NHRA PREVIEW
VOL. 51 ISSUE 10 MARCH 11, 2014 P79
opment. The biggest thing we
needed was time and we didn't
have much of that last year.
When you're going to the races
it makes it tough to try and keep
fresh equipment. You only have
so much time to develop new
ideas and now, we've had the
whole winter to address that. We
made changes and based on the
dyno numbers we know that our
stuff is better, but we don't know
how much better. We won't have
an accurate number until we get
to the track and that won't hap-
pen until we go testing the week
before Gainesville."
The real wild card in this year's
championship battle is the Arana
family and their three-bike Buell
operation, again sponsored by
Lucas Oil, MavTV, and Protect
the Harvest. The Arana's will be
looking for redemption this year
after a trying 2013 that came to
a cataclysmic end. Hector Arana
Jr. led the points from the first
race of the season until engine
problems and gremlins hit right in
the midst of the Countdown, and
he eventually dropped to fourth
place. Team patriarch Hector Sr.
went winless on the season in
which they also learned how to
manage a third bike when his oth-
er son, Adam, joined the team.
All three impressively made the
Countdown but none could win
the championship.
"We had to make the switch to
the bigger cam chest late in the
season and it showed promise
in my dad's bike, but we were
never really able to get mine and
Adam's bikes to run until the end
of the season, when I qualified
number one at Pomona [the Auto
Club NHRA Finals]," Hector Ara-
na Jr. said. "It all just happened at
the wrong time.
"With the third bike, our big-
gest problem last year was lack
of engines. We all had only one
good engine last year, and when
we hurt them, the spare was a
couple of hundredths slower,
so we've been working on hav-
ing a better inventory of motors.
We're looking at what we need
to replace and what we need
to stock up on, and looking to
eliminate the failures we had with
things like sensors. We're work-
ing on everything; we have yet to
find any power and feel like we're
two months behind, but with a
full year under our belts now with
three bikes, we'll be better this
year. We had this same problem
when I joined the team. It's more
work, and you have to learn how
to manage it."
Arana Jr. agrees that this will
be the most competitive season
in class history, with parity across
all three makes.
"The Harleys really came on
(Above) Hector Arana Jr. did
most of the early season winning
last year, but he had mechanical
problems during the Countdown.
(Left) Eddie Krawiec won twice
last year for the Vance & Hines
team after winning the title the
season before.
