Pro Nitrous

Taking Shannon Jenkins out of drivers’ ranks and having him focus on tuning Al-Anabi team driver Khalid (K.A.) Al-Balooshi of Qatar proved successful as KA qualified number one and on at least one pass, exceeded the current Pro Nitrous speed record of 194.13 mph set by Jim Halsey at the ADRL race at Houston Raceway Park last month. Al-Balooshi’s Friday night pass stood as the number one qualifier, Low ET and Top Speed of the meet in the Pro Nitrous category.

In the end though, current speed record holder and driver of the first nitrous-injected door car to record a sub-six-second lap for the quarter-mile, Jim Halsey emerged as the Pro Nitrous winner.

The first round of Pro Nitrous saw all the top half qualifiers of the 16-car field advance, with Halsey posting the quickest and fastest pass of the round, a 3.89 at 193.02 in his win.

Balooshi showed the Qatar-based driver is the real deal as he suffered a major explosion and fire but still brought the burning car to a safe halt in a very professional manner. His Shannon Jenkins-led crew repaired the damage and KA answered the call for the second round but his car obviously wasn’t completely right after the explosion and he just couldn’t cover Steve Vick’s 3.932 lap, which was low ET of the round.

They say it takes a little luck to win and Halsey and his crew had some at this event. He struggled with a 5.22 in the second round and an identical 5.22 in the semi-finals yet he was able to advance in both rounds. That had the current points leader in a precarious position heading into the final round match up against odds-on favorite Steve Vick.

In the final, a normally quick-on-the-lights Vick wasn’t against Halsey as he had a subterranean .101 reaction time to Halsey's .049. Halsey cruised to the win with a 3.92 ET while Steve Vick a very respectable 3.95 losing effort.

The win extended Halsey's points lead in the Pro Nitrous class where the top eight points gatherers will meet in the “Battle of the Belts” at the last race of the ADRL race season at the Texas Motorplex.