For Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Hector Arana Jr., Saturday was all about numbers, and all of them were surprising.

First it was the technical details of the weather at Concord, N.C.: surprisingly ugly. Then it was his own performance numbers in qualifying for the Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway: surprisingly sweet.

Arana found a little more speed in his final qualifying run at the than he did in his first chance Saturday, but he'll use his track-record 6.794-second elapsed time to lead the class in Sunday eliminations of the bikes' second race of the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.

After coaxing a 6.794-second run (at 196.22 and later an improved 198.03-mph speed) from his Lucas Oil Buell for his 17th overall top-starting position, Arana said he relied on his 2014 body style rather than the new EBR 1190RX body.

The new one, he discovered at the Gatornationals earlier this month, had tendency to drift and show signs of rolling over.

Citing "aerodynamic issues" that jeopardize his safety and undermine his performance efforts, Arana said, "We're going to have to go back and do some further testing and prove it before we bring it back out here."

For the moment, though, he was enjoying the numbers that put him at the top of the order.

"We were in shock at the weather. We knew we had to do everything we can do to get the power to the track. We took our best guess, and it happened to work out perfectly," he said. "Honestly, we had a feeling we'd run good, but we were surprised with the numbers. It was definitely a pleasant surprise."

With the familiar body style, Arana said, he was anticipating even more.

"As good as the air was, we were actually hoping to run a little bit faster mile-an-hour," he said.

He acknowledged the need to "work on a couple of things" with the new body: "We're going to start trying to work with EBR to see if we can modify the new body and make something that will work out better for us later in the season. We don't want to give up on that at all."

He said his team decided to change because "we know power-wise we're running close to the field" and wanted to "find a little extra something after running the motors down the track at the last race."

Arana will face No. 16 Katie Sullivan, No. 8 Jim Underdahl, and No. 9 Chaz Kennedy in the first round of eliminations. Two will advance from that round.

Among those who missed the cut are Jerry Savoie, home-area racer Angie Smith, and Steve Johnson, a 2008 Charlotte winner. Debuting Jeremy Teasley narrowly missed the field on Junior Pippin's Suzuki and wound up with the No. 17 spot.   

The act of cutting and pasting articles from this publication to a message board is a clear copyright violation as is pulling photos to post on social media sites. All articles and photography published in CompetitionPlus.com are protected by United States of America and International copyright laws unless mentioned otherwise. The content on this website is intended for the private use of the reader and may not be published or reposted in any form without the prior written consent of CompetitionPlus.com.