In Pro Stock Motorcycle action at the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals, Hector Arana Jr. defended his Chicago win from last season with a 6.918 at 194.66 on his Lucas Oil Buell, defeating two-time world champ Matt Smith (6.957 at 190.24) in the final. (CLICK HERE for more on Matt Smith and the Victory Racing Gunner) The win was Arana's 10th career victory, first of the season and second at Route 66 Raceway. He defeated LE Tonglet, Jerry Savoie, and Chaz Kennedy before taking Smith out in the final. Arana sits second in points.
“This is one of my favorite tracks,” Arana Jr. said. “We had the bike and I knew we had the bike all weekend, but we couldn’t get it to leave the line well, and we finally figured it out for the last session. We made a change, and we felt good about it, so we didn’t change anything for the first round, and from then on out we didn’t touch it. We just went consistently down the track.”
Smith, piloting the new Victory Motorcycles Gunner entry, was looking to win his first race since the 2013 fall event in Las Vegas. He advanced to the final round after number one qualifier Chip Ellis (Piranaz Buell)n was a no-show on the starting line for the semi-final. In the final, despite getting the Gunner to a head start on the starting line against Arana’s Buell, Smith was unable to claim the win when Arana powered by him on the top end. Despite the loss, it was a positive points day for Smith, who moves into the top 10 in the PSM standings at No. 8 with four Pro Stock Motorcycle events remaining before the Countdown to the Championship.