Ohio Native Jason Saini, now of Fort Worth, Texas, came from eighth on the grid to win his third SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race of 2009 at the Toyo Tires Mid-Ohio Grand Prix Presented by Dish Network. Peter Cunningham, of Milwaukee, Wis., and Pierre Kleinubing, of Coconut Creek, Fla., completed the top three. Saini started eighth in his No. 74 MAZDASPEED/StopTech/ProParts MAZDA6 and ran there for the opening five laps of the 27-lap, 60. 966-mile contest, as the field circulated under yellow to remove the Honda Civic of Kevin Helms from the gravel. Saini moved to sixth after the lap-six restart and then threaded his way through a lap-nine incident in the Esses that helped him move to second. Just four laps later, he was able to move past teammate, and polesitter, Charles Espenlaub’s No. 73 MAZDASPEED/StopTech/ProParts MAZDA6 in the Keyhole for the lead and never looked back to take his third victory of the season. Saini beat Cunningham to the checkered flag by 4. 719 seconds, averaging 71. 455 mph in the race slowed by two cautions. ” Of the two races I’ve always wanted to win, one was Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland and the other was here, ” Saini said. ” I had a poor qualifying. I never put a good lap together, even though I had a stellar car. I thought, starting eighth, 20this isn’t going to be the day. We’ll do what we can, come back and try to win next year.’ I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined ending up here on the top step today. ” I don’t remember what exactly happened [on lap nine]. Cars were all three-wide going into The Esses, and all I know is I came in and cars were spinning sideways and I just dove to the inside. Next thing I know, I came out in second place. From there, it was the car. Tri-Point gave me an amazing car today. Honestly, in all my year’s driving, this is the best handling car I’ve ever driven. It did everything perfectly. ” The win put Mazda into the World Challenge Touring Car Manufacturers’ Championship Presented by RACER Magazine lead, with 53 to Acura’s 50 and BMW’s 27. ” It’s been a huge struggle, just to get to this point, ” Saini said of taking over the Manufacturers’ lead. ” A lot of people have stepped up for us this season, so to get the win and takeover the point lead, is the best result we could have hoped for. ” Once he was in the lead, Saini’s run to the finish may have appeared mundane, but the battle for second was epic. Cunningham, who started his No. 1 Acura/RealTime/Red Line Oil Acura TSX third, was at the center of the lap-nine action. Battling Espenlaub for the lead, Cunningham and third-running Eric Foss, of Fort Worth, Texas, bumped at corner seven, sending the Acura into a tank-slapper back and forth across the track while cars scattered to avoid him. Unfortunately for James Clay, running sixth in the No. 36 BimmerWorld/GearWrench BMW 328i, he had nowhere to go, and eventually helped straighten the Acura out approaching the top of the hill. While Cunningham continued, the BMW sustained damage too severe to continue. Cunningham fell to fifth, but fought back to second in the end, after a fierce battle with Espenlaub, Kleinubing and the No. 38 BimmerWorld/GearWrench BMW 328i of Seth Thomas, of Cumming, Ga. It was Cuningham’s second-consecutive runner-up finish, both of the season and at Mid-Ohio. ” I don’t know exactly how I was able to save it, ” Cunningham said of the lap-nine incident. ” My eyes were closed for most of it! That’s the beauty of front-wheel drive; if you keep your holy boot in it and aim the car correctly, it’s really hard to spin. I don’t know what exactly happened, but it was too close for comfort and I was happy to come out on the other side. ” There was contact from another car and then some more contact, the latter of which wasn’t his [James Clay’s] fault. I came back onto the road, in front of him, sideways. That’s when Jason just said, 20ok, I think I’ll drive right on through here,’ so good job for him. Cunningham admitted that his car wasn’t the same after the contact. ” It was a little bit messed up on the left side, ” he said. ” I felt like I had a little bit of a different toe in the right rear, but I guess it must have been on the left rear. That made the left-handers a bit of a trick, but the right-handers were beautiful. It actually helped in the right-handers. ” Glad to be on the podium for sure. This isn’t exactly where we wanted to be. We wanted to beat the Mazdas, but nice job to Jason and the Mazda guys. Hopefully, we’ll get them next time. ” While Saini captured the Sunoco Hard Charger for advancing the most positions from start-to-finish, nobody passed more cars in the race than Kleinubing. On the standing start, his No. 42 Acura/RealTime/Red Line Oil Acura TSX crept from its ninth-starting position, drawing a stop-and-go penalty after the lap-five restart. Helped by the second caution, Kleinubing worked his way back up from 12th place to finish on the podium. He turned the Débaufré Fastest Lap of the Race in the process, with a best time of 1: 35. 