By: Motorsports Enterprises Racing
Saini Leads Way In Houston With Opening Round Win For Team MER, Smrz Takes Pole & Third
HOUSTON, Texas - Team MER made a huge step in defending their driver and team championship from last season at the Grand Prix of Houston. Jason Saini (Team MER / TheAutobarn.com) led every lap en-route to his first win of the 2007 SCCA Sirius Satellite Mazda MX-5 Cup season. In addition, 16-year-old, Brett Smrz (Team MER / AutismSpeaks.org) logged the fastest lap in qualifying to start from pole and had a race-long battle for second place before finishing on the final spot of the podium in his professional car-racing debut.
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| No. 29 Team MER/Autobarn Mazda of Jason Saini (Sykes image). |
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"What a great feeling this is,” Saini said.
“Our entire team has put in a tremendous amount of effort and to be rewarded
with a win is just fantastic. Everyone on the team is deserving of credit for
this weekend's accomplishments, especially our car chief, Juliann Pokorny, and
Eric Foss for helping to engineer the cars. The reason why we have so many good
front-running cars is in large part due to their efforts.”
Joining Saini on the podium was Brett Smrz,
who started the race from pole before slipping back all the way to fourth early
on. Smrz worked his way back up to an epic battle for second before impressively
finishing the race in the third position in his pro-racing debut.
“Team MER has a great testing program and
that really helped me this weekend,” said Smrz. “I have learned a lot with help
from both Jason and my driver coach, Marc Miller. I don"t think I could have
been any more prepared for the first event but was still shocked when Marc came
on over the radio and told me I was P1 in qualifying. I want to thank the
entire team and Autism Speaks for making my first pro weekend a memorable one.”
At one point in the race, Team MER cars
occupied the first three positions with Saini, rookie Andrew Caddell and Smrz
showcasing the team’s car preparation skills. Caddell began to run down the
leader and in the process clocked the fastest lap of the race to take home the
Hawk Hot Lap award. Only a few laps later he would be forced to retire from the
race after contact with the wall and gearbox issues.
“We had a very good weekend, there is no
doubt about that,” said Shannon McMasters. “On the weekend, the team took home
the pole, the win and fastest lap awards spread over three different drivers on
the team. We have several new drivers in these cars on the team and they all
performed like veterans. This was certainly a team effort.”
Rick Bellew drove his Team MER / B&W
Supply machine from the back of the pack after early contact all the way up to eighth
place by the checkered flag. Following him through the pack was Forest Barber
(Team MER / Feed the Need Racing), who had put in a stellar display from his 25th
starting position to get in the top 15 before being forced wide and losing
several spots. He would bounce back to 15th place by the end of the
race, making up ten positions, tied for the most by any driver.
Team MER is already preparing for the next
SCCA SIRIUS Satellite Radio Mazda MX-5 Cup event, The 30th
Anniversary Walter Mitty Challenge, this coming weekend at Road Atlanta.
Team MER team boasts an experienced staff,
public relations & marketing services, design department, driver coaching
and testing facility. For more information regarding testing programs and race
seats for the 2007 season, contact Jason Saini or Marc Miller at Motorsport
Enterprises Racing at 817.396.4831 or email at info@motorsportenterprisesracing.com
or visit their website at www.motorsportenterprisesracing.com.
Team MER would like to thank TheAutobarn.com Mazda, AutismSpeaks.org, Pinnacle
Mazda, B&W Supply, Under Armor, www.saferacer.com,
AIM Sports, Optima Trailers, MiataCage.com, RedLine Oil, Victory Lane Data
& MMP Design for their support of the team.
