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Racing Laps for Best Friends Poised for Good Results
On and Off the Track This Weekend at Watkins Glen

07/06/2007

By Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y., July 6 - Andrew Prendeville was 11th in the first round of Indy Pro Series qualifying Friday at Watkins Glen International.

The driver from Morristown, N.J. turned the Glen's 3.4-mile road course in 1:38.9313 for an average speed of 122.631 miles per hour with his RLR/Andersen Racing Best Friends Animal Society No. 5 during the qualifying session late Friday afternoon. The starting line-up for Saturday's 29-lap race won't be set until another round of qualifyings is held Saturday morning.

The starting line-up for a similar 29-lap race on Sunday will be set by the finishing order of Saturday's race, except a yet-to-be-determined number of top finishers will be inverted for Sunday's grid.

Image: Andrew Prendeville and fellow racers at Hands-On Glass in Corning, NY

Image: Andrew Prendeville and fellow racers at Hands-On Glass in Corning, NY

Prendeville raises awareness and donations for the Best Friends Animal Society with his Racing Laps for Best Friends program. Centered around a Web site at racinglapsforbestfriends.com (this website), fans make donations to Best Friends based on the number of laps Prendeville completes in each race. Donations can also be made at the Racing Laps for Best Friends blue tent in the infield of the track Saturday and Sunday.

Prendeville is striving for the full 58 laps this weekend at Watkins Glen for Best Friends. All of the money raised by the program this weekend has been earmarked for the Pets Alive shelter in Middletown, N.Y. Best Friends has been running the Pets Alive shelter since the latter underwent a crisis this spring.

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Fans unfamiliar with the Racing Laps for Best Friends program, which also includes a raffle for 2008 Indy 500 tickets, can learn more about it on the racinglapsforbestfriends.com Web site. More information on Best Friends' involvement at Pets Alive can be found on the Internet at http://network.bestfriends.org/petsalive/news/13829.html. Best Friends' Web site is at bestfriends.org.

Both of the Indy Pro Series races at the Glen start at 12:15 p.m., EST. Fans unable to attend the races in person can watch the live timing and scoring carried on http://www.indycar.com/pro, or watch ESPN2's coverage at 5 p.m. EDT, Thursday, July 12.

While Prendeville was busy on the track on Friday, on Thursday afternoon he got to experience what made the nearby town of Corning, N.Y. famous - the art of making glass.

Along with IndyCar drivers Dan Wheldon, Vitor Meira, Sarah Fisher, Kosuke Matsuura and Sam Hornish Jr., Prendeville tried his hand at making glass at Hands-On Glass, an independent hot glass studio at 124 Crystal Lane in Corning. Under the direction of studio owner Rodi Rovner, Prendeville and Matsuura were the only drivers to actually try blowing glass. The others shaped their creations with special tools. Prendeville and Matsuura made ornaments and the others made paperweights.

Click Here to be taken to the Photo Gallery slideshow of the visit to Hands-On Glass

All the products will be auctioned off tonight at a special silent auction to benefit the Juvenile Research Diabetes Foundation's regional chapter in Rochester, N.Y. The auction will be held during an invitation-only cocktail reception tonight at the Corning Museum of Glass in downtown Corning. Similar auctions in the past have raised $3,500.

"It was cool," Prendeville said. "In my family, my brother and sister are the artistic ones. I don't think I have a shred of art in me. Unless you consider driving an art."

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Image Link: Learn about the ALMS world debut of the Eco Racing bio-diesel LMP1 Radical AER with Andrew Prendeville behind the wheel