713 (84. 929 mph). ” I had my line lock on at the start, so I don’t know how I moved, ” Kleinubing said. ” It’s just one of those days I guess. Seemed like everything would go wrong, but then it ended up working out okay in the end. I couldn’t believe, starting ninth, that I would finish better than seventh or eighth, so ending up on the podium is great for me today. ” Kleinubing also took home the AutoWeek Move of the Race for his lap-22 pass on Thomas in Turn 11 for third place. ” He [Thomas] tried to pass Peter [Cunningham] and got a little loose on the exit of the corner and I was able to jump to the inside. He pretty much left the door open and once I was on the inside, he couldn’t do anything. ” Thomas finished the race right on Kleinubing’s bumper, followed closely by the No. 57 Horton Autosport/Sloan Securities MAZDA6 of Patrick Lindsey. Lindsey, of Santa Barbara, Calif., started second, but was shuffled back at the start, eventually having to pit due to a flat tire on lap seven. He, too, benefitted from the second full-course caution on lap 14 to retrieve Branden Peterson’s Acura TSX from the Turn Seven gravel. Nick Esayian, who ran in fifth place for much of the race in his BMW 328i, finished sixth. Kuno Wittmer (Acura TSX) and Espenlaub each fought electrical problems but finished seventh and eighth, respectively. Foss and Peterson completed the top 10. With his second-straight win, Saini extended his point lead to 63 over Cunningham (733 to 670). Kleinubing is third, with 649, followed by Thomas (614) and Wittmer (595). Today’s race will be broadcast Sept. 1 at 2 p. m. (EDT) on SPEED. The series next travels to Elkhart Lake, Wis., for the Road America Grand Prix Presented by StopTech next weekend, Aug. 14-16. Follow World Challenge on Twitter @SPEEDWC. Note: SCCA Pro Racing uses corner stations to identify turns at Mid-Ohio, making the turn at the end of the back straight, Turn Seven

After five trips to the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT podium this season, Brandon Davis, of Huntington Beach, Calif., finally made the climb to the top step, winning the Toyo Tires Mid-Ohio Grand Prix Presented by Dish Network. Tony Rivera, of Missouri City, Texas, and James Sofronas, of Newport Beach, Calif., completed the top three for Round Seven at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Starting from pole in the No. 10 Applied Computer Solutions/Sun Microsystems Ford Mustang Cobra, Davis powered away from the grid on the standing start, maintaining his lead into Turn One over second-starting Andy Pilgrim, of Boca Raton, Fla., in the No. 8 K-PAX Racing Volvo S60. Pilgrim stuck with Davis for the opening laps, but, determined to get his first win of 2009, the current point leader put the pedal to the medal around the 13-turn, 2. 258-mile road course, opening up a lead of more than a second by lap 10. ” From the start, I knew the conditions would be a challenge with the heat, ” Davis said. ” On the start, I cranked the launch control up as much as I could so I wouldn’t spin the tires too much. I focused on not slipping much coming out of the corners and being real smooth an real consistent. ” On lap 17, Davis’ gap to second tripled, as Pilgrim pulled into pitlane with a broken transmission output shaft. Rivera inherited third with a dozen laps remaining and was able to close the gap to Davis, who had gone into conservation mode after Pilgrim’s exit. Without a single yellow flag in the 29-lap, 65. 481 mile-race, Rivera was unable to make a proper bid for the lead, and Davis cruised to his fourth-career win by 1. 396 seconds, averaging 91. 677 mph. ” I think Andy [Pilgrim] would have been tough, had he stayed around. Getting out front, I was able to breathe a little bit and just run laps. When I saw that Andy dropped out, I was able to conserve tires a little bit and judge the gap back to Tony [Rivera]. I lost communication to the crew actually, so I didn’t know where anybody was. ” The car was pretty good at the end. Obviously, it went away, but not as bad as it has in the past, which is good. It’s unfortunate that sometimes we have to drive like that. It would be nice to go 10-tenths every lap, but sometimes that’s the way you have to go to have a good race pace. ” Davis did have one hair-raising moment toward the end of the race, when the No. 53 Dezigns Construction Dodge Viper of Michael Hartley, from Williamstown, N. J., re-entered the course after a quick off. Evasive action on Davis’ part prevented Rivera from gaining too much ground. ” When [Hartley] went off, I backed off a little to see where he was going to go. Sure enough, he popped back onto the track and I was able to get around him at the bottom of 20Madness’ on the outside. It was a little bit of a moment and one of those