Late changes give Arana Sr. a promising chance at New England Nationals

EPPING, NH – After struggling in the opening sessions of qualifying, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Sr. moved his way into the top half of the field with a fast run in Q4 at the Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway.

While the first three sessions of qualifying gave Arana some trouble, he was able to rebound when it mattered most in the fourth round and moved up to the No. 5 spot. It will be the battle of the Buells in the first round of eliminations when Arana’s Lucas Oil entry faces off against No. 12 Shawn Gann’s bike.

“The first qualifying session felt good,” Arana said. “I thought I was on a good run and suddenly the wind caught me. I tried to fight it but kept drifting towards the wall, so I had to abort the run. The second session I got on the throttle and the motor would not even rev up. I was trying to diagnose what was going on and suddenly the motor hit the rev limiter. When I saw the tree come down I reacted but I double clutched it, ending the run.

“I tried to play it soft in the third run because I needed to go from A to B. With running a 7.035 in Q3, I had good data to be able to make a tune-up for Q4. I finally had a good run in the last session and moved myself out of the bump spot. That moment is when I realized that it was too close for comfort.”

Already the hardest worker in the Pro Stock Motorcycle pits, Arana will now work even harder to make sure his efforts in final eliminations on Sunday go much smoother.

“I have to keep working harder to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I’m just going to think about one run at a time and see what happens. Hopefully, I can repeat what we did in Q4 while staying consistent and focused for the first round.”

Eliminations will start at noon, with tape-delay action of the first two rounds broadcast at 1 p.m. on Sunday and live coverage of the semifinals and finals at around 4 p.m. on ESPN