Cycle News

ROUND 6/JUNE 30, 2013 ROUTE 66 SPEEDWAY/JOLIET, ILLINOIS DRAG RACING P76 NHRA PRO STOCK SERIES tree and that shows that I was not afraid to race him. The way I see it, why not be ruthless. I can either be a hero or I can just be Michael Ray and it's not bad to be Michael Ray right now." Smith was no doubt frustrated to lose the final, but at the same time a runner-up represented his best finish of the season. The 2007 NHRA Champion powered past Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson's Eddie Krawiec in round one with a 6.93 and returned with a 6.95 in his round-two win against Nitro Fish Suzuki's LE Tonglet, who fouled. In the final four, Smith renewed his rivalry with the Arana family as he stopped the Lucas Oil Buell of Hector Arana Jr. when Arana fouled. Two races ago in Englishtown, N.J., the Smith and Arana teams were involved in an off-track altercation that resulted in a suspension and fine for Arana team member Dan Gonzalez. Smith's chance for a win in the final ended on the starting line as he gave up a large lead against Ray making the battle not nearly as close as the 6.98 and 6.99 elapsed times would indicate. Despite the loss, Smith believes he's got a bike that can contend for the title. "We had a lot of little issues early this year but I think we've gotten through most of them," Smith said. "My other bike won the race last week with John Hall and I was in the final here so we're starting to do good things. We even got a handle on Angie's bike and she ran pretty fast. Our goal is to put all three bikes into the top ten before the [Countdown to the Championship, playoffs] start and I think we've still got time to do that." CN Final 1. Michael Ray (Buell) 6.986/191.29 mph 2. Matt Smith (Buell) 6.992/190.22 mph The Star Racing team celebrates. Briefly... available spots and the non-qualifiers included Jimmy Underdahl, Michel Phillips and Wes Wells. The biggest surprise was Underdahl, who has rarely missed a field during his career. Despite his loss to Matt Smith, Lucas Oil Buell's Hector Arana Jr. felt like he scored a victory in Joliet. After winning the first three races of the season, Arana had lost in the first round of the previous two races on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events, before winning two rounds in Joliet. "I finally got past the first round, and that is the worst one of them all," Arana said. "We got that little slump out of the way, thankfully. We are back on track." As he continues to search for his first NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle win in nearly four years, Hector Arana Sr. is able to find the positives in almost every event. Arana Sr. guided his Lucas Oil Buell to a semi final appearance in Joliet with wins over Joe DeSantis and his son, Adam before falling to Michael Ray. "It was a good weekend and we qualified decent, but we did struggle a little bit over here," Arana said. "The weather conditions threw us a curve, and it just didn't respond like we thought it was going to, but we did learn from it. It is the end of June and it is 68 degrees outside and you have to wear a jacket. In the same hand I loved it because I prefer the cold over the heat. Hopefully, we won't make this mistake next year."

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