Malkhassian Sweeps From Third To First On Final Lap To Win MX-5 Cup Thriller

BRASELTON, April 30, 2011: Ara Malkhassian, of Houston, Texas, only led the 45-minute second round of the 2011 SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup Series at Road Atlanta for maybe last 15 seconds, but that’s all it took to give the series’ all-time starts leader his second career MX-5 Cup victory.

Driving the No. 11 ALARA Garage MX-5, Malkhassian found himself in a similar situation to one four years earlier at Road Atlanta, when he scored his first series victory with a pass on the final lap. He used that experience to his advantage approaching Turns 10a and 10b of the 12-turn circuit this afternoon when Justin Hall, of Davis, Calif., and Jason Saini, of Cresson, Texas, went side-by-side in a last-lap battle for the lead after battling each other for most of the race.

“When Jason popped a move onto Justin, it slows them both down tremendously,” Malkhassian explained. “You probably drop 10 to 15 miles an hour going side-by-side through 10a and 10b. If you are third and you drop back far enough that you can accelerate up to them, at the point where the track widens again, you can just come right up the inside. I probably cleared them before I even crested the hill, there was that much difference in speed.”

Coming down the hill into the circuit’s 12th and final turn, Malkhassian cruised down the inside with Saini in the middle and Hall sliding through the grass and doing all he could to save himself from crashing. Malkhassian crossed the stripe 0.197 seconds ahead of Saini to get the win in a scenario that went exactly the way he hoped it would turn out.

“I got up to second and I could have passed for first against Justin, but really, honestly, these guys are so aggressive,” Malkhassian said. “They are lead dogs. They want to lead all the time; I just want to win. I need to say a big thank you to ALARA Racing and to Ken Murillo, our crew chief, for giving us a great car.”

It was vindication of sorts for Malkhassian, who crashed out of the season-opening race on the first lap for the second consecutive year last month at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It was also the second straight MX-5 Cup victory at Road Atlanta for ALARA Racing, which won last year with driver Lyonel Kent.

As for Saini, the second-place result capped an eventful day for the 2007 series champion in the No. 28 Autobarn Mazda of Countryside/New Balance/Phiten/SunTrust/C.J. Wilson’s Children’s Charities MX-5. Saini started the race from the outside of the front row but was involved in a first-turn, opening-lap incident with third-place starter Dean Copeland, of Bowie, Md., which dropped Saini back to fifth in the running order and removed Copeland from the race altogether.

The incident brought out the race’s only full-course caution period, allowing Saini to catch back up to the lead pack. He quickly moved into fourth place and settled into the lead pack for the remainder of the run. Saini led twice for a total of five laps and is now second in the championship standings after two of nine races.

“First of all, I’ve got to thank C.J. Wilson Racing for letting me come over here and rejoin the series, because this is some fun racing,” Saini said. “It was just awesome out there. Starting on the outside, I just tried to get through Turn 1. I was about mid-track and kind of just trying to stay out of the way of everyone and all of a sudden I got hit, so I don’t know what happened there. I’ve got to look at the video.

“From then on, it was just a four-car drafting battle and it was just a chess match, a 45-minute, qualifying-pace chess match and it was just awesome. All credit to the three guys I raced with. They raced me clean. What awesome cars these MX-5s are to create this kind of racing. It’s good to be back.”

Despite a rough ride through the grass in the final turn, Hall managed to gather his No. 4 Atlanta Motorsports Group MX-5 up and bring it home in third place. He led twice for a race-high total of 11 laps including the white-flag lap.

“I like to try to race from the front, philosophically, knowing the MX-5s are great cars but they punch a huge hole,” Hall said. “Now this is the second time I’ve actually been leading an SCCA Pro race into the last lap here. I guess at some point I’ve got to learn that maybe leading isn’t the right place to be at this track on the last lap.

“The BFGs are a great tire and Jason Hoover at AMG Motorsports set up the car perfectly but boy, we were racing from green and I didn’t have much left. I got not the greatest run off of Turn 7 and gave Jason a run to the inside. I actually outbroke him into the last turn, but he had position and there wasn’t much I could do.”

Hall’s AMG Racing teammate Mike Cooper, of Syosset, N.Y., came home fourth. Cooper started the race from the pole position in the No. 6 VEND3.com MX-5 and led the first nine laps before the lead began changing hands between Hall and Saini, but he was very much a part of the four-car lead pack.

In fact, Cooper took the lead from Hall in Turn 1 on Lap 23 of the 26-lap race but he spun a few corners later in Turn 6, which dropped him all the way back to fifth place and out of contention for the victory. Nevertheless, he recovered to finish fourth and leads the MX-5 Cup driver standings by 13 points, 119-106, over Saini with two races now in the books. Kevin Kopp, of Great Falls, Va., rounded out the top five in the No. 22 Piper Motorsports/Brimtek Motorsports MX-5.

Following the race, MX-5 Cup officials docked Scott Dollahite, of Austin, Texas, 20 points and fined him $250 for avoidable contact in the No. 5 Atlanta Motorsports Group MX-5. Dollahite was also placed on probation for two races.

Next up for the SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup is a doubleheader race weekend at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn. The races will be held on Memorial Day weekend, May 27-30.