ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – After reaching the final round in Englishtown last year, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana feels that his 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season can turn around when he returns for the Toyota NHRA Summernationals, May 29-June 1, at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

The Lucas Oil Buell rider has seen some recent progress this year with a couple of first-round wins in both Charlotte and Atlanta, but at this point last season Arana was in a final round competing for another career win, and that’s where he wants to be now.

“I expect to do better in Englishtown than I did in Atlanta,” Arana said. “My goal is to always do better than I did the race before. This season I haven’t seen results that I know we are capable of, but as long as we can keep moving forward and keep improving our performance, then I’m happy with how things are going.”

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TOPEKA, KS – Larry Morgan and his Lucas Oil Ford Pro Stock team took a big gamble in the first round of the NHRA Kansas Nationals on Sunday at Heartland Park Topeka.

Facing an uphill challenge against 2012 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Pro Stock champion Allen Johnson, Morgan knew he’d have to try to a different setup to match the speed of the No. 6 qualifier.

And while the gamble didn’t pay off with a round-win, the tune-up worked. Morgan made a solid pass of 6.690 seconds at 206.61 mph in some of the worst conditions of the weekend, and he came up .063-second short against Johnson.

“Well, we did the best we could,” Morgan said. “We tried something a little different, and it worked pretty well. We figured it would either be pretty fast or it would shake the tires off. Thankfully, it didn’t shake.”

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TOPEKA, KS – Larry Morgan put his Lucas Oil Ford Mustang in the No. 11 qualifying position for the NHRA Kansas Nationals this weekend at Heartland Park Topeka.

The Pro Stock veteran will square off against 2012 series champion Allen Johnson in the first round of eliminations after Johnson snagged the No. 6 qualifying spot.

“We’ve sort of gone in the wrong direction this weekend, but I think we’ll be all right,” said Morgan, whose best qualifying pass came in the first session Friday. “We made a good run in Q1 but then went backwards a little bit. Some of that was us trying some stuff, so we’ll go back to the drawing board and come up with a good tune-up. We’ll be fine.”

Morgan’s best pass was 6.642 seconds at 208.07 mph, and that had him near the top half of the field in Q1. After Friday’s second session was rained out, Morgan made a run of 6.669 seconds at 207.27 mph in Saturday’s first session. In the final session, he shook the tires and shut off early.

“The other two runs were not bad,” Morgan said. “The first one was our best. Today, we put a little more gear in it and we shook. It actually shook pretty good, so we were surprised it ran a .66.”

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ATLANTA, GA – Despite having a consistent weekend at Atlanta Dragway, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Jr. didn’t get the results he wanted during the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals.

After waiting all day to run Sunday, the Lucas Oil Buell was prepped and ready for Monday’s eliminations. Unfortunately, when Arana pulled up alongside Angie Smith in the first round, that was as far as the bike would go. A mechanical issue forced Arana to end his day early as he inched down the track.

“Everything felt great on the bike when I pulled up to the starting line for the first round,” Arana said. “However, when I popped the clutch, it just didn’t go anywhere. It was definitely a mechanical error, so we’re going to have to do some digging. Since we don’t know exactly what happened yet, we’re just going to have to pull it apart to find out.”

There’s no doubt that Arana is hungry to get back in Victory Lane. After scoring three wins at this point last season, he is more than ready to change his luck and snag a victory soon.

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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.”

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ATLANTA, GA – After an extensive rain delay Sunday postponed the completion of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals until Monday morning, Lucas Oil/MAVTV Pro Stock driver Larry Morgan was more than ready to pull out an upset on a green Atlanta Dragway.

Morgan’s Mustang was paired up against Jason Line’s Camaro in the first round of eliminations, and even though Morgan put up a great reaction time of .014-second, it wasn’t quite enough for Line’s .008. The Lucas Oil/MAVTV driver barely got edged out at the finish line after running a 6.586 at 210.21 mph, his second-fastest run of the weekend.

“The good thing that happened for me in the first round was the fact I let the clutch out on time,” Morgan said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t early enough. It sure was close though, and that’s all I could ask for after the kind of weekend I had.

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ATLANTA, GA – Though Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Jr. doesn’t have much experience racing at Atlanta Dragway, he is poised to bring home his first victory of the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals.

Arana’s Lucas Oil Buell showed no sign of slowing down during every qualifying pass it made this weekend in Atlanta. His fastest run came in Q3 when he laid down a 6.878 at 194.18 mph, positioning him in the No. 6 spot. He will take on No. 11 Angie Smith, looking to progress his way through the bracket and into the final round.

“Qualifying overall was alright for us,” Arana said. “We didn’t do as well as we had expected to do coming into Atlanta. All weekend we’ve been fighting issues leaving the starting line, which has really hurt our time in the end.

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ATLANTA, GA – A weird start to the weekend for Lucas Oil/MAVTV Pro Stock driver Larry Morgan wasn’t enough to slow him down after qualifying for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals concluded at Atlanta Dragway.

As Morgan approached the starting line to make his Q1 pass, officials alerted him that he would be unable to run due to liquid in the water box that they thought was dripping from Morgan’s Mustang. However, it was later discovered that the leak was from another competitor, not Morgan.

Because of the confusion, he ended up losing his essential first run down Atlanta Dragway but managed to recover later on.

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