Arana Sr. looking for more out of his Lucas Oil Buell

ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana Sr. made one of the fastest passes of his career to qualify No. 7 for the Toyota NHRA Summernationals on Saturday at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, but the 2009 Pro Stock Motorcycle champion knows he can do even better.

“There’s still more improvement in there,” Arana said. “That’s what I was going for in Q4. We’re trying to look at the data real carefully and come up with a better tune-up for tomorrow so we can improve on that e.t.”

Arana’s run was 6.822 seconds at 197.57 mph, recorded in Saturday’s first qualifying session, and he tried to go even quicker in his final pass, but after a sudden start, Arana had to abort the run before the finish line.

“It was a little bit more violent leaving the starting line,” Arana said. “Once it does that, it starts drifting and it’s hard to control. I thought I could save it, but it kept drifting and I didn’t have any control, so I just had to pull in the clutch.”

The Pro Stock Motorcycle field got only three chances at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park this weekend, as the first session Friday was canceled because NHRA needed time to work on the racetrack.

Arana’s first pass Friday showed decent speed, 195.59 mph, but the elapsed time was off, 6.975 seconds. The elder statesman of the Arana Racing team was frustrated Friday as he tried to chase the tune-up on his Buell.

“It’s been slow trying to figure out what this bike wants,” Arana said. “We did well in Q3, so I’m trying to finesse it for Q4, and obviously I’m going in the wrong direction.

Arana is confident he can find that tune-up for Sunday, when he’ll face No. 10 qualifier Chaz Kennedy in the first round of eliminations. Kennedy’s best pass was 6.840 seconds at 196.04 mph.

Arana, too, is looking beyond eliminations as he hopes to find speed in his Buell.

“We need to go forward,” Arana said. “By the same token, we need to work harder, we need to come home and get back to work. No more weekends, no fun; we need to really work hard on this because this is where I have my fun, at the racetrack.”

Qualifying highlights will air this evening beginning at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN2. Eliminations start at noon, Sunday, and will be shown in slight tape-delay later Sunday afternoon.