With two races left in the 2013 NHRA season, Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Adam Arana is trying to finish his rookie season with a flurry.

On Friday, Arana made a statement, clocking a 6.946-second time at 192.71 mph to capture the provisional pole at the Toyota Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

With two races left in the 2013 NHRA season, Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Adam Arana is trying to finish his rookie season with a flurry.

On Friday, Arana made a statement, clocking a 6.946-second time at 192.71 mph to capture the provisional pole at the Toyota Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Although Arana can’t win the season championship he is still a candidate to capture NHRA’s Auto Club Road to the Future Award given to the top rookie.

“I am for sure (trying to impress the voters for the rookie honor),” Arana said. “Chad Head is killing it and Brittany Force is doing great and these past couple of races I haven’t had the best of luck. I lost a couple of rounds due to holeshots. I definitely need this (pole) position. We work really hard and I feel like we deserve it. I just need to stay focused and ride to the best of my ability.”

Arana’s season highlights so far are a runner-up finish at Epping, N.H. in June, and a pole position at the Mile-High Nationals at Denver in July.

“It is tough out there, it really is,” said Arana, who rides the ProtecttheHarvest.com Buell and is the only rookie to earn a spot in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs. “The hardest thing is the mental part. Coming into it I was like it can’t be that hard, you only have to focus on a couple of things, but it is completely different when you are out there. You are going 190-plus mph, I went 192 (Friday), and there is a lot going on. You need to know where you are on the track and you need to worry about your shift points, and the bike shifting left to right. I don’t know if you guys saw my first pass, but it went way right. I was hanging 100 percent off to the left. You have to be prepared for that because it is happening so quick. You don’t have a chance to think about it. You just need to react. It is a lot harder than what people think it is.”

Arana won the pole from his older brother Hector Arana Jr., who was second on the qualifying ladder at 6.965 seconds. Adam is ninth in the points, while Hector Jr. arrived in Vegas second in the points 125 behind leader Matt Smith.

“I didn’t expect to go that quick,” Adam said. “That first run we should have thrown away because we had no information off of it. We were going up to it (the second qualifying run) lost. My dad (Hector Arana Sr.) made a call and he was 100 percent right and because of him I’m No. 1.”

Adam’s provisional-pole winning time was quite an improvement from his 7.271-second lap in Friday’s first qualifying session.

“I double-clutched it,” said Adam about what happened. “The bike spun and drifted and kicked off to the right and it sent me toward the wall, so I had to react quick or else I was going to hit it, and I got pretty close.” 

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