Pro Mod/Top Sportsman

Drag racing in the Persian Gulf is very much like it is in the States or any other place where drag racing is a serious sport: The teams with the most funds tend to dominate. In this part of the drag racing world the Pro Mod and Top Sportsman doorslammer classes are the equivalent to the NHRA’s Top Fuel and Funny Car classes to the fans and racers.

As in the States, it appears that drag racing in this part of the world also is having issues having enough cars in the premier classes. At the Qatar race, which was the ninth of a ten-race schedule that the Qatar and Bahrain clubs have, there were only 10 cars total; six in Pro Mod and four in the Top Sportsman class.
Despite the lack of entries, the competition is fierce between the two factions. The racing in that part of the world has its own version of the rivalry between U.S. team owners  Don Schumacher and  Don Prudhomme.  In this Persian Gulf series the Bahrain-based Bahrain 1 team backed by Yasser Abdulla and the Qatar-based Al-Anabi team of Sheikh Khalid Al-Thani are very serious competitors. Each respect and is polite to the other but both badly want to win. The Bahrain 1 team has three cars with two Pro Mods and a Top Sportsman car and the Al-Anabi team has three Pro Mods and two Top Sportsman.

Khalid Mohamed leaves hard in his Gene Fulton powered 2000 Firebird.

And, just as in the States, each of the team owners is apparently willing to spend whatever it takes to field the best teams that money can buy. And that includes bringing over the very best Pro Mod/Top Sportsman engine builders, tuners, and drivers from the U.S.  For this final race of the Qatar season you could find Tim McAmis, Tommy Mauney, Shannon Jenkins, Rickie Smith, Gene Fulton, Rick Hickman and Howard Moon tuning and tweaking the cars of both the premier teams.

United Arab Emirates racer Bader Ahli in an ex-Tommy Mauney Mustang

The track is good as ANY in the States and as a result the speeds and E.T.’s for the Pro Mod and Top Sportsman were as good and often better than what their counterparts in North America and Europe deliver.