Arana Sr. & Jr. Charlotte II final report

Mechanical issues shelve Lucas Oil motorcycles

Hector Arana Jr.

Photo by: Ted Rossino

CHARLOTTE (Sept. 18) – The Lucas Oil Buell Pro Stock Motorcycle team endured a difficult Sunday at the O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals.

Hector Arana Jr.'s bike wouldn't fire in the second round and Hector Arana Sr.'s bike broke moments after leaving the starting line in Round 1.

Arana Jr., gunning for his second consecutive victory after winning the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis two weeks ago, beat Angie Smith in the first round. Arana Jr. made a pass of 6.902 seconds at 192.25 mph after Smith red-lighted.

But against No. 1 qualifier Eddie Krawiec in Round 2, Arana Jr. never made it to the starting line.

"You kind of feel sick," Arana Jr. said. "You've got all the adrenaline going, and then it's not starting, so you're rushing. It's still not starting, and you have the hope that it's going to start. When it doesn't start, you've got to walk away. Your body starts to shake because you've got all this adrenaline now because you didn't use it going down the track. The headache sets in."

Arana Jr. said the bike never started, but when the team got it back to the Lucas Oil pits, the engine fired. Krawiec ran a round-best pass of 6.810 at 196.79 mph, but Arana Jr. still wanted a shot at him.

"We were off on the tuneup, but I was hoping to put a whooping on him," Arana Jr. said. "I was going to do my best on the Tree and try to run the best number."

Arana Sr.'s bike moved off the start line against Michael Ray, but it immediately slowed and came to a stop. Arana Sr. wasn't sure what happened.

"We're going to check now to see if it starts," Arana Sr. said. "I don't know. It just quit on me."

Arana Sr. was the No. 4 qualifier and was looking forward to a solid day Sunday.

"After we had the good run, the 60-foot time started coming around," Arana Sr. said. "I felt more confident with the performance of the bike and how we were going to do today."

The Lucas Oil Buell team returns to the track later this week for the AAA of Texas NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex on Sept. 23-2