Mira Loma’s Shawn Langdon rockets to NHRA top-fuel points lead

Turns out Shawn Langdon’s win at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona was just the start of a breakout year for the drag racer from Mira Loma.

Langdon, 30, drives in the premier top-fuel class of the National Hot Rod Assn.’s Mello Yello Series, and he’s won the last two races: In Topeka, Kan., and last weekend in Englishtown, N.J.

That’s vaulted Langdon into the lead of the championship standings by a slim four points over seven-time champion Tony Schumacher as the series heads to Bristol, Tenn., this weekend for the Ford Thunder Valley Nationals.

“It’s definitely gratifying that the results are coming now after all the hard work this team has done,” Langdon said of his Al-Anabi Racing Team.

“Going into the next race, coming off the two wins, we have a lot of confidence,” he said.

This is Langdon’s fifth season in the NHRA’s highest division and his second with the Al-Anabi team. Langdon scored his first career top-fuel victory last year in the fall race at zMax Dragway in Charlotte, N.C.

In drag racing’s other elite division, funny cars, 2011 champion Matt Hagan now leads the title standings after winning in Englishtown, his second victory of the season.

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