JIMMY KITE FIGHTS FOR FOURTH AT IRP

KITE MOTORSPORTS

JIMMY KITE FIGHTS FOR FOURTH AT IRP


-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-


CLERMONT, Ind., Sunday, June 23, 2002 - Jimmy Kite returned to the North
American Auto Racing Series (NAMARS) Championship MidgetCar Series for the
first time since 1999 with a fourth-place finish Saturday night here at
Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP). Kite qualified the Jerry Covington-owned
#95 Brayton Engineering-built Ford powered Beast chassis sixth for the
feature. By virtue of NAMARS’ competition rules, the 26-year old Indy Racing
League regular started the 30-lap event on the .686-mile-oval from the pole
position. The Stockbridge, Georgia-resident fought a loose race car
throughout the evening to close with a top-five in his reunion with the Tom
Cherry Mufflers/ Covington Products’ team.

“The car was so loose that I expected to get out and see the right-rear tire
on fire,” joked Kite sitting atop his racer in the sweltering
central-Indiana heat immediately after the race. “The car started out loose
and just got worse. We just missed the set up tonight. We thought the track
would get tighter, and it did a little, but not as much as Jerry, Paul
(Covington, crew chief) and I thought it would. I tried every line and every
trick I know but the car was just too loose. The engine had great power but
I just couldn’t use it soon enough in the corner. That was a hard-fought
fourth-place but I enjoyed every second of it!”

The Covington midget adds to the list of open wheel cars that the three-time
Indianapolis 500-starter has raced this season. He is regularly driving the
#12 Reddick Maxim chassis/ O-Donely powered winged-sprint car on dirt tracks
in Missouri as well as the #59 Westcon Racing/ Westcon Elevator/ Bloomer
Beast in USAC Silver Crown pavement competition. He narrowly missed making
his fourth Indy 500 in May when weather kept him from making an attempt in
the PDM Racing-owned #99 Dallara-Chevrolet.

“It was an awful lot of fun out there,” continued Kite who won a NAMARS
feature in 1997 at Salem Raceway. “I forgot just what a blast racing one of
these cars can be. There were some great cars out there tonight. I really
want to thank Jerry and Paul as well as Joe (Mershon, president of NAMARS)
and everyone else at NAMARS and at IRP. I hope I can come back and race with
these guys again real soon. We think we know what we’ll need, set up-wise,
when we come back.”

Kite began racing quarter-midgets at the age of eight and worked his way up
through mini-sprints, 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 22 Indy Racing
events and $1,232,000 in career IRL earnings.

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Contact: Tom Moore, Kite Motorsports Media Relations
770-466-5442 (phone), 770-466-5443 (fax), 404-229-3703 (cell)
Tom@DarkhorseCom.com (email)