Fw: JIMMY KITE FIGHTS FOR FOURTH AT IRP

&> 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.
>
>