04/06/2008
Prendeville Finishes 22 Laps Sunday at St. Pete For Racing Laps for Best Friends

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 box score.

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.


Fans can make their pledges for next weekend's race and the other events remaining on the schedule at this website. Click here to make your pledge!

Bertil Roos Racing School raffle tickets can be purchased on this website also. Click here to enter the raffle!

Additional information is available at bestfriends.org and andrewprendeville.com.