Arana Jr. Wins Unique NHRA Four-Wide Event
| April 23, 2013
The NHRA Four-Wide Nationals is a drag racing event like no other. In place of the traditional format that pits one rider against another, the one-a-year event offers twice the excitement as four riders compete simultaneously at zMax Dragway, the only facility currently equipped for such an event. In each heat, the top two riders continue to advance through eliminations until the last four survivors meet in the final round.
While the structure of the Four-Wide race might not be familiar, the winner was fairly well known as Lucas Oil Buell’s Hector Arana Jr., a former NHRA rookie of the year, won his second-consecutive race to open the season. Arana won the final round with a 6.89 elapsed time hanging on to defeat Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson’s Eddie Krawiec, who ran a 6.92. Sovereign/Star Buell’s Scotty Pollacheck finished third and Bad Boy Buggies Suzuki’s Jimmy Underdahl was fourth.
“This is my first time at the four-wide and I love it,” Arana Jr. said. “I have a feeling it’s going to be one of those years. Everything so far has fallen into place for me. The bike’s running very consistent. This Lucas Oil bike is bad to the bone. We’ve got this thing dialed in and we don’t have to do too much as far as the tune-up goes.”
