The Rock Island Grand Prix
1724 Fourth Avenue, Suite 200, Rock Island, Illinois USA


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For additional information
Email: grandprix@qconline.com
Call (309) 292--8133


ROCK ISLAND, Illinois – The Rock Island Grand Prix professional kart races have announced that it will work with Laps for Kids LLC in its effort to raise $1 million for the Victory Junction Gang camp operated by the racing Petty family.

Gary Kannegiesser, Laps for Kids LLC founder, announced that his fund raising organization and karting team of Kannegiesser, national karting champion Alan Rudolph, and Tim Megenbier will attempt to raise an unprecedented $1 million for the VICTORY JUNCTION GANG in 2005 as they challenge a Guinness World Record that has stood for eight years.

Laps for Kids is proud to add the Rock Island Grand Prix to its growing list of sponsors who want to help physically challenged young people in a program called “The Million Dollar Drive”. This program is very simple: anyone who makes a cash donation or an in-kind donation of over 100 items to choose from listed on the Lapsforkids.com website, can help set a new Guinness World Record for the largest donation by karters to a children’s charity.

To be a part of “The Million Dollar Drive”, bring cash or items to a special collection points at pit gates and the Official T-Shirt Stand in the vendor area at the Rock Island Grand Prix. There you will be given a receipt for your donation. The Victory Junction Gang is a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit charity so all your donations will be tax deductible. All checks are to be made payable to Laps for Kids / Friends of Victory Junction Gang. Credit card donations are accepted by mail, but not at the race.

Proceeds of the Laps for Kids “The Million Dollar Drive” will benefit the Victory Junction Gang Camp, a Randleman, North Carolina-based camp for special needs children. Founded by actor Paul Newman and Kyle and Pattie Petty to honor Adam Petty, Victory Junction’s mission is to enrich the lives of children from the Carolinas and Virginia, who suffer with chronic or life-threatening illnesses. The camp has a racing theme that allows campers to begin their experience by entering the camp through a tunnel and crossing a starting line into the world of racing. Victory Junction’s 75-acre site has more than 36 buildings, including dining hall, gym, pool, theater, therapeutic center, arts and crafts center, race shop, and 16 camper cabins. The Victory Junction Gang Camp, which is also a Charity of NASCAR, opened June of 2004 and is free to children and their families.

Adam Petty made his start in motorsports through karting; a life cut short in an untimely death in NASCAR in 2000, at 20 years of age. The Laps for Kids team will be going the distance in his honor as well. For more information or question please contact: Gary Kannegiesser at 440-670- 2897. Donations may be sent to Laps for Kids / Friends of Victory Junction, 32967 Durrell Ave., Avon Lake, Ohio 44012.

Or visit any of the following: Laps for Kids LLC: Lapsforkids.com.
Victory Junction Gang: www.victoryjunction.org.

Roger Ruthhart