ARANA BAGS THE BIG ONE
He has gone from a championship pretender to a championship contender and Monday was just more evidence of that fact.
Arana, riding a Buell, rode past the Suzuki-riding Michael Phillips in the final round of the NHRA U.S. Nationals. Arana clocked a 7.026-second time, while Phillips slowed to a 7.086 seconds. This was Arana’s third victory of the year and his inaugural Indy title.
This season, Hector Arana has had a career revival in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class.
He has gone from a championship pretender to a championship contender and Monday was just more evidence of that fact.
Arana, riding a Buell, rode past the Suzuki-riding Michael Phillips in
the final round of the NHRA U.S. Nationals. Arana clocked a 7.026-second time, while Phillips
slowed to a 7.086 seconds. This was Arana’s third victory of the year
and his inaugural Indy title.
“This is the sweetest moment of my career,” said Arana, who made his
Pro Stock Motorcycle debut in 1990. “I have struggled and I kept
wondering when was my time? It’s true, I didn’t give up and finally
this has happened. To win the US Nationals and to go to the finals of
the Ringers (event), I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Arana was quick to credit Larry Morgan, who tuned his engine, for his success.
“I talked to him and he told me, ‘Hector I don’t know what I can do for
you, but why don’t you let me look at it,’. As soon as he said that, I
just turned around and went right to the trailer and packed everything,
and I didn’t even ship it I took it to him,” said Arana. “I didn’t even
waste a moment. By the time he saw me there, he probably wondered that
I took him literally. He looked at it and said, ‘we can do something
for you,’ and as you can see my performance has changed and I have been
doing well and I have to thank him a lot for my performance.”
Phillips lost in the finals to Eddie Krawiec at Reading, Pa., before
losing to Arana in his second consecutive final round appearance.
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