The car-crazy nation of Qatar has seen a lot of great drag racing in the short history of the Qatar Racing Club and its Arabian Drag Racing League series, but it had never seen anything quite like this.

While his racing counterparts were back home preparing for the upcoming NHRA season opener, nitro racing veteran Del Worsham, whose relationship with Al-Anabi Racing and Sheikh Khalid Al Thani dates back more than a decade, trekked to the other side of the earth — 13,000 miles — to showcase 11,000 horsepower to the locals and shake the ground in Doha for the first time.

Driving his family-owned Worsham & Fink machine, Worsham made a series of runs during the third round of the Arabian series all of which was captured from a range of angles by Kyle Loftis and the gang at 1320Video. 

Photo credit: Arabian Drag Racing League

For the Qatari locals, nitromethane in the air and the assault on the sense of a big-show fuel car were uncharted waters. They were also treated to something few Americans have seen anything in the last 11 years — that’s because devoid of any NHRA regulations, Worsham took the opportunity to run the car very nearly out the back door, recording what may be the quickest 1/4-mile Funny Car pass since the move to 1,000-feet in 2008 with a shutoff 4.821 at just 304 mph. In the post-run interview with 1320, Worsham noted he ran the car to 1,250-feet on what he estimates to have been a mid- to low-4.70 run. A quick peek at the time-slip … a pedestrian 4.13 to the 1/8-mile suggests Robert Hight’s all-time 4.63-second lap would have been history long ago.

Regardless of your take on Qatar’s role and place in the international drag racing community, exposing a new populace to the sport’s most marketable and extreme of genres comes only with upsides. Who knows, maybe another nation will be contesting fuel cars in the future after this taste of nitromethane.