Drag racing may not have been invented in Southern California, but it certainly was organized and codified there, and has been part of the culture for more than a half century.

The Beach Boys wrote, what, five songs about drag racing? Ten? Surfing, drag racing and girls, that’s what SoCal cares about, in the Beach Boys universe.

Thing is, I’ve never been a fan of the drags. Never. Not of the professional stuff. Two smoke-belching  machines maneuvering into position on either side of a Christmas tree to cover 440 yards in 4-5 seconds, emitting decibels enough to explode the ear drums of anyone within 50 yards … and then you wait 10 minutes for another 4-5 seconds of action.

But, it turns out, not even taking a job in Abu Dhabi, hard on the shores of the Gulf, allowed me to escape the National Hod Rod Association.

Dragsters are taking over the peninsula, and somebody is gonna have to shut down somebody else, as the Beach Boys would say, to determine who is the coolest shark around.

We got a press release, at The National, the other day, about the formation of a Top Fuel racing team, co-sponsored by the Yas Marina Circuit — the deluxe Formula One track here that came on line last year — and the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority.

The sad part of this is … I have covered the drags often enough that I actually know a little something about the sport … and just about no one else in the department does. (And why would they? They know cricket and rugby and F1 and rally racing, and I don’t.) But I am now the closest thing to a drags expert on the staff and probably ought to look at all the drags copy. Yippee.

Anyway, upon investigation, I saw that they already had opened the Yas Drag Racing Academy here, with Rod “Hot Rod” Fuller as the head instructor. Fuller has some NHRA history, having won seven Top Fuel events. So he knows his stuff.

Anyway, perhaps Fuller talked Yas Marina into creating a team, or maybe the executives said “let’s go racin’!” … but now we in the UAE have a Top Fuel team with plans to race at four events between now and September. Beginning with this weekend’s event at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.

And in the first event in the Abu Dhabi/Yas Circuit team’s history, Fuller qualified third in Top Fuel.  Not bad. And when you gauge speeds in kilometers per hour, that 310 mph run suddenly is 500 kph. Sounds a lot faster, huh?

So, qualifying was Saturday and eliminations were today, and Team Abu Dhabi went out in the first round. Checking the NHRA website, it appears as if Fuller smoked his tires and nearly lost control … and shut it down.

What made this more interesting?

The dragster that won the Top Fuel division was driven by Larry Dixon whose team is known as … Al-Anabi Racing.

Hey, wait, doesn’t that sound like an Arabic name? Al Anabi?

Well, yes, it does. And it is. The Al-Anabi team, which seems to sponsor cars in a variety of NHRA divisions … is backed by Sheikh Khalid of the ruling Al Thani family in Qatar, just up the road from here. And that is the word “Qatar” on the side of the wing of Dixon’s dragster as it is about to take off on the championship run today.

Looks like Qatar and the Al Thanis are off to a head start in this drag racing business.

As countries, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are on very friendly terms. But so are you and your brothers, but when you play hoops on the driveway, the competition can get pretty intense, right?

Anyway, we know that at least two of the countries on the north shore of the Gulf have Top Fuel race teams now, and not just any ol’ drag teams, but NHRA race teams … and every time they show up at the same track … well, somebody is gonna get shut down.

It makes perfect sense, really, that drag racing could stand a chance of being big in this part of the Gulf. The UAE loves, loves, loves its cars … the bigger and more powerful the better. And to be on the road here is to know that we have plenty of guys in town who already have the souls of drag racers. The NHRA should think of staging races here. Seriously. Could be huge.

To see where this goes … could be interesting. As drag racing goes. And I may end up quantifying it … till someone else here becomes an authority. We can only hope.