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Dreyer & Reinbold Racing heads to Las Vegas finale

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing press release

DREYER & REINBOLD RACING LOOKS FOR POSITIVE RESULTS AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Davey Hamilton, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Davey Hamilton, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

Photo by: Michael C. Johnson

Las Vegas, Nevada (October 12, 2011) - After a season of ups and downs, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing is prepared to end the last race of the season on a high. The Indianapolis-based squad is rejuvenated and ready for the INDYCAR World Championships Presented by Honda at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. Piloting the team's cars will be Ana Beatriz, who will drive the No. 24 Ipiranga machine, Townsend Bell, who will get behind the wheel of the No. 22 Dad's Root Beer car, and Davey Hamilton, who will return to the No. 11 HP cockpit.

DRR tested at the 1.5-mile oval back in August with both Beatriz and Hamilton. They were able to learn a number of things to help put them ahead of the game for the race. This weekend will mark the second time that DRR has competed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The last time the team was there was in 2000 with Robbie Buhl, who started 23rd and finished 5th.

Making her first appearance at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend will be Brazilian Ana Beatriz.With each race, she continues to prove that she is graduating from rookie status. The Brazilian has ten oval starts to tuck under her belt. Her best qualifying result on an oval was this year in Milwaukee where she started 11th on the grid. Bia's best finish on an oval was in New Hampshire this year when she finished 14th. Beatriz secured her best IZOD IndyCar career qualifying result in Sonoma with a 10th place starting spot. In July of this year, she earned her best IZOD IndyCar result in Toronto, Canada when she brought the car home in 11th place.

For the final race of the season, Beatriz will sport a new helmet design for the race weekend. For the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing joined forces with Racing For Kids to sponsor a special helmet design contest offered to patients and family members of patients at the hospitals that the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing drivers visited this year. Hospitals were given the helmet design contest rules and templates prior to each visit. After the visit, the drivers selected the design he or she liked "best." Each hospital had a winner and those semi-finalist designs were posted on www.IndyCar.com for online voting to select the final winner.

The winning designs from the hospitals that participated, which included All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla.; Children's Hospital in Birmingham, Ala.; Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis, Ind.; Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wis.; Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines, Ohio; Akron Children's Hospital in Akron, Ohio, and North Valley School in Santa Rosa, Calif., were available online for two days for fans to vote on their favorite. More than 1,200 votes were cast during the online competition.

Voting concluded on Tuesday, September 27 and the winner chosen was Sheyenne from Akron Children's Hospital. Her design will be featured on Ana Beatriz's helmet for the IZOD INDYCAR World Championships presented by Honda on October 16 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Sheyenne will receive a mini helmet in the same design as well as some racing gear from the team and Beatriz.At the conclusion of the final race, Ana Beatriz's helmet will go up for auction on eBay.com. All proceeds will go to Racing For Kids.

Townsend Bell will return to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing this weekend when he gets behind the wheel of the No. 22 Dad's Root Beer machine as he will fill in for the injured Justin Wilson. The California native drove for the team two weeks ago at Kentucky Speedway, where he earned an 11th place finish. Bell drove for DRR for seven races in 2008. He was the perfect choice for the Indianapolis-based squad as he brings vast experience to the table. He got his start in go-karts before working his way up to the Barber Dodge Pro Series and then onto the Indy Lights championship where he earned Rookie of the Year honors in 2000 and the Indy Lights championship in 2001. From Indy Lights, he went onto compete in the CART series for nine races and the in FIA Formula 3000 in 2003, earning tests with BAR-Honda and Jaguar Formula One teams in the same year. Bell would then graduate to the IndyCar Series competing for various teams. In 2009, the veteran driver finished 4th in Indianapolis 500.

After more than 10 years of not competing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Davey Hamilton is ready to get back to Las Vegas and settle some unfinished business. The Idaho native will get back behind the wheel of the No. 11 HP "Everybody On" car again, he ran with the team this year for the Indianapolis 500 and at Texas Motor Speedway. Hamilton has a lot of history at the 1.5-mile oval. In 1992, he moved to Las Vegas and was an integral part of the building of the circuit. He has competed at the track five times. Out of those five starts, he finished in the top-10 once. In 1996, he started 5th and finished 11th, in 1997 he started 2nd and finished 7th, in 1998 he started 13th and finished 29th, in 1999 he started 26th and finished 13th, and in 2000 he started 28th and finished 20th.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing will be on track for INDYCAR World Championships Presented by Honda at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 16th. The race telecast will air live on Sunday, October 16th at 3:00 pm (EST) on ABC. The race will air live on the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 94, and Sirius channel 212. For more updates on the team, please visit www.dreyerreinboldracing.com.

What they have to say...

Townsend Bell, No. 22 Dad's Root Beer: "Looking forward to this weekend, especially after the good result we earned in Kentucky two weeks ago. I think it would be great for the entire team to know that if we can have a good fast racecar when we show up to Vegas that we've got a good chance to race our way into a top-10 or even a top-5 finish. Between myself and the team, I know that everybody is working really hard to make sure that we come to the fight with a gun this time."

Ana Beatriz, No. 24 Ipiranga: "I'm really excited for Las Vegas. I think that it will be a great event and there will be a lot of things going on. I will have the support of my family and friends and my managers will be there too. I want to finish the season off strong and I think that we had a great weekend in Kentucky and it makes me confident that the Ipiranga car will be good for Vegas. I'm ready and hopefully we will have a great result."

Ana Beatriz on her new helmet design: "I think this was a great opportunity. It's always a good experience for me to make the Racing For Kids visits, but to give the kids a chance to do something different and to take their mind off of what they are going through was really special. I liked all of the designs, there were some really creative ones, but I'm thrilled to wear Sheyenne's helmet design during the race."

Davey Hamilton, No. 11 HP: "First off, I'm excited because it's like home for me. It's like going home because I have a lot of friends that will be there and I have a lot of family that will be coming as well. Back in 1992, Richie Clyne hired me to get a driver's perspective on building the track and I moved to Vegas to help with the process. I was there when the first shovel went in the ground and helped build it from the ground up. I've also been in every IndyCar race that has taken place there. It's cool to be back at Vegas with a track that I have a lot of involvement with, but at the end of the day, we really haven't had the results that we've hoped for this year, so this is the last chance to put our full effort together to get the results for the last race here. As a driver, it's another 1.5-mile track and one that I'm familiar with so it's always good to get on track no matter what. It's really cool that there will be 34 cars and as tough as this is you have to be spot on to be able to have a chance to run in the top-10 and it was definitely an advantage for us that we were able to test back in August."

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