Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Jr. said he's refreshed, his Lucas Oil Buell is ready to rock, and that he's ready to win his first NHRA series championship.

He said if he can "get over that second round hump and just go rounds and not have any mistakes, I think we can do it."

Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Jr. said he's refreshed, his Lucas Oil Buell is ready to rock, and that he's ready to win his first NHRA series championship.

He said if he can "get over that second round hump and just go rounds and not have any mistakes, I think we can do it."

But he stands by his earlier accusation that 2010 champ LE Tonglet initiated some funny business at the starting line at the most recent race, at Reading, Pa. However, Arana Jr. did concede about his finger pointing, "Definitely that was heat of the moment."

The third-year competitor led the points all season until the third of six Countdown events, at St. Louis. He's second in the standings, 125 points behind leader Matt Smith with two races remaining. Michael Ray is just two points behind him, and father Hector Arana Sr. is only four behind him.

So Arana Jr. knows he has to regain that form that brought him four victories in five final rounds this season.

"We started off the season strong, but in all honesty that doesn't really matter if you don't have your stuff together for the Countdown. I don't know if we lost focus or we lost some of our better motors and just a couple little mistakes on the starting line, and next thing you know you're in second place.  We'll get back into it.  We've finally got some good motors back together, and we know what we have to do, and it's not impossible to win, but it's definitely going to be very, very, very tough, and we're going to have to be flawless these next two races and have a little bit of luck on our side.  We have our fingers crossed, and we're going to do everything we can to get this Lucas Oil Buell to the championship."

Being flawless is a lot to ask anytime, but no more so than in a high-stakes situation with limited time and no margin for error.

"You know, it does put pressure, and I don't know if it's too much to ask or not," he said. "But it's what we have to do, so it's what we have to ask."

So what's his game plan for coping with that pressure and trying to make up so many points on a veteran such as 2007 champion Smith?

"We're trying everything we can just to be practicing at the tree and getting the bike running 100 percent where you're not working to death on it," Arana Jr. said. "And those four back-to-back races in the Countdown, the bike was getting hurt, we were running a hurt motor, come back, we were working until midnight every day, load up, drive around the clock to get to the races, and our team, we've been tired.

"I think now finally we've got some good parts in the motors. We've got them all refreshed with these couple weeks off and kind of regrouped. And I think we'll be good to go," he said.

That comes with a lot of "hopefullys," according to Arana Jr.

"One round at a time and every round counts. A little bit of luck and no errors on my side as a driver and hopefully no errors on the bike, and hopefully the No. 1 guy goes out early and you can gain those points," he said. "Other than that, you finish wherever you finish."

No matter where he finishes, Arana Jr. knows he made an excellent run at the title, even with some adjustments to the crew.

"When we were racing with two bikes the past two seasons, we were already short a crew guy, “he said. "Then we come to this year and we added another bike [with younger brother Adam the rider]. Essentially we lost a crew guy, because my brother was one of the crew guys and now he's a driver. So now we had three bikes with the same amount of crew guys starting off the season. And then halfway through the season we lost another guy.  So it's me, my dad and my brother, and my crew chief, Dan [Gonzalez]. That's how we're racing.

"We got another guy locally over here. He stepped up to the plate to help us go to the races. His name is Gaylan [Baumgarten], and we want to thank him for doing that, stepping in last minute.  He's got a wife and a family, but he's sacrificing that to help us make it through the season. And then we also have Juan [Mata] who comes to all the races, him and his sister, and they'll cook for us and everything. He has also stepped up to the plate and is helping us work on the bikes and making it possible for us to race."

Racing with three bikes and sharing data, tools, crew members, and parts can be tricky. But Arana Jr. said they have the best system they can come up with to make sure each rider has what he needs.

"We have three motors that we've built all as close as we can together, but as you know, you can build two motors identical and one always runs better than the other," he said. "So we have three motors that run really good, which are taken up by all three of us drivers, and then we have two backups that are pretty close, and that's it.  So hopefully our motors will last us for the rest of the season, and if something happens, we have two backup motors. And then we also have parts in a trailer that hopefully we can rebuild a motor to keep it running."

Budgets are relatively low for Pro Stock Motorcycle teams, but they're always lower than what the racers would like to have. So they race with limited funds, limited hands, and an abundance of passion . . . particularly in this drag-racing world of "make a mistake and you're out" and no do-overs, no pit stops, no second chances.

So naturally, when a mistake bites a racer, he's going to react, or possibly, overreact because so much goes into a sub-seven-second pass on the racetrack.

That's where Arana Jr. was emotionally at Reading when his starting-line error and post-race comments about Tonglet surfaced.

"You're angry. You're stressed out," Arana Jr. said. “It’s the Countdown, and you're trying to go rounds -- and they did play games.  They did go and double-bulb me.

"We always try to race fair, but apparently you can't do that.  Being a nice guy hasn't gotten us anywhere so far this year in the Countdown," he said, "and the class is so tight right now that you've got to beat them on the starting line. So everybody is doing everything they can, especially if their motor isn't running as strong as other people because that's what they have to do to win.

"It's my fault for falling into that," Arana Jr. said. "I should have known better, but I've never run into a situation like that.  You know, that's what happens. But like I said, I learned my lesson, and I've got a game plan for next time that happens."

He has a game plan for this weekend's Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, too.

"Vegas is a very good track.  It's smooth," he said, adding that his blueprint for success doesn't center on the track only.

He said a large part of putting oneself in a position to win there is "just making sure you stay relaxed and stay focused and get good rest, don't stay up too late on the Strip, and most of all have fun. You've got to have fun while you're doing this. If you're not having fun, then you shouldn't be doing it. We're tired, but we're still having fun, and we love racing. We love flying the Lucas Oil colors, and that's why we're out here doing this."

He knows all he has is this weekend's race and the NHRA Finals at Pomona, Calif., but in general, he said, "I want to say it's all confidence. When you start going rounds and you start winning the races, you as a driver, you get this confidence, this extra confidence, and you have this attitude that 'I can't be beat.'  And when you go to the starting line with an attitude and a confidence like that, it's easier. You're not as worried to red light, so therefore you're not going to be sleeping at the light. You're just on your game. All you've got to do is have a good motor, just feel good that day."

He's hoping he feels good Sunday, Nov. 10, at Pomona, holding an over-sized check as the Pro Stock Motorcycle champion.

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