For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Racing Laps for Best Friends
Cell: 317-201-0729
E-mail: LindaKMansfield@cs.com
 
Note: High-res photos are available at the bottom of the "Media" section of 
racinglapsforbestfriends.com
 
 
 
 
 
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
 
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 on-line 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' Web site 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, 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.
 
In addition to racinglapsforbestfriends.com, fans can find more information 
at andrewprendeville.com, bestfriends.org, andersenracingteam.com and 
indycar.com/indylights.