NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Earlier this season, Dystany Spurlock made her long-anticipated NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle debut in Richmond and provided a glimpse of her potential when she qualified an Arana Racing  V-twin entry with a competitive 6.896 elapsed time and then gave Angie Smith all she could handle in round one.

Now, Spurlock is back for a second go-round at NHRA’s oldest and most prestigious event, the Cornwell Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals. She’s got plenty of ambitious goals that go far beyond just qualifying for what will almost certainly be an all six-second field be the time qualifying concludes on Sunday night.

Spurlock could be forgiven if she was bit rusty since the Richmond race was more than two months ago, but that doesn’t appear to be the case as she opened with a solid 6.86 on Friday night, the best run of her brief NHRA career.

“I have not been on a bike of any kind since Richmond so yeah, I had a few jitters yesterday but that all went away on the first pass,” Spurlock said. “I thought, ‘Okay, once we got it started I’m where I need to be’. I felt so much better after we made a good first run.

“We actually toyed with the idea of racing in Norwalk but thought better of it. This team knows what’s up and they felt like it would be better to put in more time getting he bikes ready and working on the dyno so that we’d be more competitive.”

Spurlock owns her own Pro Stock Motorcycle, but it made more sense to partner with the Arana family, who have combined for 26 wins since 2009, the year Hector Sr. was crowned the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion.

Hector Sr. has been active in Pro Stock Motorcycle since the earliest days of the class and he’s passed a wealth of knowledge down to his son, Hector Jr. Spurlock is able to benefit from all that data as she continues to make progress. To that end, Spurlock’s Friday run scored high marks from the team.

“She did a great job,” said Hector Jr. “She got off the starting line cleanly and nailed all the shifts and the run was straight as an arrow. You can’t ask for much more than that. There might be a few small things we could work on but that was a great way to start the weekend.”

“Hector Sr. and Jr. have so much experience and so much knowledge, it’s comforting,” Spurlock said. “They always stress safety first, but they also pick my runs apart and tell me where we can improve. They are so open and honest, it’s refreshing. Last night, I short shifted fifth gear a bit, but otherwise it was a nice run. Those are the things we’re going to try and clean up a bit.”

Spurlock also tested this summer with the Arana family at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, and she’s convinced those runs helped accelerate her learning curve.

“I made some runs here in testing and anytime you can make a lot of runs at the same track, it’s a good thing. It helps your comfort level. I love this track. I came here for the first time as a fan in 2011. Even then, I knew that I wanted not to just be here, but to be here racing. It’s been a long journey, but I finally made it, and I couldn’t be happier.”

Spurlock has continued to work hard to find the funding to continue pursuing her dream of a full-time ride in the Mission Foods NHRA Series, and while that is a huge challenge, she feels as though she’s making positive strides.

Spurlock won’t compete in enough events this season to challenge for a championship or even compete for the Rookie of the Year honors, but both of those things are on her radar for the near future.

“It’s going,” she laughs when asked about the ongoing search for a marketing partner. “I had people say, ‘Well, we need to see you actually get out there and run and see what you can do.’ Now, they’ve seen that I can do this and that’s helped make a difference.

“I also spend a lot of time in the gym because you need some core strength to be able to handle one of these bikes. I put a lot of time and effort into physical and mental fitness.”

Spurlock has continued to partner with Foxxtecca for this weekend’s U.S. Nationals and she feels the company is a perfect fit for the exciting world of NHRA Drag Racing.

“Foxxtecca is a media company that focuses on promoting underdogs, and providing them with opportunities to succeed,” said Spurlock. “A few years ago I met Chris Harris, one of the owners, and he said, ‘We like what we see. We’ve got you.’ I’m really happy to be associated with them.”