Lucas Oil’s Hector Arana Sr. endures tough day in Denver

DENVER – Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana Sr. had a trying Sunday at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.

Arana damaged an engine in a first-round victory over Chip Ellis, and after a mad scramble to change motors for Round 2, he hurt another engine in falling to Jim Underdahl.

“We started well and then we had some problems with the engine,” Arana said. “So we put in another one, and that one went bad also. I was lucky to get the second run in because we just finished putting all the little things together at the starting line.

“That’s not what we wanted to happen as we start the Western Swing, but we’ll just have to work through it.”

Arana, the No. 4 qualifier, beat Ellis on what ended up as a holeshot. Arana’s light was .028-second, and he quickly pulled away from Ellis, but as the engine in his Buell began to weaken, he slowed to a pass of 7.417 seconds at 171.49 mph. That still held off Ellis’ run of 7.371 seconds at 183.02 mph.

Arana and his Lucas Oil team hustled to change engines for the second round, using a motor originally designated for the sea-level race at Sonoma Raceway next weekend. Denver and its mile-high altitude calls for a different engine setup, but Arana had little choice.

Arana and Underdahl had nearly identical lights (.034 for Underdahl and .038 for Arana) but smoke began to emerge from Arana’s bike past half-track. He stayed on the throttle and completed a 7.262-second pass at 185.28 mph, but Underdahl was a tick quicker, 7.240 seconds at 185.05 mph, and got the win light.

Arana and his team now have some work before racing in Sonoma, Calif., next weekend.

“Now we have to rebuild two engines and find what kind of damage we have and see if we can salvage at least one motor,” Arana said. “But we definitely need to put one together. You can never quit and you just have to keep going at it.”