Prepped for Charlotte, Arana Jr. is dreaming of a championship
CHARLOTTE, NC – With already one win this year, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Jr. is ready to turn up the heat on the competition 
by starting the Countdown to the Championship with a win this weekend at the NHRA Carolina Nationals in Charlotte.
While the Lucas Oil Buell looked stout at the U.S. Nationals, Arana was still looking for a bit more performance out of his bike before Arana Racing headed south to North Carolina.
“Since Indy we pulled that motor out of my bike to try to figure out what happened,” Arana said. “We inspected absolutely everything once we took that motor apart to see what we could find and take the chance to replace whatever needed to be replaced. We ended up replacing the crank, put everything back together, and then put it on the dyno to make sure it had good power. It ended up making good power and we were happy with it.
“Currently, we’re doing that same work on my dad’s motor to make sure everything is running well for him as well. Any preventative maintenance we could think of, we made sure to do it to ensure that we have a flawless countdown. Hopefully, after all this work all three of the bikes should be running well.”
As a past winner in Charlotte, Arana is looking to get his quest for his first NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championship off on the right foot. Not wanting to jinx himself however, he is more focused on making continual fast passes throughout the entire weekend instead of just a couple sporadically.
“I always want to win and obviously that is the most ideal for the Countdown,” Arana said. “The main thing though is to maintain consistency and go rounds. Once we run consistent — not one good pass and then one slow one — we should be able to get a win or two.
“We’re going to go to Charlotte, we’re going to go one round at a time, and see what happens from there.”
Qualifying sessions take place at 12:45 and 3 p.m., Friday, and 1 and 3 p.m., Saturday. Eliminations will start at approximately 1 p.m., Sunday, with both qualifying and elimination action broadcast on ESPN2 on tape delay.
