“Qatar Hero” Balooshi Runs Table @ Season Opener

Khalid Balooshi ran the table at the opening race of the 2011 NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Series, following up his No. 1 qualifier award with the race win…

Balooshi, from Doha, Qatar, defeated 2010 Series runner-up Danny Rowe by 13-thousandths of a second in the final round, 5.912 (with .074 RT) to 5.943 (with .056 RT).

Balooshi, driver of the Speedtech-sponsored, nitrous injected ’68 Camaro, defeated Mike Knowles, Brad Personett, and Canada’s Kenny Lang – last year’s winner at this event – before finishing off (another Canadian) Rowe to open the second season of the Get Screened America Pro Mod Series with the victory.

GSA Pro Mod Winner - Khalid Balooshi

The all international final round marked the second year in a row at Gainesville that two non-U.S. based drivers faced off for the event title.  Last year Canadian Lang defeated Sweden’s Michael Guillqvist for the title.

With the victory Balooshi left the event with a 22-point lead over Rowe, 34 over Rickie Smith and 36 over Lang.

Low ET and top speed of the event was captured by two turbocharged cars based from the potent R2B2 Racing camp lead by Georgia’s Roger Burgess.  Burgess himself rolled to a highly impressive 5.843 secs driving his all new turbo ’53 Corvette while his new teammate Brad Personett collected top speed overall at 255.19 mph in the “Big Stuff” backed Chevy Camaro.

GSA PM Series founder Roger Burgess set low ET driving his new turbocharged Corvette

The NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Series continues April 1-3 at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

(Photos by:  Bruce Biegler)