2016 Indy Lights Explained

The 2016 Indy Lights season was a season of open wheel motor racing. It was the 31st season of the Indy Lights series and the 15th sanctioned by IndyCar, acting as the primary support series for the IndyCar Series.

Dubai born British sophomore driver Ed Jones won the championship by a narrow two point margin over rookie Uruguayan Santiago Urrutia. Jones won two races compared to Urrutia's four wins but Jones more consistently finished on the podium. American Kyle Kaiser won twice and made few mistakes and finished third in points. Kaiser finished just ahead of American Zach Veach whose season began poorly but won three of the last ten races. Dean Stoneman and Félix Serrallés also captured two wins, but were much less consistent and finished fifth and sixth in the championship respectively. Swede Felix Rosenqvist won three races but missed much of the season due to his role as a Mercedes factory driver in Europe.

Jones' Carlin team won the teams' championship and in the final race of the season, Jones' Carlin teammate Serrallés ceded fourth place to Jones on the final lap, allowing him to win the championship.

Team and driver chart

• All drivers compete in Cooper Tire–shod Dallara IL-15 chassis with Mazda AER engine.

Team		Drivers	Rounds
Andretti Autosport	27	nowrap	Dean Stoneman[1]	All
	28	nowrap	Dalton Kellett[2]	All
	51	nowrap	Shelby Blackstock[3]	All
Belardi Auto Racing	5	nowrap	Zach Veach[4]	All
	14	nowrap	Felix Rosenqvist[5]	1–8, 12–13
	45	nowrap	James French	9–10
Carlin[6]	4	nowrap	Félix Serrallés[7]	All
	11	nowrap	Ed Jones[8]	All
	22	nowrap	Neil Alberico[9]	All
Juncos Racing	13	nowrap	Zachary Claman DeMelo[10]	All
	18	nowrap	Kyle Kaiser[11]	All
McCormack Racing	34	nowrap	Davey Hamilton Jr.	17–18
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	7	nowrap	RC Enerson[12]	1–8
	17	nowrap	André Negrão[13]	All
	55	nowrap	Santiago Urrutia[14]	All
	77	nowrap	Scott Anderson	1–2, 4–7
		nowrap	Heamin Choi	3, 8, 11, 17–18
Team Pelfrey[15]	2	nowrap	Juan Piedrahita[16]	1–13
		nowrap	Sean Rayhall[17]	17–18
	3	nowrap	Scott Hargrove[18]	1–8
		nowrap	Garett Grist[19]	9–10, 12–18

• Team Pelfrey purchased the assets of 8Star Motorsports

Schedule

The 2016 schedule was released on October 27, 2015.^[20] Phoenix and Road America returned to the calendar. Long Beach was removed from the schedule, and with the IndyCar Series not returning to the Milwaukee Mile, Indy Lights will not return either.

The Grand Prix of Boston was announced in late May 2015. The race was scheduled to be run on Labor Day Weekend on September 4, 2016. The proposed street circuit was based in the Boston Seaport District. On April 29, 2016, Boston newspapers reported that the race weekend, which was to include an Indy Lights support race, had been canceled.^[21] The race was replaced by a race at Watkins Glen International, on the same weekend.^[22]

The season will expand to 18 races, two more than the previous season. All races on road courses and street circuits will be double headers with the exception of Watkins Glen, which, like the oval tracks, will have only one race.

All races will be run in support of IndyCar races except the final weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, which will be a Mazda Road to Indy headliner weekend.

Rd.	Date	Race name	Track	Location	TV
1	March 12	Indy Lights Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Lucas School of Racing	Streets of St. Petersburg	St. Petersburg, Florida	NBCSN
2	March 13
3	April 2	Indy Lights Grand Prix of Phoenix	Phoenix International Raceway	Phoenix, Arizona	NBCSN
4	April 23	Legacy Indy Lights 100	Barber Motorsports Park	Birmingham, Alabama	NBCSN
5	April 24
6	May 13	Mazda Indy Lights Grand Prix of Indianapolis	Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course	Speedway, Indiana	NBCSN
7	May 14
8	May 27	Mazda Freedom 100	Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval	Speedway, Indiana	NBCSN
9	June 25	Mazda Indy Lights Grand Prix of Road America	Road America	Elkhart Lake, WI	NBCSN
10	June 26
11	July 10	Indy Lights Iowa Challenge	Iowa Speedway	Newton, Iowa	NBCSN
12	July 16	Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Toronto	Exhibition Place	Toronto	NBCSN
13	July 17
14	July 30	Cooper Tires Indy Lights Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio	Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington, Ohio	NBCSN
15	July 31
16	September 3	Mazda Indy Lights Grand Prix of Watkins Glen	Watkins Glen International	Watkins Glen, New York	NBCSN
17	September 10	Mazda Indy Lights Grand Prix of Monterey	Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California	NBCSN
18	September 11

