MX-5: Cleveland Saturday practice notes

McAlister Leads MX-5 Round Six Practice at Cleveland

Brad McAllister, of Portland, Ore., led practice Saturday morning for the second half of the SCCA Pro Racing SIRIUS Satellite Radio Mazda MX-5 Cup doubleheader, part of the Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by LaSalle Bank. Jason Saini, of Fort Worth, Texas, and Andrew Caddell, of Graham, Wash., were second and third fastest, respectively.

After finishing seventh in Friday night's Round Five race at Burke Lakefront Airport, McAllister topped the morning time charts in his No. 39 ACE Surgical Supply/H&M Motorsport MX-5 with a lap of 1:28.628 (85.544 mph).

"I was pretty fortunate during last night's race," McAllister said. "The cars held up nice and drove perfectly, so this morning we already had a good setup from the guys at RPM Motorsports and we're going to put our heads down and try to get on the podium this evening."

McAllister was followed on the timing screens by Saini, a native of the Shaker Heights area, who took the race win Friday night in front of a hometown crowd. Driving the No. 28 Autobarn Mazda/SafeRacer.com MX-5, Saini put in a lap of 1:28.737 (85.544 mph), nearly half a second faster than his fast race lap on Friday.

Driving the No. 30 Team MER/AimSport/Pinnacle Mazda MX-5 and polesitter for Friday evening's race, Caddell ended the session in third with a lap of 1:28.843 (85.337 mph).

Jesse Combs, of Woodlands, Texas, was fourth fastest in his No. 7 Coolgas Ltd./Alara Racing MX-5 with a lap of 1:28.883 (85.298 mph). Matt Cross, of Folsom, Calif., completed the top five, putting in a lap of 1:28.996 (85.190 mph) in his No. 80 Hooverspeed/MobiTV MX-5.

Andrew Carbonell, Ara Malkhassian, Pratt Cole, Tim Probert and Todd Buras completed the top ten.

-credit: www.mx-5.com