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2013 NHRA: Lucas Oil Pro Arana Jr Relieved Start Of Season Has Finally Arrived
Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana Jr. is confident he will return to his winning ways in 2013, starting with this weekend's NHRA Gatornationals at Auto Plus Raceway.
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Arana Jr. won three times in his Pro Stock Motorcycle rookie season two years ago, bringing home the Auto Cub Road to the Future Award as NHRA's top rookie. A season ago, facing rules that appeared to favor other manufacturers, Arana Jr. didn't visit victory lane despite a solid season.
But NHRA changed the rules for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class for 2013 in an effort to level the playing field. That change, combined with the work put in by his team in the off-season, has Arana Jr. anxious to get back to victory lane.
"At the end of the year, we kind of slowed down but I was still No. 3 even after finishing the season with a hurt motor," Arana Jr. said. "Everything is fresh now, and hopefully we found a couple things for this first race. We should be where we were at the beginning of last year.
"Hopefully, we can get a big number on the board early and then try some more things we've developed in the off-season."
The off-season has been plenty busty for Arana Jr. and his team, which includes his dad Hector Sr. and his younger brother Adam. Engines were rebuilt and upgraded, and bikes were refreshed. Plus, the team moved into a new, larger shop on Lucas Oil Products property in Corydon, Ind.
"It's been a scramble," Arana Jr. said. "It's chaos."
Why? Because the Aranas do all the work themselves.
"We do everything - everything," Arana Jr. said. "We do all the fiberglass work for the bodies, all the cosmetic work, all the chassis work, we do all the fabrication, and then we do all the motor work. We put everything together, and we even do the design for wrap on the bike."
"It is non-stop. We are involved with every square inch of these bikes."
The addition of Adam Arana, who will be a rookie in 2013, added to the workload, though the number of engines the team uses remains a constant.
"We would be putting together this many engines regardless," Arana Jr. said. "The only difference now is instead of having three spares, we'll have two spares. We're putting together the same amount of motors, and we already had the third chassis, too. We just have another bike on the track. That's all."
So when Arana Jr. makes his first pass in Gainesville, he'll breath a deep sigh of relief.
"We're going to be scrambling non-stop until that first run," Arana Jr. said. "It's going to be go-go-go. I can't wait to take that first run down the track, and I'll take a deep sigh of relief that the season has finally started."
PaddockTalk Perspective
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