Success in Epping turns Arana Jr.’s luck around

EPPING, NH – Thanks to a fast bike all weekend, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Jr. drew in even closer to capturing his first win of the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series at the Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway.

The Lucas Oil Buell looked the best it had all year when it pulled a 6.827 at 194.80 mph against Jerry Savoie in the first round and an even quicker 6.808 at 196.47 mph in the second round against John Hall.

With the hopes of making it to his first final round this year, Arana unfortunately came up short against Matt Smith in the semi’s when his bike wouldn’t shift.

“Today was good even though we started off a little slow,” Arana said. “We made a change after the first round that was going to be a good change once we got the hang of it. Because of that, I was able to go low e.t. of the round with an .80.

“Unfortunately, this bike just didn’t shift in the semi’s. It’s one of those one in a million things that can happen to a rider. The gears didn’t line up and shift, killing the run completely. Thankfully, nothing was hurt on the motor afterwards, so we’ll move on to Chicago and go from there.

While he didn’t bring home the Wally from Epping, Arana is optimistic about the next races on the schedule.

“We’re really excited after today,” Arana said, “and we’re not going to let what happened get us down. Sunday was a big accomplishment for our team. Not only did I make it to the semifinals, but this is the first time all three of our bikes made it past the first round together. We’re definitely headed in the right direction with the tune-up, so we will just go from there and build from that.”

Arana will keep searching for his first win of the 2014 season when he takes his Lucas Oil Buell to the O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals, June 26-29, at Route 66 Raceway in Chicago.