SRO America
Sebring: Touring Car practice one notes
Saini Fastest in Opening World Challenge Touring Car Sebring Practice SEBRING, Fla. (March 18, 2009) -- Jason Saini, of Fort Worth, Texas, was fastest in the opening practice session of the 2009 SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car ...
Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:47 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Saini Fastest in Opening World Challenge Touring Car Sebring Practice
SEBRING, Fla. (March 18, 2009) -- Jason Saini, of Fort Worth, Texas, was fastest in the opening practice session of the 2009 SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car season Wednesday, in preparation of the Toyo Tires Season Opener, part of the 57th Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Presented by Fresh from Florida. Quebecois Kuno Wittmer and Pierre Kleinubing, of Coconut Creek, Fla., completed the top three.
Piloting the No. 74 Mazdaspeed/Stoptech/Racinghart MAZDA6 on a damp, but drying course, Saini's times improved throughout the 20-minute session. On his final tour around the 17-turn, 3.7-mile circuit, Saini entered the quickest time of the session, a 2:25.294 (91.676 mph).
"Conditions were a bit variable," Saini said. "It was damp this morning, but it got better throughout the session. It was hard to learn what the car was really doing in the changing conditions. I was lucky to have a late lap when the conditions were getting better every lap."
With sponsorships coming together at the last minute for Saini and the Tri-Point squad, the 2008 World Challenge Touring Car Rookie of the Year was thrilled to be in the driver's seat at Sebring and proud of the team's exhaustive efforts to make the event.
"It feels great [to be at Sebring]," beamed Saini. "It's been a few months of working really hard and some sponsors stepped up to help for this race. Hopefully, we can carry some things forward for the rest of the season. It just feels good to be here now, not worry about that and do the job at hand.
"The team has done such a great job pulling things together in short order. So many people pulled together to make this happen at the last minute. All credit to the team for staying up late all last week and getting these cars together."
Before Saini's late flier, RealTime teammates Wittmer and Kleinubing took turns swapping spots at the top of the practice order. At the checkered flag, Wittmer stood second fastest in the No. 44 Acura/RealTime/Red Line Oil Acura TSX with a 2:25.358 (91.635 mph). Last year's Sebring race winner, Kleinubing, topped out at a 2:25.564 (91.506 mph) in the No. 42 Acura/RealTime/Red Line Oil Acura TSX.
Saini's Tri-Point teammate Charles Espenlaub ended the session fourth-fastest in the No. 73 Mazdaspeed/Stoptech/Racinghart MAZDA6. Espenlaub's best was a 2:25.961 (91.257 mph).
Defending World Challenge Touring Car Champion Peter Cunningham completed the top five in his No. 1 Acura/RealTime/Red Line Oil Acura TSX. The only RealTime pilot driving the new body style TSX this week, Cunningham entered a 2:26.395 (90.986 mph).
Rookie Eric Foss, whose World Challenge ride with Tri-Point motorsports comes courtesy of winning the 2008 SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup, ended his first official World Challenge session in sixth.
Toby Grahovec (Acura TSX), Andrew Aquilante (Subaru WRX), Nick Esayian (BMW 328i) and James Clay (BMW 328i) completed the top 10.
-credit: scca pro racing
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Bristol: Earnhardt Ganassi Racing preview
Next article Bristol: Jeremy Mayfield preview
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Nick Esayian
Sixty-three Pirelli World Challenge drivers set to race on the streets of St. Petersburg
SRO America
SRO America
Sixty-three Pirelli World Challenge drivers set to race on the streets of St. Petersburg
World Challenge kicks off 2015 season at the Circuit of The Americas
SRO America
SRO America
World Challenge kicks off 2015 season at the Circuit of The Americas
TRG-AMR takes victory and third place in 2014 penultimate GTS race
SRO America
SRO America
Utah
TRG-AMR takes victory and third place in 2014 penultimate GTS race
Latest news
Why NASCAR's Zane Smith fine for Carson Hocevar contact was consistent
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
19 min
Why NASCAR's Zane Smith fine for Carson Hocevar contact was consistent
Jimmie Johnson on the NASCAR business world: "It's a war"
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 30 min
Jimmie Johnson on the NASCAR business world: "It's a war"
David Alonso lashes out at Dani Holgado: "When you’re not a good person, there’s nothing you can do"
Moto2
MOT2 Moto2
Phillip Island
30 min
David Alonso lashes out at Dani Holgado: "When you’re not a good person, there’s nothing you can do"
Super Formula Leader Kaku Ohta targets North American move across IndyCar and IMSA for 2027
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 31 min
Super Formula Leader Kaku Ohta targets North American move across IndyCar and IMSA for 2027
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe