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Fans Can Help Raise Funds for Best
Friends Animal Society
Through Two Races This Weekend at
Mid-Ohio
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07/16/2008
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By Linda Mansfield, Restart
Communications
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 LAS
VEGAS, July 16 - "To finish first, first you
must finish" is a saying that race car drivers
like Andrew Prendeville know is all too true.
If Prendeville can finish all 40 laps of each of
the Firestone Indy Lights races at the Mid-Ohio
Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio on Saturday
and Sunday, he'll be on his way toward two
goals. The first is a high finishing position in
both races, and maybe even victories. With race
fans' help, the other is a sizeable donation for
the Best Friends Animal Society, a world-famous,
not-for-profit animal welfare group.
The donations to Best Friends are based on the
number of laps that Prendeville completes in his
races. Fans can make them on-line 24/7 through a
special website at
racinglapsforbestfriends.com.
Donations can be made in any amount starting at
25 cents per lap. They can be based on
Prendeville's
efforts at a single venue like the two races he
has at
Mid-Ohio this weekend, or for the entire season.
How Does It Work?
If a fan pledges $1 a lap for the Mid-Ohio
events and Prendeville finishes both 40-lap
races with his Best Friends Animal Society No.
5, the fan's credit card will be charged with an
$80 donation to Best Friends. If Prendeville
should finish all the laps in Saturday's race
but drop out of Sunday's race at the halfway
point, the donation would be $60. Best Friends
receives 100 percent of the donations, which are
tax-deductible.
Raffle Tickets Offered Too
Raffle tickets that benefit Best Friends are
also available on the
racinglapsforbestfriends.com website. Prizes are
sessions at the famous Bertil Roos Racing
School.
Click here to learn more!
How Did This Get Started?
Prendeville started the Racing Laps for Best
Friends program in May 2007 in an effort to
raise awareness for Best Friends' mission of "No
More Homeless Pets" as well as money for its
work. In addition to its own activities, Best
Friends helps other humane groups, individuals
and communities with spay/neuter programs,
shelters, and foster and adoption programs in
their own areas, including Ohio. The Best
Friends Network detailed at
bestfriends.org is an impressive
tool it uses to help coordinate volunteers'
efforts.
Prendeville became interested in Best Friends'
work through his mother, who has supported the
group for years and even adopted two cats from
Best Friends' sanctuary in Kanab, Utah.
According to Best Friends, last year
Prendeville's efforts raised about $50,000. The
organization's representatives expect it to top
that figure significantly in 2008.
(Incidentally, Best Friends has been in the news
this year because it is rehabilitating 22 of the
dogs formerly owned by NFL player Michael Vick.)
More Background Info
Prendeville has finished all the laps in eight
of the 10 Firestone Indy Lights races held so
far this year. He'd love to add two more to that
list this weekend at Mid-Ohio, which is one of
his favorite tracks. The native of Chatham
Township, N.J., won the SCCA Formula Continental
national championship there in 2002. Two years
later he also won a Formula 2000 race at
Mid-Ohio enroute to a second-place finish in
that championship.
There was only one Firestone Indy Lights race at
Mid-Ohio last year, and Prendeville did
extremely well in it. He qualified third and
finished fourth in that event.
What About that Dog on His Car?
Riding with Prendeville in caricature will be a
cartoon rendition of Ballsy, the mascot for the
Racing Laps for Best Friends program that
appears on his No. 5 race car. Ballsy, a dog
that was rescued after Hurricane Katrina, is now
one of the 1,500 animals living at Best Friends'
sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. Prendeville sponsors
him via Best Friends' Web site at
bestfriends.org. Fans can learn more about
Ballsy on Prendeville's blog about him at
racinglapsforbestfriends.com.
When Will He Be on the Track?
With 80 laps to run, the Mid-Ohio doubleheader
is an important weekend for Best Friends and the
animal lovers who support it. All of the
remaining Firestone Indy Lights events in 2008
have shorter lap counts.
The weekend schedule shows practice from 9:40
a.m. to 10:25 a.m. and 2:25 p.m. to 2:55 p.m. on
Friday before SWE Race Car Parts Qualifying at
11 a.m. Saturday. Race 1 is scheduled to get the
green flag at 5:25 p.m. on Saturday. There's a
15-minute warm-up session at 8 a.m. on Sunday,
followed by the second race at 10:35 a.m. that
morning. All times are Eastern.
Fans who can't attend the races in person can
follow the live Internet coverage at
indycar.com. ESPN2 will cover the events on a
tape-delayed basis at 2 p.m. Eastern time on
July 24.
The Firestone Indy Lights Series is the official
development series of the IndyCar Series.
Prendeville is a member of RLR/Andersen Racing,
the development team of Hilliard, Ohio's Rahal
Letterman Racing.
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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