.
Al Shatti ran closer to the index with a 4.54 but
couldn’t make up the difference, and Al-Juhail’s
4.57 lit the win light.
Veteran Saudi Super Street Bike racer Mis-
hari Al-Turki always knows how to take Fahad
Al Hamoud’s tune-up and carry it to the finish
line on his 75-inch wheelbase, turbocharged Su-
zuki Hayabusa. Low qualifier (4.40 at 274.36)
Al-Turki’s .072 light started him out in front of
Bader Bin Eidan’s .143. Feet on the foot pegs
right out of the gate, former eighth mile, no-bar,
world record-holder Mishari’s smooth, steady
and straight pass of 4.41 at 268 kept him ahead
of Bader’s 4.60 at 275.
Bin Eidan was up in another final, this time
the Streetbike class. Wheelbase for these bikes
stretches from 60 to 64 inches based on rider
weight, and big all-motor strokers lay down their
power through any clutch you want as a long as
it isn’t a slider.
Bader’s “Bin Eidan blue” bike faced Mousa
Al-Buloshi’s Jason Dunigan-esque ‘Busa, which
ran as good as it looked. Bader could have helped
himself on the tree, giving it up with a .276 to
an .080 for Al-Buloshi. But from then on, both
bikes were locked together, with Al-Buloshi tak-
ing the win with a 7.98 to Bin Eidan’s 8.00. No.
1 qualifier Fahed Al-Harbi (7.65 at 288.58) lost
to Al-Buloshi in round 2.
Outlaw 6 Cylinder winner Mohammed Al-
Shagag laid down a 5.71 at 168.99 for the final in
his turbo Mustang, but could have taken it easier.
Runner-up Mohammed Al-Agber (low qualifier
with a 4.75 at 259) timed out in his wounded
turbo-nitrous Toyota Supra and never left the
starting line, and in fact didn’t make a full-on
pass all day as he admitted his motor needed
some major repair.
No. 1 qualifier Abdullah Al-Hatem (7.61 at 283)
took the tree .106 to .178 in the Street V8 final, but
hiked the wheels of his ’67 SS Camaro at the hit.
As the Chevy was bouncing down to the ground,
Ali Al-Jawdar’s gray Mustang sped off into the
desert night for the win with a 7.85 at 274.73 kph.
Mohammed Al-Buloshi did a proper burnout
in his “Fear the Beard” white Mustang, but then
eased slowly away from the starting line in the
8.0 Index Car final on the full quarter mile. Ali
Maddouh buzzed away in his bumblebee black
and yellow Mustang for the win in the left lane.
No. 1 qualifier Adnan Hussain broke out and lost
to Maddouh in E2.
Ditto for the 9.0 Index Car runner-up, who
also drove a white ‘Stang. Khaled Al-Qloushi
pulled away from the tree like a grandma while
the super-sweet Chevy II of Sulaiman Al-Eraier
hiked the wheels and rumbled to a 9.42 at 187
kph win. Low qualifier Mohammed Ibrahim lost
to Al-Qloushi in the first round
Also somewhat anticlimactically, Naser Borbaa
goosed the throttle too soon, red-lighting and
cutting gas on his Hayabusa in the 9.0 Index Bike
final. No. 1 qualifier Abdullah Al-Ansari streaked
away in the other lane, but didn’t need to test
the output of his all-motor, ported, stroked, and
with-a-cam ‘Busa to collect the win. He eased
the throttle when he saw his win light on and
began waving to the crowd—something American
grudge star Keith Dennis might do.
By this time it was past 2:00 a.m. and the
starter button had literally broken on the last
pair. Winner’s circle photos turned into wild cel-
ebrations of joy, pride, and even relief.
The members of Kuwait’s Basil Salem Al-
Sabah Motor Racing Club (BMRC)—especially
Drag Racing Manager Khaled Al-Ajeel and
Treasurer Ahmad M Al-Qallaf—have worked
tirelessly towards this moment since their old
track closed in 2004. With the support and
direction of Sheikh Ali Fawaz Alsabah and
Sheikh Duaij Fahad Alsabah, their dream was
finally fulfilled.
Veteran track manager Scott Valetti was hired
to take the beautiful facility and make it race
ready—a huge job considering that two weeks
before the event the track had no trained staff,
and with less than a week to go there were no
bleachers. These are only two boxes of a mile-
long list that Valetti checked off as race weekend
loomed near.
Kurt Johnson’s Total Venue Concepts crew
came in several days before the event to grind
the track, lay down some PJ1 and rotate in the
rubber. They maintained a screwed-tight surface
from the first test & tune pass to the last round
of competition.
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
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38 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 143
KUWAIT MOTOR TOWN