Jimmy Kite Back Home Again, Again In Indiana

by Thomas Moore

CLERMONT, IND., July 26, 2005 � Jimmy Kite will return to the state of Indiana and to one of his favorite short-tracks on Thursday, August 4th. The 29 year-old from Stockbridge, Ga. will make his third start of the season driving the No. 5 Westcon Elevator/ Westcon Racing Bloomer Engines Beast in the United States Auto Club (USAC) JD Byrider 100-lapper at the famed Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) oval. The start will be the second time this year that Kite- who has split his year racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the IRL IndyCar Series- will have raced in a major event in the state of Indiana. In May, the 1997 USAC Weld Silver Crown Rookie of the Year made his fifth appearance in the Indianapolis 500 qualifying and finishing 32nd. The .686-mile IRP oval, the site of a second-place Silver Crown finish for Kite in 1997, will host the open wheel series for the one-day show with practice starting at 3:30 PM (local time). Kite opened his 2005 racing season with the Westcon crew in the Silver Crown feature of the Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR). He qualified in the top-ten and finished seventh within sight of the leaders there. On July 23rd, Kite made his second appearance in the Westcon Beast qualifying 11th and finishing 13th in the first race of a Silver Crown-IndyCar double-header at The Milwaukee Mile. He has focused primarily on his NASCAR and IndyCar rides but, with neither the MRD Truck nor the No. 91 Ethanol-Hemelgarn entry scheduled to run this weekend, Kite jumped on the opportunity to return to the red and yellow Westcon car that he has driven on the pavement races of the Weld Silver Crown Series since 2003. Kite has made four NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts in his career, finishing each- two on the lead lap. He has been the Raybestos Rookie of the Race once- earned for being the highest finishing rookie- and second highest finishing rookie in the remaining events. He has earned $38,885 dollars to this point in his young NASCAR career. He is currently ranked 22nd in IRL IndyCar Series points after six races in the No. 91 Ethanol-Hemelgarn Racing Ethanol/ Life Fitness Toyota-powered Dallara. The longtime short-track ace joined the team as a replacement for injured driver Paul Dana (St. Louis) at the Indianapolis 500 and has driven the car at each IndyCar race since. He qualified 17th and finished 14th in Sunday's round at Milwaukee. He will compete at Michigan International Speedway this Sunday, July 31st, for Ethanol-Hemelgarn before turning his sights on Indianapolis. Jimmy Kite: “I'm excited about running two Silver Crown races in a row. I always have fun when I race for the Westcon guys. They've given me two really good cars the two times we've run this year. IRP could be a perfect place to get back into a Silver Crown victory lane. That track has always had a special place in my heart. It's one of the tracks that helped jump-start my career. So, I'm really looking forward to putting all of that together next week. It should be a great day.”To learn more about Jimmy Kite, please visit www.JimmyKite.com. For the Jimmy Kite Fan Club, log-on to www.JimmyKiteFans.com. To keep in touch with Jimmy and the MRD Motorsports Team go to www.TeamMRD.com. Westcon Racing can be found on the web at www.WestconRacing.com. For more on Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing, please see www.HemelgarnRacing.com. ###