situations that we were glad we had a lead. Otherwise, it would have been pretty hairy. ” After being so close for so long, it feels great to finally win this year. We’ve been on the pole but in the races, we just didn’t have the pace to win. So it feels pretty good. ” Starting fourth, Rivera got a run on third-staring Sofronas on the opening lap as the pair exited the Keyhole. Rivera took a look going into the Esses and Sofronas took a defensive line, resulting in the two going side-by-side through the Esses. After some side-by-side contact, Rivera was by in his No. 97 Tax Masters/Brass Monkey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 at the top of the hill. ” I had the run down the back straight, ” Rivera said. ” I went to the inside. Like anybody would, he defended and I decided to try the outside and we got along side-by-side. The more I think about it, I didn’t expect us to hit. I had left tires almost in the grass. I had just enough room and at the last second I kind of got a lurch forward and we touched. I hate to get by people that way. It was unfortunate. ” After inheriting second from Pilgrim, Rivera went on a charge, closing the gap to Davis to as little as 0. 997-second in the closing laps. Wary of Rivera’s orange Porsche in his mirrors, Davis cranked it up at the end, pulling away and erasing Rivera’s chances for a second race win in 2009. The Sebring race winner did not come away empty handed, however, earning a Débaufré Swiss watch for setting the Débaufré Fastest Lap of the Race. ” I tried to focus on what was in front of me and not behind me, ” Rivera said of his late-race charge. ” I started to see Brandon get a little loose and while he was getting loose, I was starting to lose the front tires a little bit and began to push. There was really nothing I could do. If we had another 10 laps, James [Sofronas] would have probably caught and passed us both! ” Eric Curran was able to follow Rivera around Sofronas in the Esses, but on the following lap, the No. 30 Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Corvette suffered a suspension failure. Running inches off of Curran’s bumper at the time, Sofronas made contact with the Corvette and fell all the way to ninth. ” Coming out of the hairpin, I didn’t get the best launch and I saw Tony right up my rear and figured I’d better be somewhat defensive, ” Sofronas said. ” He made a move on the outside. It was a good pass. I wanted to run him through and make enough room for us to race. Apparently, it wasn’t enough and we had a little contact. The worst thing about it was that Eric Curran got by me as well. That’s what eventually cost me a chance to run up front. The next lap around he had a problem as I was about an inch off his bumper coming out of the Keyhole and I just plowed into the back of his car and smashed up the front of mine. ” So, I fell back to ninth and I was frustrated. I need to have a clean, 100 percent error-free race and these weren’t really my fault. But, that’s racing. I just sucked it up and put my head down, started cranking off some great laps. I was holding out for a yellow to get it all back, but it never came. Sofronas was able to climb back to fourth in his No. 14 Global Motorsports Group Porsche 911 GT3, and was promoted to third with Pilgrim’s retirement. ” I’m proud of the guys, ” Sofronas concluded. ” They did an unbelievable job on the car. We ran a little bit heavier this weekend than normal and the car was still pretty good. At the end, it got a little squirrelly and [Crew Chief] Todd [Ketcham] said 20don’t throw it off the track if you can’t catch these guys,’ but I didn’t give up until the last lap. The last lap was pretty hairy and I almost threw it off. These guys ran a great race. I wish I could have joined them. ” Defending Champion Randy Pobst, of Gainesville, Ga., made a stunning drive through the field. Transmission trouble on the No. 1 K-PAX Racing Volvo S60 prevented Pobst from turning a single lap in qualifying, regulating him to the final spot on the grid. By lap 10, Pobst was up to seventh and continued to slice his way through the field, finishing fourth. The drive earned Pobst the Sunoco Hard Charger of the Race Award, as well as the AutoWeek Move of the Race Award for his pass on Jeff Courtney’s No. 99 Kenda/JTM/Coins of America Dodge Viper in Turn 11 for sixth. Dino Crescentini, of Manhattan Beach, Calif., may have started and finished fifth in his No. 4 StopTech/GMG Porsche 911 GT3, but his race was anything but uneventful. The Watkins Glen race winner dropped to sixth on the opening lap, but bounced back up to fourth following Sofronas’ run-in with Curran. Sofronas would eventually re-pass his teammate before Pobst sent Crescentini back to his starting spot on lap 21. Though Pobst’s AutoWeek Move of the Race demoted Courtney to seventh, Pilgrim’s retirement moved him back up to sixth, a season-high finish for the Milwaukee, Wis.-drive