1997 Indy Lights season


1997 Indy Lights season
PPG/Firestone Indy Lights Championship
Season
Races14
Start dateMarch 2
End dateSeptember 27
Awards
Drivers' champion Tony Kanaan

The 1997 PPG/Firestone Indy Lights Championship Powered By Buick consisted of 13 races. Tony Kanaan edged out good friend and teammate Hélio Castro-Neves to the title by only four points.[1]

This was the first season where all teams used the Lola 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.

Team and driver chart

The following drivers and teams competed in the series:

Team No. Drivers Round(s)
Autosport Racing 5 Eric Jensen 9
57 Didier André 1–12
75 Jean-Philippe Belloc 12
Bordin Racing 56 Andrew Bordin 1–2, 6–12
Brian Stewart Racing 2 Airton Daré All
3 Cristiano da Matta All
34 Jaques Lazier 2–7
Frédéric Gosparini 9–13
63 Brian Cunningham 1
Conquest Racing 21 Christophe Tinseau All
Dorricott Racing 31 Luiz Garcia Jr. All
32 Bob Dorricott Jr. All
Eclipse Racing 20 John Jones 1–4, 7–8
Claude Bourbonnais 9–12
FRE Racing 4 Sérgio Paese 1–2, 4–12
Forsythe Racing 33 David Empringham All
99 Lee Bentham All
Genoa Racing 97 Oswaldo Negri Jr. 2, 4, 8–12
Indy Regency Racing 28 Hideki Noda 1–12
77 Rodolfo Lavín All
Johansson Motorsports 36 Fredrik Larsson 1–9
70 Jeff Ward 11–13
Leading Edge Motorsports 5 Chris Bingham 1–3, 8
Lucas Place Motorsports 5 Brian Cunningham 11–13
16 Shigeaki Hattori 2–13
24 David DeSilva All
PacWest Lights 18 Robby Unser All
Project Indy 15 Philipp Sager 1
Frédéric Gosparini 2
Tasman Motorsports 7 Tony Kanaan All
8 Hélio Castroneves All
Team Green 25 Naoki Hattori All
26 Chris Simmons All
27 Mark Hotchkis All
Team Mears 10 Casey Mears All
11 Clint Mears All
Team Medlin 12 Geoff Boss 1–12

Schedule

Rd. Date Track Location
1 March 2  O  Homestead-Miami Speedway Homestead, Florida
2 April 13  R  Long Beach Street Circuit Long Beach, California
3 April 27  O  Nazareth Speedway Nazareth, Pennsylvania
4 May 18  R  Grand Prize of America Road Course Savannah, Georgia
5 May 24  O  Gateway International Raceway Madison, Illinois
6 June 1  O  Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin
7 June 8  R  The Raceway at Belle Isle Park Detroit, Michigan
8 June 22  R  Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon
9 July 20  R  Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario
10 August 3  R  Circuit Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières, Quebec
11 August 31  R  Streets of Vancouver Vancouver, British Columbia
12 September 7  R  Laguna Seca Raceway Monterey, California
13 September 27  O  California Speedway Fontana, California

Race results

Round Circuit Pole position Fastest lap Most laps led Race Winner
Driver Team
1 Homestead-Miami Speedway Hélio Castroneves Mark Hotchkis Mark Hotchkis David Empringham Forsythe Racing
2 Long Beach Street Circuit Hélio Castroneves Cristiano da Matta Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Tasman Motorsports
3 Nazareth Speedway Chris Simmons David DeSilva Chris Simmons Cristiano da Matta Brian Stewart Racing
4 Grand Prize of America Road Course Hélio Castroneves Not announced Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Tasman Motorsports
5 Gateway International Raceway Chris Simmons Cristiano da Matta Lee Bentham Lee Bentham Forsythe Racing
6 Milwaukee Mile Clint Mears Clint Mears Clint Mears Clint Mears Team Mears
7 The Raceway at Belle Isle Park Tony Kanaan Hélio Castroneves Tony Kanaan Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports
8 Portland International Raceway Hélio Castroneves Oswaldo Negri Jr. Hélio Castroneves Hideki Noda Indy Regency Racing
9 Exhibition Place Tony Kanaan Christophe Tinseau Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Tasman Motorsports
10 Circuit Trois-Rivières Mark Hotchkis Mark Hotchkis Tony Kanaan Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports
11 Streets of Vancouver Cristiano da Matta Hideki Noda Cristiano da Matta Cristiano da Matta Brian Stewart Racing
12 Laguna Seca Raceway Tony Kanaan Cristiano da Matta Cristiano da Matta Cristiano da Matta Brian Stewart Racing
13 California Speedway Clint Mears Cristiano da Matta Hélio Castroneves Clint Mears Team Mears

    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
    		 SAV
    		 GAT
    		 MIL
    		 DET
    		 POR
    		 TOR
    		 TRO
    		 VAN
    		 LAG
    		 FON
    		 Points
    1 Tony Kanaan 6 5 5 23 10 3 1* 3 2 1* 2 2 9 156
    2 Hélio Castroneves 14 1* 4 1* 3 12 2 2* 1* 20 19 3 5* 152
    3 Cristiano da Matta 21 2 1 21 2 4 26 5 18 4 1* 1* 4 141
    4 David Empringham 1 10 9 14 4 2 4 7 3 5 5 26 13 107
    5 Lee Bentham 5 14 22 3 1* 9 22 8 27 8 8 5 3 88
    6 Chris Simmons 3 4 2* 16 5 17 8 13 21 15 4 28 2 88
    7 Mark Hotchkis 4* 3 23 17 22 7 6 16 17 2 11 4 11 74
    8 Clint Mears 12 18 7 18 11 1* 18 DNS 13 12 14 DNS 1 53
    9 Hideki Noda 18 19 16 6 16 14 14 1 15 6 3 12 51
    10 Airton Daré 11 6 8 8 6 11 13 20 9 9 7 11 8 51
    11 Christophe Tinseau 25 26 14 12 12 21 11 4 5 3 18 6 12 49
    12 Fredrik Larsson 2 22 3 10 24 5 25 22 28 43
    13 Luiz Garcia Jr. 16 15 24 4 17 19 9 6 25 23 6 10 10 38
    14 Didier André 22 8 25 9 20 18 21 25 4 7 10 8 35
    15 Robby Unser 8 7 10 22 7 6 12 14 7 19 21 22 16 35
    16 Naoki Hattori 13 DNS 15 5 14 13 7 24 6 24 15 20 6 32
    17 Geoff Boss 10 24 17 20 21 20 3 10 14 11 9 9 30
    18 Sérgio Paese DNS 20 2 18 24 5 12 23 25 27 13 27
    19 David DeSilva 17 12 6 DNQ 8 25 10 26 24 26 17 17 17
    20 Oswaldo Negri Jr. 27 7 9 8 21 20 27 15
    21 Brian Cunningham 7 25 7 14 12
    22 Jaques Lazier 11 12 24 9 8 23 12
    23 Casey Mears 9 17 13 13 13 10 25 11 20 17 16 19 15 9
    24 Jeff Ward 22 15 7 6
    25 Shigeaki Hattori 9 20 15 23 16 24 23 26 14 12 14 18 5
    26 Frédéric Gosparini DNS 12 10 24 23 19 4
    27 Bob Dorricott Jr. 24 21 18 11 19 23 16 15 11 16 13 21 20 4
    28 Andrew Bordin 23 23 15 17 17 10 13 23 16 3
    29 Chris Bingham 15 13 11 21 2
    30 Rodolfo Lavín 20 16 21 25 15 22 19 19 22 22 26 25 17 0
    31 Eric Jensen 16 0
    32 Claude Bourbonnais 19 18 28 18 0
    33 John Jones 19 25 19 19 20 18 0
    34 Jean-Philippe Belloc 24 0
    35 Philipp Sager DNS 0
    Pos Driver HMS
    		 LBH
    		 NAZ
    		 SAV
    		 GAT
    		 MIL
    		 DET
    		 POR
    		 TOR
    		 TRO
    		 VAN
    		 LAG
    		 FON
    		 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".
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.