Words and photos by Jeff Burk

I wake up in the very nice hotel room the Qatar Racing Club has kindly furnished me. For a moment I don't know where I am. I don't actually know what time it is here or anywhere else. A re-run of last night’s David Letterman show with sub-titles and ads all in Arabic in on the flat-screen TV. (Letterman isn't very funny these days in any language.) And to make matters worse the "cluster headache" I've been living with for the past two weeks finally delivers the double vision that the doctor promised. I'm beginning this day just like every road trip I've taken in the past 30 years.

I must have coffee! I call room service and order a pot of coffee. When it comes I slice myself a portion. I'm not saying the coffee here is strong but I dumped in three sweeteners and two packets of creamer and I couldn't see a change in the dark brown color. I take a big gulp, along with one of the horse tabs my doctor prescribed for the headache, and immediately I feel alert and my vision clears up!

I pour another cup and dial Kenny Nowling to ask where I am and what time it is. I wake him up. My feeble attempt at humor is no better than Letterman’s and he makes a remark about my heritage, tells me I'm in Qatar, it's 10:30, and threatens to have me taken out in the desert if I bother him again. I once had a desk clerk in Las Vegas tell me the same thing.

Oh well, on to the race report I'm supposed to be doing.

As I said before, apparently drag racing crosses all social and ethnic boundaries and the sport and competitors are essentially the same everywhere. One of the main reasons I'm here is to clear up the firestorm over the Bahrain Drag Racing Club Championship.

ADRL president Kenny Nowling (left) with Ameer of the Bahrain team.

First, I found out that there are actually two championships at stake here. The Qatar Racing Club has its own, as does its counterpart in Bahrain, and both championships are evidently sanctioned by the Arabian Drag Racing League. Imagine that: there is an ADRL here too. I wonder if Kenny Nowling knows about this?

By the way, most of Nowling 's crack U.S. ADRL crew is running the race including Race Director Bubba Corzine. Drag racing here still has a few rough edges and the locals are still learning, but the racing here is on a par with anybody’s drag racing series.

Anyway, back to the Championship issue. After talking to a really nice guy by the name of Ameer, the Bahrain team manager (who, incidentally, is the representative for VP Racing Fuel here in the Persian Gulf) and to a team member of the Al-Anabi team that everyone calls Mo, I find out that the Bahrain Championship "misunderstanding" is complicated. What’s new about that?

As I understand it, the Bahrain track is run by one set of officials and the racers kind of have their own program. I’ll find out more about that today.

Seems like the racers at last week’s event in Bahrain all got together and agreed that the track surface wasn't safe for the Pro Mods to race on. And when you consider that they have Pro Mods every bit as quick if not quicker than those in the U.S. -- sub six-second laps are common and 5.70’s have been recorded -- track safety is vital. I'll get more on the issue tonight at the track.