Now, you can bear the fruit of all that hard work – Tri-Point will build you a copy of this car for a very reasonable price. Or, if you want to get your hands dirty, the entire car will be available in kit form for you to fabricate and build yourself. This is unheard of on SPEED Touring Car, where the factory teams usually hang on to the latest cars and only sell off the old technology. Here, you can own and operate the exact same hardware the the factory team will have!

A shift from the Mazda6 to the new 3 platform will hopefully provide the boost Saini and team hope for in 2010. (Mark Weber/SCCA)

Part of the package is full engineering, technical, setup and data sharing with the factory team at all race weekends. The torquey new 2.5-liter Comptech engines will be available to all, and thanks to the use of more stock parts will be far cheaper to run than the previous engine package. Engine calibrations will be spec and shared between all teams. Cars will make use of X-trac's proven FWD touring car sequential six-speed transaxle.

Now is the time to secure your spot on the grid at Sebring next season! Contact Tri-Point for more information on ordering a car, or the parts kit. How did the car do in it's debut? Glad you asked! With Eric Foss behind the wheel, and a proven Tri Point setup on the car, it was immediately on par with the current MAZDA6. The handling was right there out of the box, and the car only suffered a bit on top end power. Eric finished 10th, just two spots behind me. Looking at laptimes, he turned the same time I did in the race. The methodical design and superior engineering put into this car before it turned a wheel meant it didn't take long to get up to speed, and you can take advantage of this by getting one of your very own!

Many people call the series' future into question, but I have the utmost confidence in the team that's steering the ship right now. Touring Car had one of it's strongest fields in a while at Mazda Raceway, and the privateers were very fast and breathing down my neck all race! Now is the time to join this great series, the standing starts and sprint format are something special, and if you've been 'waiting to see' if the series will grow again, now is the time.

One of the cooler stories of the weekend for me was my flag girl before the race. On the grid of each race, every driver has a flag-girl stand with their car holding our manufacturer's flag. For the final race of the year, I contacted Jessiqa Pace, who if you watched this year's Monaco GP Formula1 race, you saw adorning the Martini billboard above the Casino hairpin. It was the first time someone's likeness was displayed at the famous circuit, so it came as a surprise that she agreed to join us for the SPEED World Challenge event! Well, she came out a day early and watched the ALMS race, then had a great time holding the Mazda banner and watching my race. A very cool person, and talented video videographer and model.

Lots of good friends were on hand, and it's always a treat to race at Mazda Raceway. Brandon Davis won the GT championship, despite being tied with me in points for a large portion of the season! We joked quite a bit about the fact that we carried the same points total for a seemingly unbelievable amount of time. Congrats to him and the whole ACS Express Ford Mustang team on a flawless run for the title. Yet another 'cool' moment for me was getting to meet Boris Said, one of my heroes in racing.

I'm not sure if he was offended, but I explained to him that watching his climb on the motorsports ladder was an inspiration to me: “If this tall, goofy looking guy with a funny name can make it, then so can I,” was met with a bit of a puzzled look, but I meant it from respect. Boris overcame a lot to get where he is, and isn't the typical 5'5” 150lb jockey-sized race-car driver. Hopefully I can continue in racing long enough to get the chance to race wheel-to-wheel with him!

So now the off-season – which seems to be getting shorter all the time! Lots going on, there is Rolex testing in December, I hope to make my debut in the Rolex 24hr race this year. I have been talking to a few teams, but if anyone is interested please get in touch! Running that race has been a long time goal of mine and it would be a great way to start 2010.

Also in December, one of the most fun events of the year, the Thunderhill 25hr race! It's a club event put on by NASA that sees anything from street cars to Daytona Prototypes! Last year, my team won overall in an slightly modified Playboy MX-5 Cup car. This year, we are going a step further by adding more power and more fuel capacity to the same car. My co-drivers will again be my WC teammate Charles Espenlaub and longtime Tindol WC Touring driver Charlie Putman. We are looking forward to defending our big win from last year!
It's hard signing off for this column; I feel like we need another race, another chance to try and haul the championship back. But there are no more races until Sebring in March. And with the uncertainty still present in the marketplace, funding motorsports is still a challenge. Luckily, Mazda has some incredibly creative ways to benefit potential sponsors, so get a hold of me if you'd like to find out more. It's really a very potent business model and a great way to claw back some market share in these tough times.

While we look for ways to put 2010's budget in place, and immerse ourselves in the business end of the sport – for me, I just look forward to Sebring and starting the championship over again with new points tallies. Sitting in the new MAZDA3 will be awesome, and bring the fight to our rivals is what I relish. I'll end with another Vince Lombardi quote, “It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.” And I just relish the chance for all of us at Tri Point to get up, dust ourselves off, and stake our claim on the 2010 SPEED World Challenge Touring Car Championship.

~Jason

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.

Jason Saini drives the #74 Tri Point Engineering, Mazdaspeed Motorsports/Stoptech/Racing Hart SPEED World Challenge Touring Car MAZDA6. Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, he grew up going to the Cleveland Grand Prix at Burke Lakefront Airport gaining an affinity for sports car and open wheel racing. Before long, Jason was seeking out the SCCA and started autocrossing in his street car.

After sneaking past the ropes at the auto show to sit in a Trans-Am car, he knew he wanted to drive. With an eye toward a potential career as a driver, he moved up the ranks from autocross to Spec Miata, to MX-5 Cup and now Touring Car thanks to Mazda's unique Ladder System.

Saini earned his seat by winning the 2007 MX-5 Cup, winning 5 of 8 races on the way to the title. In 2008, he broke through with a win in only his third Touring Car race. The Fort Worth, TX resident is also part owners of a race shop/team called Team MER, who have won three consecutive MX-5 Cup titles and took the overall win at the 2008 25hrs of Thunderhill. The shop is based at Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, TX, allowing Jason ample opportunity to test and practice. Jason races for www.mazdausa.com. His team is www.tripointmotorsports.com and Jason's website is www.jasonsaini.com.


The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED