1996 Indy Lights season

The 1996 PPG/Firestone Indy Lights Championship Powered By Buick consisted of 12 races. Canadian David Empringham captured three wins on his way to the championship.[1]

This was the last season where all teams used the Dallara T93/20-Buick spec car, which was replaced in the 1997 season by the Dallara T97/20-Buick spec car.

The scoring system was 20-16-14-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points awarded to the first 12 (twelve) finishers, with 1 (one) extra point given to the driver who took pole-position, and another extra point given to the driver who led most laps in the race.

1996 Indy Lights season
PPG/Firestone Indy Lights Championship
Season
Races12
Start dateMarch 3
End dateSeptember 8
Awards
Drivers' champion David Empringham

Team and driver chart

The following drivers and teams competed in the series:

Team No. Drivers Round(s)
Brian Stewart Racing 2 Mattias Andersson 1–2
Nick Firestone 4–9
Felipe Giaffone 11–12
3 Gualter Salles All
61 Jack Miller All
Dorricott Racing 31 Shigeaki Hattori All
32 Jeff Ward All
FRE Racing 17 José Cordova 1–2
Peter Faucetta Jr. 3
Jaki Scheckter 5–7, 12
Robbie Buhl 9
Forsythe Racing 33 David Empringham All
66 Claude Bourbonnais All
99 Bertrand Godin 9–12
Genoa Racing 24 David DeSilva All
Indy Regency Racing 28 Hideki Noda All
Leading Edge Motorsports 4 Felipe Giaffone 1–8
José Giaffone 10–12
Sohrab Amirsardari 9
5 6
23 Mark Hotchkis All
77 Rodolfo Lavín 1–2, 4–12
PacWest Lights 10 Bob Reid 9
Robby Unser 1–2
12 3–7, 9–12
Casey Mears 8
Performance Racing 9 Andy Boss 1–2
David LaCroix 11
RaceCars 88 Diego Gumzán 1
Paulo Carcasci 2
Freddy van Beuren 8–12
89 Danny Candía 1
Roque Aranda 2–4
Maurício Slaviero 7–9
Summit Motorsports 20 Doug Boyer 1–2, 4–6
Tasman Motorsports 37 Tony Kanaan All
38 José Luís Di Palma All
39 Hélio Castroneves All
Team Green 26 Chris Simmons All
27 Greg Ray All
Team Leisy / McCormack 34 Harry Puterbaugh Jr. 1, 3
Shan Groff 2, 12
35 Niclas Jönsson 2
Team Medlin 12 Alex Padilla 1–3, 5–12

Schedule

Rd. Date Track Location
1 March 3  O  Homestead-Miami Speedway Homestead, Florida
2 April 14  R  Long Beach Street Circuit Long Beach, California
3 April 28  O  Nazareth Speedway Nazareth, Pennsylvania
4 May 25  O  Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn, Michigan
5 June 2  O  Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin
6 June 9  R  The Raceway at Belle Isle Park Detroit, Michigan
7 June 23  R  Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon
8 June 30  R  Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport Cleveland, Ohio
9 July 14  R  Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario
10 August 4  R  Circuit Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières, Quebec
11 September 1  R  Streets of Vancouver Vancouver, British Columbia
12 September 8  R  Laguna Seca Raceway Monterey, California

Race results

Round Circuit Pole position Most laps led Race Winner
Driver Team
1 Homestead-Miami Speedway David Empringham David Empringham David Empringham Forsythe Racing
2 Long Beach Street Circuit Gualter Salles David Empringham David Empringham Forsythe Racing
3 Nazareth Speedway Claude Bourbonnais David DeSilva David DeSilva Genoa Racing
4 Michigan International Speedway David Empringham David Empringham David Empringham Forsythe Racing
5 Milwaukee Mile Mark Hotchkis Mark Hotchkis Mark Hotchkis Leading Edge Motorsports
6 The Raceway at Belle Isle Park David Empringham Tony Kanaan Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports
7 Portland International Raceway Tony Kanaan Gualter Salles Gualter Salles Brian Stewart Racing
8 Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport Mark Hotchkis Gualter Salles Gualter Salles Brian Stewart Racing
9 Exhibition Place Jeff Ward Gualter Salles Gualter Salles Brian Stewart Racing
10 Circuit Trois-Rivières Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Tasman Motorsports
11 Streets of Vancouver Jeff Ward Tony Kanaan Claude Bourbonnais Forsythe Racing
12 Laguna Seca Raceway Tony Kanaan Tony Kanaan Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports

Race summaries

Homestead race

Held March 3 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. David Empringham won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. David Empringham
  2. Chris Simmons
  3. Mark Hotchkis
  4. David DeSilva
  5. Jeff Ward

Long Beach race

Held April 14 at Long Beach, California Street Course. Gualter Salles won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. David Empringham
  2. Tony Kanaan
  3. Gualter Salles
  4. Hélio Castro-Neves
  5. Alex Padilla

Nazareth race

Held April 28 at Nazareth Speedway. Claude Bourbonnais won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. David DeSilva
  2. David Empringham
  3. Mark Hotchkis
  4. Chris Simmons
  5. Jeff Ward

Michigan race

Held May 25 at Michigan International Speedway. David Empringham won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. David Empringham
  2. Mark Hotchkis
  3. Jeff Ward
  4. Robby Unser
  5. Hélio Castro-Neves

Milwaukee race

Held June 2 at The Milwaukee Mile. Mark Hotchkis won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Mark Hotchkis
  2. Greg Ray
  3. David Empringham
  4. Gualter Salles
  5. Chris Simmons

Detroit race

Held June 9 at Belle Isle Raceway. David Empringham won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Tony Kanaan
  2. Alex Padilla
  3. Claude Bourbonnais
  4. José Luis Di Palma
  5. Jaki Scheckter

Portland race

Held June 23 at Portland International Raceway. Tony Kanaan won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Gualter Salles
  2. Alex Padilla
  3. David Empringham
  4. Claude Bourbonnais
  5. Tony Kanaan

Cleveland race

Held June 30 at Burke Lakefront Airport. Mark Hotchkis won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Gualter Salles
  2. Claude Bourbonnais
  3. Hélio Castro-Neves
  4. Nick Firestone
  5. Hideki Noda

Toronto race

Held July 14 at Exhibition Place. Jeff Ward won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Gualter Salles
  2. Claude Bourbonnais
  3. Hideki Noda
  4. Shigeaki Hattori
  5. Alex Padilla

Trois-Rivières race

Held August 4 at the Trois-Rivières, Quebec Street Circuit. Hélio Castro-Neves won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Hélio Castro-Neves
  2. Tony Kanaan
  3. Alex Padilla
  4. David Empringham
  5. Bertrand Godin

Vancouver race

Held September 1 at Pacific Place. Jeff Ward won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Claude Bourbonnais
  2. Tony Kanaan
  3. Jeff Hotchkis
  4. Alex Padilla
  5. David Empringham

Laguna Seca race

Held September 8 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Tony Kanaan won the pole.

Top Five Results

  1. Tony Kanaan
  2. Hélio Castro-Neves
  3. Claude Bourbonnais
  4. Alex Padilla
  5. Jeff Ward

Championship standings

Drivers' championship

Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th   11th   12th 
Points 20 16 14 12 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1
  • The driver who qualifies on pole is awarded one additional point.
  • An additional point is awarded to the driver who leads the most laps in a race.
Pos Driver HMS
 LBH
 NAZ
 MIS
 MIL
 DET
 POR
 CLE
 TOR
 TRO
 VAN
 LAG
 Points
1 David Empringham 1* 1* 2 1* 3 21 3 21 6 4 5 6 148
2 Tony Kanaan 10 2 12 17 7 1* 5 19 24 2 2* 1* 113
3 Gualter Salles 6 3 11 6 4 22 1* 1* 1* 15 21 19 108
4 Claude Bourbonnais Wth 7 16 18 8 3 4 2 2 20 1 3 104
5 Mark Hotchkis 3 9 3 2 1* 9 10 18 9 19 3 7 102
6 Alex Padilla 17 5 15 17 2 2 20 5 3 4 4 90
7 Hélio Castroneves DNS 4 17 5 11 17 8 3 23 1* 10 2 84
8 David DeSilva 4 10 1* 7 19 6 12 16 15 7 18 9 61
9 José Luís Di Palma 15 6 6 8 14 4 11 7 8 11 6 13 56
10 Chris Simmons 2 23 4 12 5 7 21 11 14 17 7 12 54
11 Jeff Ward 5 8 5 3 DNS 11 17 13 20 16 20 5 53
12 Greg Ray 7 11 18 15 2 8 6 10 16 6 17 16 48
13 Shigeaki Hattori 9 DNS 10 19 6 13 7 9 4 8 16 14 42
14 Hideki Noda 11 16 7 13 12 16 20 5 3 12 13 15 34
15 Robby Unser 13 15 14 4 10 10 15 10 9 14 20 25
16 Bertrand Godin 7 5 11 10 21
17 Felipe Giaffone 14 24 13 10 9 18 16 6 22 8 20
18 Nick Firestone 11 16 20 9 4 19 18
19 Jaki Scheckter 5 18 11 12
20 Jack Miller 21 18 6 20 18 15 19 14 21 10 9 23 12
21 Roque Aranda 20 9 9 8
22 Freddy van Beuren 12 12 13 8 17 7
23 Doug Boyer 8 22 16 13 19 5
24 Casey Mears 8 5
25 Robbie Buhl 11 2
26 Rodolfo Lavín 16 19 14 15 12 14 15 13 18 12 21 2
27 Shan Groff 12 22 1
28 José Cordova 12 25 1
29 Mauricio Slaviero 13 17 18 0
30 Mattias Andersson 20 13 0
31 Sohrab Amirsardari 14 17 0
32 José Giaffone 14 19 18 0
33 Andy Boss 19 14 0
34 David LaCroix 15 0
35 Niclas Jönsson 17 0
36 Diego Guzmán 18 0
37 Peter Faucetta Jr. 19 0
38 Paulo Carcasci 21 0
39 Danny Candía 22 0
40 Bob Reid 22 0
41 Harry Puterbaugh Jr. 23 DNS 0
Pos Driver HMS
 LBH
 NAZ
 MIS
 MIL
 DET
 POR
 CLE
 TOR
 TRO
 VAN
 LAG
 Points
Color Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green 4th & 5th place
Light Blue 6th–10th place
Dark Blue Finished

(Outside Top 10)

Purple Did not finish
Red Did not qualify

(DNQ)

Brown Withdrawn

(Wth)

Black Disqualified

(DSQ)

White Did not start

(DNS)

Blank Did not

participate (DNP)

Not competing
In-line notation
Bold Pole position(1 point)
Italics Ran fastest race lap
* Led most race laps

(2 points)

1 Qualifying cancelled

no bonus point awarded

  • Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.

References

  1. ^ "Standings".
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