Continued success enjoyed by Arana Sr. at Southern Nationals

ATLANTA, GA Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Sr. has always been successful at Atlanta Dragway, and that continued Monday when he scored another round-win during the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals.

Arana was fortunate that first-round competitor Chaz Kennedy red-lighted because halfway through his pass he was forced to slow due to a mechanical issue. But Arana came back with a vengeance in the second round, trying to pull out the upset over Andrew Hines. Unfortunately, Arana’s .002-second reaction time and 6.913 pass at 193.85 just wasn’t enough to overtake the Harley-Davidson rider.

“Sometimes I think my luck is changing around because I obviously got lucky on the first run,” Arana said, “Those things happen in racing. Thankfully, we were able to regroup from the first pass and make some needed adjustments. The bike responded and performed like we wanted it to in the next round.

“I think I did great with a .002-second reaction time despite losing in the second round. We have the clutch problem fixed; now we just have to finesse the rest of the bike and find the right tune-up. We’re going to be coming around soon, and when we do we’re going to come back strong.”

The Lucas Oil Buell is continuing to come around from where it was at the start of this season, and making a comeback is all that is on Arana’s mind at this point. Even though there are plenty of races left in the season, “the Hammer” already has his eye on his second NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series championship.

“After fighting clutch issues since the start of the season, now the bike is starting to respond to the changes we’re making, ” Arana said. “It’s a good indicator for us to now start narrowing down any other issues and get the tune-up we want. We’re fighting for championships, and the only way to do that is to have the bikes working as perfectly as possible.”

With improvements being made every week, Arana looks forward to the next Pro Stock Motorcycle race, the Toyota NHRA Summernationals, May 29-June 1, at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J.