Jimmy Kite Sees Richmond Silver Crown Opportunties

STOCKBRIDGE, Ga., June 22, 2004 � In a summer of locusts and floods, the average person would be wondering what more could be piled on their shoulders. However, Jimmy Kite just looks beyond the struggles and sees the opportunities. The Stockbridge, Georgia-resident returns to the cockpit of the Westcon Racing No. 5 as the pavement portion of the United States Auto Club (USAC) Silver Crown series starts back up at Richmond (Vir.) International Raceway (RIR). The 1997 Silver Crown Rookie of the Year will again wheel the Westcon Elevator/ Bloomer Engines-Beast on Saturday afternoon in “The Dominic's of New York 100” at the famous 3/4-mile oval. Kite has been fast much of the season, including winning the most recent pavement qualifying race at Memphis Motorsports Park in early May, but a variety of items out of his control have kept Kite out of victory lane. Off the track, the news hasn't been much better. A flood at the team's Lansing, Mich. shop is making the trip to Richmond even more impressive. Three-feet of water covered the Westcon Racing facility in late May forcing a complete rebuild of all the team's equipment. However, both Kite and Westcon have overcome the obstacles and are optimistic about the June 26th 100-lap race. Jimmy Kite: "I'm excited about getting back into the Westcon car. We still don't have the results at the end of the day to show for all of our hard work. But it's just a matter of time until luck turns our way. That is what we need more than anything right now. Between the flooding of the shop and guys we were lapping running into us, this has been a tough summer. I really like Richmond and we should be good there and at Pikes Peak [International Raceway, July 4]. We just need a little bit of luck now. The Westcon guys have been working really hard to clean-up the equipment and get it ready for this weekend so, if struggles make you stronger, we should be the strongest team out there.”Kite began his career racing quarter-midgets at the age of eight and worked his way up through mini-sprints, USAC midgets, sprint cars and Silver Crown cars to the Indy Racing League. He is a five-time national champion in various open-wheel series with countless victories. He has a career total of 23 Indy Racing IndyCar Series event starts and $1,505,565 in career IRL earnings. He has raced four times in the Indianapolis 500. To learn more about Kite, please visit www.jimmykitefans.com. For more on Westcon Racing and the team's 2004 USAC Silver Crown campaign, please visit www.westconracing.com . ###