Cycle News Staff | October 31, 2022
Not that anyone thought his recent win in Dallas was a fluke, but Hector Arana Jr., who has been confined to a part time schedule this season due to funding issues, reaffirmed his status as one of NHRA’s best Pro Stock Motorcycle riders by winning the Nevada Nationals in Las Vegas, October 28-30.
After winning in Dallas, Arana and his father, Hector Sr., secured the funding they needed for the final two rounds of the season from GETTRX and made the trip west to Las Vegas. In a stunning turn of events, Arana defeated reigning world champ Matt Smith in the final round. Arana was nearly perfect off the starting line and rode his Buell to a 6.866, holding off Smith’s slightly quicker 6.862 effort on his Denso Buell.
Working on a shoestring budget, Hector Arana Jr. made the trip to Las Vegas worth it coming away with the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle win.
“It was a fight just to get here,” said Arana Jr. “Dallas was supposed to be out last race. We didn’t have the funding to keep going, but we got a deal with Steve Bryson and GETTRX and that made it possible to get to the last two races. Honestly, we weren’t prepared. We had to go home and rebuild engines after Dallas and then we had trouble on the road and had to borrow a motor home.”
During the first two days of qualifying, Arana hardly looked like a threat to win the event as he struggled to adapt to the thin air in Las Vegas. While Smith was setting the track record with a 6.78-second run, Arana was well off the pace with a 6.937 that was only good for number 15. NHRA races are seldom won by anyone who’s qualified that low, but Arana insists he wasn’t worried.
“I struggled a little in qualifying, but we had a back-up plan for race day,” he said. “I did win a couple of races on holeshots, but you’ve got to have the pace to get there and we had that. I have a lot of confidence right now. Can’t wait to go to Pomona and keep going. We did have a long layoff, so I might have been a little rusty before Dallas, but we found our groove pretty quickly.
Arana took down defending champ Matt Smith in the final.
“We’ve been out here a long time so I knew what we needed to do to get results. I took out both the Vance & Hines bikes and both Smith [Matt Smith Racing] bikes and that’s never easy. Now, our mission is to get the funding we need to come back next year.”
Smith was naturally disappointed to lose the final round but looking at the big picture, he’s well on his way to securing a sixth championship when the season ends in Pomona, California.
From the top spot Smith rolled to round wins over Katie Justice, Chip Ellis and White Alligator Suzuki’s Jerry Savoie. Smith got some help from his wife, Angie, who took out his closes rival, Fatheadz Suzuki’s Joey Gladstone, in the second round of eliminations.
Angie Smith rode her Denso Buell to a 6.910 to hold off Gladstone’s 6.928. Even though Matt Smith didn’t win the final, he was able to stretch his lead to 104 points which means he can win the title in Pomona simply by winning two elimination rounds, something he’s done more often than not this season.
Arana and crew celebrate the unexpected win.
“To win that sixth championship would be big,” Smith said. “Growing up, I just wanted to ride a motorcycle. I didn’t know if I’d ever have a chance to race one or win a championship. Now, I have the opportunity to make history. Six championships is the record held by Andrew Hines and [the late] Dave Schultz. To be mentioned alongside those two is something special.”
The Auto Club NHRA Finals, the final round of the 2022 NHRA Camping World season, will take place on November 11-13 in Pomona, California.
Kevin McKenna
Final Results
1. Hector Arana Jr. (Bue)
2. Matt Smith (Bue)
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