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Prendeville Finishes All 67 Laps
Saturday at Homestead for Racing Laps
for Best Friends
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03/29/2008
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By Linda Mansfield, Restart
Communications
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 HOMESTEAD,
Fla., March 29 - Racing fans and animal lovers
who made donations to the Best Friends Animal
Society on
racinglapsforbestfriends.com
for the Homestead race need to multiply their
donation amount by 67, because Andrew
Prendeville finished all 67 laps of the
Firestone Indy Lights season opener Saturday
afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Prendeville qualified fourth and ended up sixth
in a race that only had two caution flags. The
pace of the race, coupled with the heat of the
Florida afternoon, caused havoc to the
RLR/Andersen Racing team's set-up, and
Prendeville's Best Friends Animal Society No. 5
had a big understeer throughout the race.
Despite the challenges Prendeville kept it off
the wall, pointed in the right direction, and on
the move throughout.
Prendeville passed the driver who went on to win
the race two different times, once on lap 26 and
again on lap 30. He was as high as third on lap
one and as low as tenth with two laps to go. He
never gave up and he finished with an almost
unbelievable flourish, advancing two positions
on each of the last two laps to place sixth.
Prendeville passed his teammate, J.R.
Hildebrand; the 2005 champion, Wade Cunningham;
and Ana Beatriz during those last two frantic
laps, while pole-sitter Raphael Matos fell
backwards in the standings due to handling
problems he was experiencing with his car too.
"Overall I'm happy with the way the weekend
went," Prendeville said after the race. "We know
we have the speed on our own. We can qualify
well.
 "At the same time the race was disappointing,"
he added. "The Best Friends Animal Society car
had a massive understeer in the race. Most
people seemed to be having that, but my car
seemed to be the worst. Anytime somebody was on
the high side of me, there was no way I was
getting through the corner alive unless I
lifted.
"On
the restarts when the tires were cooler the car
was good," he continued. "I tried to capitalize
on that, and that's how I was able to get back
up to sixth.
"We finished all 67 laps, and we thank everyone
who made donations to Best Friends on
racinglapsforbestfriends.com,"
Prendeville added. "It was still a good start to
the season. It certainly makes us more confident
for the oval races, and I'm really looking
forward to St. Pete next weekend."
Prendeville will compete in two Firestone Indy
Lights races on the street circuit in St.
Petersburg, Fla. next Saturday and Sunday, April
5-6.
The Homestead race will be shown at 4 p.m.
Eastern this Thursday, April 3, on ESPN2. One
hour later Prendeville will appear at a PetStop
at the SPCA Tampa Bay, 9099 130th Ave. N. in
Largo, Fla., from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. All PetStop
shelter appearances are free and the public is
encouraged to attend.
Learn more about PetStops on
RacingLapsForBestFriends.com
Bertil Roos Racing School raffle tickets can be
purchased on
www.RacingLapsForBestFriends.com.
Additional information is available at
bestfriends.org |
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