There was a familiar face competing in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Charlotte, N.C. recently.

It was veteran rider Hector Arana Jr. 

Arana Jr. qualified No. 10 in his season debut before finishing third in his first-round quad to eventual race champion Steve Johnson and Angie Smith on May 1. Arana Jr. clocked a 6.867-elapsed time at 198.03 mph in defeat. 

Despite the results, Arana Jr. was upbeat about his team’s performance. This after all was the first time Arana Jr. was competing since the NHRA FallNationals Oct. 10 in Dallas, when he lost in the finals.

Arana Jr. said the plan for the remainder of the season for his team – run by him, and his father Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion Hector Arana Sr. – is to compete in Norwalk, Ohio (June 23-26), Indianapolis (Aug. 31-Sept. 5) and St. Louis (Sept. 30-Oct. 2).

“Those are all close drives with the rig and everything,” Arana Jr. said. “We love racing and we want to keep our name out there and keep things up with our bike. Right now, those Suzukis, man, they are flying. Those motors are screaming. It is just a well-balanced motor. We have our V-Twin flying, but it is a V-Twin. It is not balanced. You just don’t have the efficiency that you do out of one of those Suzukis.

“Those are the remaining races we plan to go to this season unless we can come up with some sponsorship to fund going to more. That’s the plan for this year and hopefully some things will come about where maybe we can get another sponsorship and go fulltime again next year. We love racing.

In 2017 at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Arana Jr. debuted the new Erik Buell Racing 1190RX body style Buell that the Arana’s developed. That’s what he was riding in Charlotte.

“We had some motor issues unfortunately in Charlotte,” Arana Jr. said. “We were a little behind and even with a hurt motor we were able to qualify tenth. We ended up swapping motors for Sunday, which ran a lot better. It ran three more mph. We were like if our good motor had been running right or had we put the other motor in sooner, we feel like we would have been able to qualify better and at least get into the 6.70s and give us a better shot on Sunday. 

“We were chasing the motor and we were trying to tune, and it was the motor that was going backwards. We swapped motors for Sunday, and it picked right back up. We had the tune-up for the motor (Sunday) to what it was when we tested in Dallas (last fall). It was a new motor, and we just don’t have enough runs and data on the motor. We put the motor right in and literally dialed the whole tune-up from Dallas and added a little bit of clutch for the weather and it went right down the track A to B and made a really good run. We wish we would have started the weekend with that motor.”

In the time between now and Norwalk, Aarana Jr. said his team wants to get the motors ready to compete and good to go.

“We have a really good grasp on the bike,” he said. “For the most part it is dialed in. I feel like I’m a little off as a rider because I have not been racing back-to-back. In Charlotte, we were chasing the motor, so the bike wasn’t leaving the line right. It had me all off. I was more focused on riding the bike instead of the lights. If you’re running consistently and you have the bike running consistently you are not focusing on riding the bike, you’re focusing on cutting a good light.

“When we go to (Norwalk) it will be less time off the bike. I had not ridden from October until now, so it was almost six months. I had not been on the bike forever and I just got on it and went right into qualifying and a full wide-open pass. Honestly, I fell right back into the groove. I have made so many laps on that bike and so many laps in general. Having that experience of so much seat time you’re just able to get right back on.”

Arana Jr. was appreciative of the financial backing from the DiRusso Real Estate Group to compete in Charlotte.

“We are very thankful for their help (in Charlotte), and we look forward to maybe doing some future things with them,” Arana Jr. said.

Arana Sr. won his lone NHRA PSM world championship in 2009. Hector Jr.’s career-best finish in the points was second in 2011, his rookie year.

Arana Jr. has 15 career PSM wins.