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Father and son experience early exits at Four-Wide Nationals


PHOTO (select to view enlarged photo)

CHARLOTTE (April 21) - The Dollar General NHRA Four-Wide Nationals ended way too soon for Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana Sr. and MAVTV rider Adam Arana.

Arana Sr.'s bike wobbled and slowed to a 6.948 at 190.11 mph in his first-round loss, and son Adam was beaten by No. 1 qualifier and older brother Hector Arana Jr. and defending Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Eddie Krawiec in the first round.

"The bike left good and I felt good," Arana Sr. said. "When I went into second gear, suddenly I felt the bike start wobbling. The front end started shaking back and forth, and when it did that the steering wheel started flopping back and forth and I bumped the shifter twice. It went right through second, third, and fourth into fifth. It just killed the momentum of the bike and that's all she wrote."

Arana Sr., the No. 4 qualifier, trailed Katie Sullivan and John Hall to the finish line in their quad. Sullivan, the No. 12 qualifier, recorded a surprising 6.870 at 193.79 mph while No. 5 qualifier Hall ran a 6.904 at 190.78 mph. Arana Sr.'s pass was nearly a tenth of a second slower than his qualifying lap, an indication of problems during the run.

"That was not what we expected," Arana Sr. said. "We had a couple of issues in qualifying but I felt good going into eliminations."

Adam Arana, the youngest son of the 2009 Pro Stock Motorcycle champion, was making his second career pass during eliminations. He actually lowered his career-best elapsed time to 6.881 at 193.88 mph but ran against two of the best in the class.

"It was a good run," Arana said. "It was my fastest run ever, so I'm riding the bike better. I'm hitting my shift points but I messed up on the line. My reaction time wasn't very good, so I need to work harder on that."

Arana's light was a .119 but he still needed to be nearly perfect to advance. The rookie was critical of his performance.

"I went red my first time out (in qualifying in Charlotte) because I goofed up," Arana said. "The other two were all right, and then in eliminations I was late, which stinks. I'm frustrated about it but I'll get to work on it and get better."

Up next for Team Arana is the O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals on April 26-28 in Houston.