Arana Jr. looking for repeat win this weekend in Gainesville

GAINESVILLE, FL – After winning last year’s season opener, Lucas Oil Buell Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Jr. is ready to get on the road and start his 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season at the 45th annual NHRA Gatornationals, March 13-16 at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville.

Expectations are high for Arana, who is ready to hop back on his Lucas Oil Buell and get this season started on the right foot.

“I set some pretty high standards for myself last season in Gainesville,” Arana said. “I look to do the same again this year. It’s a new season and I want to start it off like I did in 2013 with a win in Gainesville.

“Our goal as a team is for one of us to win the race. Ultimately to have at least two of us end up in the final would be ideal and with all three of us reaching the semifinals. We’re going to try our best to qualify really well and hopefully end up first, second, and third.”

Success comes at a price in the form of long hours of endless work for the Arana family, but the eldest Arana son knows that all of those extensive days in the shop will pay off in the end.

“It’s been many late hours in the shop, especially within the last week and a half,” Arana said. “When the rig finally went on the road, we had been working every day from 9 a.m. until about 1 a.m. just trying to be as ready as possible.

“After having put in such hard work, I’m just ready to go and apply all of those hours of work and finally go racing.”

Arana will have his eyes set on a repeat of last year when qualifying begins at noon EDT on Friday and continues that day with another session at 2:15 p.m. Qualifying will wrap up with two sessions at noon and 2:15 p.m. on Saturday. Final eliminations for the NHRA Gatornationals start at noon on Sunday. ESPN2 will air the qualifying show at 1 a.m. EDT on Sunday and the eliminations show at 7 p.m.