“I’ve been doing three years of go-karting. I was the Stars of Karting East and West JICA Champion last year. Definitely the suspension [is the biggest difference from karting]. It’s a whole different story. You have to take a whole different line, the throttle input – everything is different.”
Starting alongside Smrz tonight will be fellow MER teammate Saini, who paced yesterday’s night practice. Saini shed more than a second off of his practice times to qualify his No. 28 Autobarn Mazda/Saferacer.com Mazda MX-5 second on the grid with a time of 1:24.233 (71.977 mph).
Starting third is the No. 80 Jason Hoover Motorsports/Hooverspeed Mazda MX-5 of Matt Cross, of Folsom, Calif., who clocked a fast time of 1:24.312 (71.861 mph).
Driving the No. 30 Team MER/AimSport/Pinnacle Mazda MX-5, Andrew Caddell, of Graham, Wash., turned a fast lap of 1:24.629 (71.592 mph), good enough for fourth on the grid. He is followed by Ara Malkhassian, of Sonoma, Calif., who slotted his No. 11 Alara Racing Mazda MX-5 into fifth on the grid with a time of 1:24.937 (71.332 mph).
Jesse Combs, John C. Kuitwaard, Pratt Cole, Ben McCrackin and Tim Probert completed the top ten.
The first race of the 2007 MX-5 Cup season goes green at 8:45 p. m. (CDT) today under the lights of JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park.
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