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Prendeville Finishes 114 of 115 Laps Saturday in
Iowa For Racing Laps for Best Friends
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06/23/2007
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By Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
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 NEWTON,
Iowa, June 23 -Andrew Prendeville survived an
accident on lap 93 that eliminated two other
drivers and went on to complete 114 of 115 laps
in the Indy Pro Series' first race ever at Iowa
Speedway, Saturday with his Best Friends Animal
Society No. 5.
Finishing just one lap down in the torrid race,
which featured lap times of 20 seconds for the
0.875-mile oval, was an accomplishment. It was
only the fourth oval-track race ever for
Prendeville, of Morristown, N.J., who raises
money for Best Friends through a program called
Racing Laps for Best Friends and this website.
Prendeville started 14th and finished 14th. In
between he was as high as 11th and as low as
20th in the 22-car field. He finished one lap
down but he did indeed finish. On lap 93
finishing looked doubtful, as Prendeville spun
to avoid a crash that eliminated the cars of
Jonathan Klein and Stephen Simpson.
Somehow Prendeville's car wasn't damaged, and in
fact he continued to post lap times that were
comparable to the leaders'. His fastest lap was
actually his last one, when he was timed in
20.1179 seconds for an average speed of 159.977
miles per hour.
"I had a good run on Ken Losch and another
driver ahead of me," Prendeville said afterwards
about his close call. "I heard my spotter say
'Yellow! Yellow!' and I saw Simpson in the wall.
Two cars ahead of me checked up real good, and
then Jono [Klein] was coming down the track and
I was trying to miss him, and I went spinning
down the front-stretch basically. I kept it off
the wall, and there was no damage to the car at
all.
 "Before
that, on lap two or three, we had a huge snap
oversteer, but I got that sorted out and the car
was really very good," he continued. "We were
running the same lap times as the leaders. It's
just extremely hard to pass here, so that made
it a bit frustrating."
"We finished the race, which is important," he
continued. "The RLR/Andersen Racing team gained
a lot in terms of our oval qualifying set-up,"
he noted.
"The whole month of June has been frustrating,
and I'm just really happy that we're heading
into July and we're going to get to some tracks
that I know," he added.
Saturday's race, which marked the series'
halfway point, will be broadcast on ESPN2 at
5:30 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 3. A feature on
the Racing Laps for Best Friends program is
scheduled to be included in that telecast.
The next event is a doubleheader at Watkins Glen
International in Watkins Glen, N.Y. on July 7-8.
It will be shown on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. EDT on
Thursday, July 12.
More information on how fans can make donations
based on the number of laps that Prendeville
completes in each race, as well as how to buy a
raffle ticket for Indy 500 tickets, is available
at the racinglapsforbestfriends.com Web site
(this website).
Other interesting Web sites include
bestfriends.org, andersenracingteam.com and
indycar.com/pro.
Best Friends Animal Society operates the largest
no-kill animal sanctuary in the United States.
Donations may also be made by telephone at (435)
644-2001, extension 4801, or by mailing checks
payable to "Racing Laps for Best Friends" to:
Best Friends Animal Society
5001 Angel Canyon Road
Kanab, Utah 84741-5000
Donations to the Racing Laps for Best Friends
program may be made using MasterCard, Visa,
American Express or Discover credit cards.
Fans donate a set amount of money for each lap
that Prendeville completes in each race. At $1
per lap for the 18-lap races such as the two
Indy Pro Series races at IMS this weekend, the
donation would be $18 per race or $36. If the
car would only complete 10 laps in one race and
five laps in the other race, then the donation
would be $15.
Best Friends Animal Society supports animal
welfare programs throughout the world, including
Indianapolis. At any given time it is caring for
approximately 1,500 animals at its sanctuary in
Kanab, Utah. Best Friends hopes the exposure to
racing fans will raise awareness of the
organization and gain support for animal
welfare.
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