Prendeville Finishes 22 Laps Sunday at
St. Pete For Racing Laps for Best
Friends
04/06/2008
By Linda Mansfield, Restart
Communications
ST.
PETERSBURG, Fla., April 6 - Andrew Prendeville
finished 22 laps of the 40-lap Firestone Indy
Lights race Sunday at the St. Petersburg street
circuit after a tangle with another competitor
caused too much damage to the Best Friends
Animal Society No. 5 for him to continue.
Luckily neither Prendeville nor the other driver
involved, Bobby Wilson, were hurt in the Turn 7
accident on lap 21 of the second half of the
doubleheader.
Prendeville ended up in 20th position in the
official boxscore.
Fans who made donations to the Best Friends
Animal Society through the
racinglapsforbestfriends.com website or at the
Racing Laps for Best Friends booth at the track
should double their donation amount by 22 this
time. Donations may be made in any amount,
starting at 25 cents per lap.
Prendeville started seventh in Sunday morning's
race, and duplicated his charge less than 24
hours earlier when he advanced two positions by
the end of lap one. The eventual winner, Richard
Antinucci, passed him on lap seven to drop him
to sixth. He was still running in sixth,
patiently waiting for a chance to move up, when
the contact occurred as Wilson was attempting to
overtake him.
The rear of Prendeville's Dallara ended up in a
tire wall. He was able to pull himself out and
continue to the pits, completing one more lap,
but he was done for the day.
"It was a foolish move on Bobby's part and it
took me out of the race. That's it.", said an
understandably frustrated Prendeville
afterwards.
According to Dan Andersen, co-owner of the team
that fields Prendeville's car, Wilson apologized
for the move later.
The St. Petersburg doubleheader will air on
ESPN2 at 2 p.m. Eastern time on April 10.
Prendeville will test at the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway this coming Friday. He and the Racing
Laps for Best Friends race car are also
scheduled to appear at the Everything Pets show
at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati next
weekend. The show's website is at
everythingpets.org.