Fighting adversity, Arana Jr. pilots his way to a solid St. Louis finish

ST. LOUIS – Having to overcome first-round setbacks, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Jr. fought his way to a semifinal finish during the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals.

When the staging lights dropped in the first round of eliminations, No. 14 Jim Underdahl tripped the red-light, giving the Lucas Oil Buell a pass to the next round. However, a malfunction late in his initial run didn’t allow Arana to savor the win long.

“Honestly, I didn’t think I had won,” Arana said. “I didn’t know he red-lit. It was lucky for us but I hate to see Jimmy do that. I got the win but came back to the pit knowing something was broke in the motor.

“It takes a while to swap a motor out because of the circumstances. We spun it over and only heard one thing in the front cylinder, so we decided to only change heads to save time. We did that and spun it over but heard another noise. We pulled off the other carburetor because we thought it might have been the cams. Turns out the other head was totally messed up as well.

“Already 30 minutes into the process is when we realized the engine was totaled. We should have swapped the motors in the first place but we thought it was something small.”

With a new motor in his Buell, Arana wasn’t sure what to expect in the second round against his father Hector Sr. Even with the last-minute changes, Arana was still able to make a solid pass of 6.909 seconds at 192.71 mph compared to his dad’s 7.033 at 194.27 mph to move on.

“We slapped it all together,” Arana said. “We didn’t even put half of the stuff on that we normally would put on it just so we would make the call for the next round. We still ended up running a 6.90 but I don’t know how.

“I hate having to run against my dad, I really do, but I was able to run a 6.90 and get the win over him to advance.”

Still fighting an unknown setup, Arana knew his best chance at reaching the final round was to get any advantage over Jerry Savoie. However, with reaction times nearly identical, Savoie’s .017 to Arana’s .019, Savoie’s bike hooked up and powered to the victory, 6.824 to 6.927.

“When we got back we went through everything after rushing through it the past round,” Arana said. “We tried to throw a tune-up on the bike hoping to make it go faster because the current one on there was for the other motor not the new one. We still missed it a bit though. We ran good but that motor just didn’t have the steam like our other motor did.

“I tried everything I could in the semifinals. I went on the two-step early before I even staged on Jerry. I was just trying to get any edge I could but Jerry was solid. We had a .017 to his .019 and had a good drag race. He just had the power to motor on past me.”

Even though Arana would have loved to be hoisting the Wally at the end of the day, he is satisfied with the points he gained today to move him unofficially into third in the championship standings.

“We definitely needed to go rounds this weekend so these guys couldn’t run away with the points from me,” Arana said. “It was a step in the right direction for sure. We raced good, the bike felt good, and now it’s time to make it continue. If we can just get our motors to stay in one piece we’ll be set.”

Arana will look to continue making up ground in the championship hunt during the NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, Oct. 2-5, in Reading, Pa.