IN
THE
WIND
P46
ARANA JR. RETURNS TO
THE TOP AT DENVER NHRA
F
or most of the 2018 season,
Lucas Oil EBR's Hector
Arana Jr. has had the fastest
bike in the NHRA Mello Yello
Drag Racing Series. Arana Jr.
has set top speed at five of the
first six events including the first
200-mph run in the Pro Stock
Motorcycle class earlier this
season in Gainesville. The one
thing that Arana Jr. had not done
was win an event, and he took
care of that significant detail with
a victory at the Dodge Mile-High
Nationals in Denver, July 20-22.
It was Arana's first win since the
2015 Chicago round, a span of
42 NHRA events.
"We have had a fast bike all
the time, just been working on
consistency and then when the
bike was good I was making little
errors," Arana Jr. said. "Dedica-
tion, hard work, and practicing
to bring it all together. We finally
got over some hurdles over here
and now we should be back on
track."
Bandimere Speedway, the
home of the Mile-High Nation-
als, sits more than 5600 feet
above sea level, which makes it
a nightmare for crew chiefs who
are used to racing at sea-level
tracks. For the most part, teams
take their best guess at a quali-
fying and race-day setup and
whoever makes the best guess is
successful. Arana and his team,
led by his father, Hector Sr.,
were solid from the start. Arana
Jr. qualified second in the field
with a 7.135, just behind Screa-
min' Eagle Harley-Davidson's
Eddie Krawiec, who set the track
In Colorado, Hector
Arana Jr. took his first
NHRA win since 2015.
