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Racing Laps for Best Friends Has an
Important Race Saturday at Iowa
Speedway;
All Donations Will be Earmarked for Best
Friends' Flood Relief Efforts in Iowa
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06/18/2008
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By Linda Mansfield, Restart
Communications
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 LAS
VEGAS, June 18 - Track size could make
Saturday's Jeld-Wen Windows & Doors 100
Firestone Indy Lights race at Iowa Speedway in
Newton, Iowa the most important event of the
year for Andrew Prendeville's Racing Laps for
Best Friends program.
It's definitely the most important Firestone
Indy Lights race for the people and animals that
live in Iowa. That's because today, Prendeville
announced that all donations made to the Best
Friends Animal Society through
racinglapsforbestfriends.com for
Saturday's race will go directly to help Best
Friends' flood relief efforts there.
In the
Racing Laps for Best Friends program,
fans make online donations to Best Friends, a
not-for-profit animal welfare group, based on
the number of laps that Prendeville completes in
his Best Friends Animal Society No. 5. At
seven-eighths of a mile, Iowa Speedway is the
smallest track on the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights
schedule, and thus its race has the most number
of laps at 115. That means that Saturday's race
has the potential to raise more money for Best
Friends than any other race this year, provided
that fans make their donations
at
racinglapsforbestfriends.com and Prendeville
finishes all 115 laps.
According to Vicki Kilmer-Rinker, Best Friends'
Cause Marketing Manager, members of Best
Friends' Rapid Response team experienced in
swift-water rescues have been deployed to
Oakville, Louisa County. Other Best Friends
volunteers are expected to be involved trying to
reunite people with their lost pets, engaging in
search-and-rescue of companion animals, and
other relief efforts.
"They'll do whatever they can to help,"
Prendeville said. "People who can't go to Iowa
to help first-hand can still be a huge help by
making donations for the Iowa race at
racinglapsforbestfriends.com. One hundred
percent of the
donations raised from Saturday's race will go
directly to Best Friends' relief efforts in
Iowa.
"In addition to making per-lap donations, fans
can also purchase Best Friends raffle tickets at
racinglapsforbestfriends.com. Prizes are
sessions at the famous Bertil Roos Racing
School.
Helping animals caught in flooding is
unfortunately nothing new for Best Friends'
Rapid Response team, which worked tirelessly to
help animals stranded after Hurricane Katrina.
One of the animals Best Friends rescued after
that natural disaster was Ballsy, a dog that
Prendeville himself sponsors through Best
Friends' website at
bestfriends.org. Prendeville
went a step further than helping out
financially, though. He's made several visits to
the Best Friends Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, to
visit Ballsy, and details the dog's progress on
a blog he writes at
racinglapsforbestfriends.com.
Last year Prendeville finished 114 of the 115
laps of the race at Iowa Speedway. Firestone
Indy Lights cars take it flat-out, and the
drivers say it's hard to pass there. Qualifying
well so a driver can start near the front will
be very important, as will staying out of
accidents.
"We go flat-out all the way around there because
of the high banking," explained Prendeville. "At
Iowa, things happen a lot faster than you think
they're going to. If your set-up is off, you're
going straight to the back of the field really
fast. It's a little bumpier in Turns 1 and 2
this year too," he added after a test there June
11.
Prendeville, of Las Vegas, NV, is coming off his
best finish so far this year. He placed fourth
June 1 on the oval at the Milwaukee Mile, the
only 1-mile oval on the schedule and the track
closest in size to what he'll face this weekend
at Iowa Speedway. With six of 16 races complete
heading into Saturday's race, he's tenth in the
current point standings with 125 points, only 18
points out of fifth place and just 53 points out
of third.
The 22-car field will be split into two groups
for 1-hour practice sessions at 10:30 a.m. and
11:30 a.m. Friday, which is all the practice the
teams will have before SWE Pole Qualifying
starts at 3:20 p.m.
The race itself is scheduled to begin at 4:15
p.m. Saturday (5:15 p.m. Eastern time). It is a
support event to Sunday's IndyCar race.
Live timing and scoring will be available on
indycar.com. ESPN2 will tape the race for
broadcast at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday,
June 26.
Tickets for a raffle featuring prizes of
sessions at the Bertil Roos Racing School may
also be obtained through the
racinglapsforbestfriends.com
website.
Additional information is available at
bestfriends.org,
indycar.com/indylights and
andersenracingteam.com.
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