According to driver Von Smith and his Al-Anabi team owner Shiekh Al-Thani, when they got to the track there were track prep issues. In an effort to fix the track the management had sealed cracks in the concrete race surface with silicone.  A week of extreme heat had caused the silicon to come out of the expansion joints and cover the surface, resulting in a track that Smith said was so slick he couldn’t make a turn on the track while just walking. The fact that the track was deemed un-drivable is verified on the Bahrain track’s official web site.

So, the teams had a meeting that included the Al-Anabi team owner and Bahrain’s team manager Ameer Akhtarzadeh. The result of the meeting according to Smith and Shiekh Al-Thani was that the race would be postponed until the track was ready. 

The Al-Anabi team was sent home which is about a seven-hour tow.  Now it starts to get really interesting. According to the Shiekh, whom I spoke with by telephone, he got a call the next day from a friend at the track to tell him that the track had been fixed and the race was being resumed right then. Needless to say, since it was a seven-hour tow from Qatar to Bahrain, the Al-Anabi team could not make the race. The Bahrain team were declared the winners of the event and the Al-Anabi team drivers got zero points. The last race of the series will be run this weekend.

“Since we received no points for the event we cannot win the Championship even if we win the last race. It’s a real shame.  We tried so hard,” said the Shiekh, “Von Smith literally risked his life running for this Championship.”

Smith indeed had a very serious high speed crash in testing and has crashed twice this season destroying his cars in both accidents.

The Shiekh supports many Pro Mod teams that compete in both the ADRL series and the NHRA exhibition class. He also backs the Alan Johnson NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car teams and reportedly has backed Australian versions of Pro Mods were are called Tin Tops.  He has gone on record most recently in a Wall Street Journal piece regarding his desire to globalize drag racing and has put his money where his heart is.

In a phone call on May 11 the Shiekh told me that his biggest disappointment was not losing the Championship but that the way he felt he lost it would harm drag racing’s image worldwide and that “This turn of events has ruined all of our good work.”

The fact that the Championship was decided evidently the way it was is sad. World Championships that are won by chicanery are cheapened in value. True race fans know and believe that Championships should be determined with all contestants getting an equal opportunity to win. That is the way of racing whether you are racing horses, camels, or racecars.

I haven’t yet been able to reach all of the parties involved, but one source that I spoke with said he had heard that the Bahrain team manager was forced into doing what he did. That would be a shame. What probably should happen is that the fifth race not count and that since anyone that had a chance to win was tied in points let the sixth and final race determine the Championship if there is any legitimate reason to do so.

I’m not saying here that one side is right or wrong. Getting a line from the U.S. to Bahrain to talk to anyone on the Bahrain team turned out to be impossible today. I will talk to those individuals soon and if my information is wrong I will file a story with their version of what happened.

Whether the drag racing is done in Bahrain or Birmingham, Alabama, sportsmanship and fair play should be the rule. And as some would say about this, “That’s just racing.”  Did someone get taken here?  The Shiekh certainly thinks his team did. We won’t know for sure until we get to talk to all of those involved, but in the meantime there is enough interest about a series taking place half a planet away from the USA to warrant DRO covering it and that can’t be bad for drag racing as a global sport.

As for the Al-Anabi team, I’ll bet they never leave another race until they are positive it is over.  And a new lesson in racing we have all learned is if they are truly calling a race that is going to determine the championship, make sure you follow the racer that can beat you out of the pit gate because he might not be going home.

That’s kind of the way professional auto racing works these days.

See next page for a response from the Bahrain Drag Racing Club