New mindset has Arana Sr. poised for second Wally in Indy

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Seeking another Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals victory at Lucas Oil Raceway, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Sr. made the necessary adjustments to put himself in contention to make it happen.

Moving his way up the final leaderboard to the No. 11 position, Arana made his best pass of the weekend of 6.939 at 193.77 mph in the final qualifying session. His Lucas Oil Buell will battle it out with No. 6 Angie Smith in the first round of eliminations Monday.

“It was a little bit rough to start out this weekend,” Arana said. “In the beginning, no matter what I did to the bike or the tune-up, it was not responding. Thankfully, since we had five runs here I was able to take a gamble in the last run. Since everything I had done that I thought was the right thing didn’t work, I approached it differently.

“I haven’t looked at my data yet but I know the bike ran better. It was under control for the first time this weekend, and now I feel like we have something to work with. Finally, we got the results we were looking for, and I know there is more room for improvement.”

With a new approach to his Lucas Oil Buell’s setup, Arana is also changing his mentality in regards to winning another U.S. Nationals.

“Winning the U.S. Nationals would be big for me and Lucas Oil’s hometown fans,” Arana said. “Not only that, but I haven’t won in a very long time.

“Yes, I do want to win but I’m going to approach it differently than usual. I have to take it one round at a time. All I’m going to think about is the first round, do the best that I can, and go from there. We need to survive the first round to be able to go to the next one. The win will come, I know it will, I just have to be patient.”

Arana will look to capture his second U.S. Nationals title when eliminations start at approximately noon, Monday, with both qualifying and elimination action broadcast on ESPN2.