2012 Indy Lights

2012 Indy Lights season
Firestone Indy Lights
Season
Races12
Start dateMarch 24
End dateSeptember 15
Awards
Drivers' champion Tristan Vautier
Teams' champion Sam Schmidt Motorsports
Rookie of the Year Tristan Vautier

The 2012 Indy Lights season was the 27th season of the series and the eleventh sanctioned by IndyCar, acting as the primary support series for the IZOD IndyCar Series. It began March 24, 2012 in St. Petersburg.[1]

The championship was dominated by the Sam Schmidt Motorsports team with French driver Tristan Vautier winning the championship by eight points ahead of experienced Argentine team mate Esteban Guerrieri. SSM drivers won seven out of the twelve races over the course of the season and Vautier also claimed the rookie of the year title. Colombian driver Gustavo Yacamán from Team Moore Racing finished a tight battle for third with countryman Sebastián Saavedra.[2]

Team and driver chart

Team No. Drivers Rounds
Sam Schmidt Motorsports 3 Victor Carbone[3] All
7 Oliver Webb[4] All
11 Esteban Guerrieri[5] All
77 Tristan Vautier[6] All
Team Moore Racing 2 Gustavo Yacamán[7] All
22 David Ostella[8] All
Andretti Autosport
AFS Racing
26 Carlos Muñoz[9] All
27 Sebastián Saavedra All
Bryan Herta Autosport 28 Troy Castaneda[9] 1–2
Nick Andries[10] 3
Anders Krohn[N 1] 4, 7
Juncos Racing[11] 86 João Victor Horto 1–2, 4
Bruno Palli 12
Chase Austin 7
87 4
Team E 17 Brandon Wagner 4
Belardi Auto Racing 4 Jorge Goncalvez[12] All
9 Alon Day[13] 1–7
Peter Dempsey[14] 8–12
19 Mike Larrison[15] 4, 6–7, 12
Brooks Associates Racing 8 Alex Jones 3
Adderly Fong 11
Fan Force United 24 Armaan Ebrahim[16] 1–5
Bryan Clauson[17] 6–7
Stefan Wilson 12
42 Emerson Newton-John[18] 4, 11
Younessi Racing 15 Peter Dempsey[19] 4–5
16 Rodin Younessi[20] 1, 5
Jeffrey Mark Motorsport 76 Juan Pablo Garcia[N 2] All
Hillenburg Motorsports 20 Darryl Wills 1–3

Schedule

IndyCar announced that all Firestone Indy Lights Series races would be broadcast on the NBC Sports Network in 2012.[21]

Rnd Date Race Name Track Location
1 March 24 St. Petersburg 100 Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida
2 April 1 Grand Prix of Alabama Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham, Alabama
3 April 15 Grand Prix of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California
4 May 25 Firestone Freedom 100 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana
5 June 2 Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix Belle Isle Detroit, Michigan
6 June 15 Firestone Indy Lights 100 Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin
7 June 22 Sukup 100 Iowa Speedway Newton, Iowa
8 July 7 Toronto 100 Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario
9 July 21 Edmonton 100 Edmonton City Centre Airport Edmonton, Alberta
10 August 5 Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières Circuit Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières, Quebec
11 September 1 Grand Prix of Baltimore Streets of Baltimore Baltimore, Maryland
12 September 15 Auto Club Speedway Foundation 100 Auto Club Speedway Fontana, California
  Oval/Speedway
  Road Course/Street Circuit

Race results

Rd. Race Pole position Fastest lap Most laps led Winning driver Winning team
1 St. Petersburg Tristan Vautier Tristan Vautier Tristan Vautier Tristan Vautier Sam Schmidt Motorsports
2 Barber Sebastián Saavedra Sebastián Saavedra Sebastián Saavedra Sebastián Saavedra Andretti Autosport
3 Long Beach Sebastián Saavedra Victor Carbone Esteban Guerrieri Esteban Guerrieri Sam Schmidt Motorsports
4 Indianapolis Gustavo Yacamán João Victor Horto Victor Carbone Esteban Guerrieri Sam Schmidt Motorsports
5 Belle Isle Oliver Webb Gustavo Yacamán Oliver Webb Gustavo Yacamán Team Moore Racing
6 Milwaukee Tristan Vautier Tristan Vautier Tristan Vautier Tristan Vautier Sam Schmidt Motorsports
7 Iowa Tristan Vautier Esteban Guerrieri Tristan Vautier Esteban Guerrieri Sam Schmidt Motorsports
8 Toronto Victor Carbone Gustavo Yacamán Gustavo Yacamán Gustavo Yacamán Team Moore Racing
9 Edmonton Carlos Muñoz Esteban Guerrieri Carlos Muñoz Carlos Muñoz Andretti Autosport
10 Trois-Rivières Tristan Vautier Tristan Vautier Tristan Vautier Tristan Vautier Sam Schmidt Motorsports
11 Baltimore Tristan Vautier Sebastián Saavedra Tristan Vautier Tristan Vautier Sam Schmidt Motorsports
12 Fontana Sebastián Saavedra David Ostella Carlos Muñoz Carlos Muñoz Andretti Autosport

Driver standings

Pos Driver STP
BAR
LBH
INDY
DET
MIL
IOW
TOR
EDM
TRO
BAL
FON
Pts
1 Tristan Vautier  RY  1* 2 3 3 5 1* 4* 11 6 1* 1* 4 461
2 Esteban Guerrieri 2 3 1* 1 7 3 1 6 3 4 3 3 453
3 Gustavo Yacamán 6 4 10 4 1 8 2 1* 7 2 2 11 394
4 Sebastián Saavedra 3 1* 2 5 6 2 13 2 2 9 10 14 383
5 Carlos Muñoz  R  14 14 5 2 2 5 7 10 1* 3 11 1* 377
6 Victor Carbone 5 5 4 6* 4 6 3 3 8 8 DNS 5 340
7 Oliver Webb  R  4 13 6 15 3* 12 12 5 4 5 6 8 310
8 David Ostella 15 9 8 18 13 4 5 7 10 6 4 2 298
9 Juan Pablo Garcia 7 8 7 11 9 11 14 8 9 10 9 10 260
10 Jorge Goncalvez 11 10 9 12 DNS 9 6 9 11 7 7 13 247
11 Peter Dempsey 14 11 4 5 11 5 12 164
12 Alon Day  R  12 6 11 8 8 7 DNS 147
13 Armaan Ebrahim  R  8 12 12 13 10 97
14 Mike Larrison  R  9 13 11 9 80
15 João Victor Horto  R  13 7 7 69
16 Darryl Wills  R  10 11 15 54
17 Chase Austin  R  10 8 44
18 Bryan Clauson 10 10 40
19 Troy Castaneda  R  9 15 37
20 Anders Krohn 19 9 34
21 Rodin Younessi  R  16 12 32
22 Emerson Newton-John  R  17 12 31
23 Stefan Wilson 6 28
24 Bruno Palli  R  7 26
25 Adderly Fong  R  8 24
26 Nick Andries  R  13 17
27 Alex Jones  R  14 16
28 Brandon Wagner 16 14
Pos Driver STP
BAR
LBH
INDY
DET
MIL
IOW
TOR
EDM
TRO
BAL
FON
Pts
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
Rookie of the Year
Rookie
Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
Points 50 40 35 32 30 28 26 24 22 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
  • Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.

Footnotes

  1. ^ In conjunction with Curb Agajanian Performance Group.
  2. ^ In technical alliance with Bryan Herta Autosport.

References

  1. ^ "12 races on 2012 calendar". Firestone Indy Lights. IndyCar. December 27, 2011. Retrieved December 28, 2011.
  2. ^ "Vautier claims championship by 8 points over Guerrieri". indycar.com. IndyCar. September 16, 2012. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
  3. ^ "Victor Carbone continues with Schmidt in Indy Lights". Racer. Haymarket Publications. December 29, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
  4. ^ "Sam Schmidt Motorsports signs Webb". Firestone Indy Lights. IndyCar. December 1, 2011. Archived from the original on January 3, 2012. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
  5. ^ "Esteban Guerrieri ci riprova con Sam Schmidt Motorsports" [Esteban Guerrieri is back with Sam Schmidt Motorsports]. stopandgo.tv (in Italian). Stop&Go. March 15, 2012. Archived from the original on January 3, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2012.
  6. ^ "Vautier joins Schmidt for 2012 Indy Lights season". Racer. Haymarket Publications. November 18, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
  7. ^ El Tigrillo Yacamán se queda en la Indy Lights, el Colombiano, March 6, 2012, Retrieved March 6, 2012 (in Spanish)
  8. ^ Ostella Joins Team Moore in Firestone Indy Lights Series, David Ostella PR, January 2, 2012, Retrieved January 2, 2012
  9. ^ a b Muñoz, Castenada Join Indy Lights for St. Pete Archived March 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, "RACER.com", March 19, 2012, Retrieved March 19, 2012
  10. ^ "Andries to debut at Long Beach". Racer. Haymarket Publications. April 10, 2012. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
  11. ^ "Juncos Racing acquires Davey Hamilton's Indy Lights team". Racer. Haymarket Publications. November 29, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
  12. ^ ""Goncalvez Returns to Belardi for 2012". Archived from the original on January 25, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2012.
  13. ^ driver makes history” (indycar.com; January 20, 2012)
  14. ^ "Dempsey joins Belardi Auto Racing for remainder of season". Firestone Indy Lights. IndyCar. June 29, 2012. Archived from the original on July 2, 2012. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  15. ^ Knowlton, Veronica. Mike Larrison Joins Belardi Auto Racing Belardi Auto Racing, May 4, 2012, Retrieved 2012-05-04
  16. ^ "Fan Force United signs Ebrahim". Firestone Indy Lights. IndyCar. January 3, 2012. Archived from the original on January 9, 2012. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  17. ^ "Fan Force United hires Clauson for two races". Firestone Indy Lights. IndyCar. June 9, 2012. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  18. ^ Guerra, Kate. Newton-John enters the Freedom 100 with Fan Force United Archived 2012-05-02 at the Wayback Machine, IndyCar, April 30, 2012, Retrieved 2012-05-01
  19. ^ Dempsey returns to Firestone Indy Lights with Younessi, May 7, 2012, Retrieved 2012-05-07
  20. ^ Younessi Racing enters Indy Lights, Racer, February 28, 2012, Retrieved March 6, 2012
  21. ^ "NBC Sports Network to air 2012 races". Firestone Indy Lights. IndyCar. February 17, 2012. Archived from the original on February 19, 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2012.