Race results

Round	Race	Pole position	Fastest lap	Most laps led	Race Winner
					Driver	Team
1	St. Petersburg 1	Kyle Kaiser	Zach Veach	Zach Veach	Félix Serrallés	Carlin
2	St. Petersburg 2	Felix Rosenqvist	Felix Rosenqvist	Felix Rosenqvist	Felix Rosenqvist	Belardi Auto Racing
3	Phoenix	Kyle Kaiser	Kyle Kaiser	Kyle Kaiser	Kyle Kaiser	Juncos Racing
4	Birmingham 1	Ed Jones	Santiago Urrutia	Ed Jones	Ed Jones	Carlin
5	Birmingham 2	Ed Jones	Santiago Urrutia	Santiago Urrutia	Santiago Urrutia	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
6	Indianapolis GP 1	Ed Jones	Zachary Claman DeMelo	Ed Jones	Ed Jones	Carlin
7	Indianapolis GP 2	Ed Jones	Felix Rosenqvist	Dean Stoneman	Dean Stoneman	Andretti Autosport
8	Indianapolis	Ed Jones	Neil Alberico	Dean Stoneman	Dean Stoneman	Andretti Autosport
9	Road America 1	Zach Veach	Zachary Claman DeMelo	Zach Veach	Zach Veach	Belardi Auto Racing
10	Road America 2	Ed Jones	Dean Stoneman	Santiago Urrutia	Santiago Urrutia	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
11	Iowa	Ed Jones	Zach Veach	Ed Jones	Félix Serrallés	Carlin
12	Toronto 1	Felix Rosenqvist	Felix Rosenqvist	Felix Rosenqvist	Felix Rosenqvist	Belardi Auto Racing
13	Toronto 2	Felix Rosenqvist	Félix Serrallés	Felix Rosenqvist	Felix Rosenqvist	Belardi Auto Racing
14	Mid-Ohio 1	Santiago Urrutia	Santiago Urrutia	Santiago Urrutia	Santiago Urrutia	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
15	Mid-Ohio 2	Santiago Urrutia	Félix Serrallés	Santiago Urrutia	Santiago Urrutia	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
16	Watkins Glen	Santiago Urrutia	Dean Stoneman	Zach Veach	Zach Veach	Belardi Auto Racing
17	Laguna Seca 1	Kyle Kaiser	Kyle Kaiser	Kyle Kaiser	Kyle Kaiser	Juncos Racing
18	Laguna Seca 2	Ed Jones	Zach Veach	Zach Veach	Zach Veach	Belardi Auto Racing

Championship standings

Drivers' championship

Scoring system

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th
Points	30	25	22	19	17	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

• The driver who qualified on pole was awarded one additional point.
• An additional point was awarded to the driver who led the most laps in a race.
• The driver who obtained the fastest lap in a race was awarded one additional point.

Pos Driver STP PHX ALA IND INDY RDA IOW TOR MOH WGL LAG Pts 1 Ed Jones 10 7 2 1* 2 1* 4 21 4 13 31 6 5 6 11 2 2 4 363 2 4 13 4 11 1* 2 2 14 9 1* 5 4 4 1* 1* 12 5 2 361 3 Kyle Kaiser 3 2 1* 15 6 6 3 16 6 6 6 3 3 9 6 4 1* 3 334 4 Zach Veach 16* 3 8 3 10 5 10 10 1* 3 2* 9 6 5 4 1* 3 1* 332 5 8 6 5 16 3 3 1* 1* 2 9 4 5 14 3 2 10 13 9 316 6 Félix Serrallés 1 4 7 2 15 7 5 6 3 14 1 2 10 4 10 7 8 5 311 7 6 5 6 8 11 9 16 15 10 2 13 11 2 2 3 3 9 6 268 8 Shelby Blackstock 14 11 14 4 5 10 7 4 13 5 12 10 9 8 5 6 10 11 227 9 11 16 11 5 7 13 14 13 5 4 8 13 13 7 7 9 12 7 199 10 15 10 10 9 9 16 12 3 14 12 9 8 11 11 9 11 7 13 193 11 12 15 9 12 14 11 13 7 11 11 11 12 8 12 8 5 6 10 193 12 7 1* 15 14 8 4 6 9 1* 1* 185 13 Juan Piedrahita 9 8 12 7 16 15 11 8 12 7 7 14 12 135 14 RC Enerson 5 12 3 6 4 8 15 11 111 15 7 10 7 7 10 12 8 11 15 102 16 2 14 13 13 12 14 9 5 93 17 Scott Anderson 13 9 10 13 12 8 61 18 16 12 10 15 12 40 19 Sean Rayhall 4 8 32 20 8 8 26 21 14 14 14 Pos Driver STP PHX ALA IND INDY RDA IOW TOR MOH WGL LAG 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 (1 point) *|style="background:#F2F2F2;" align=center|Led most race laps (1 point)|-|style="background:#F2F2F2;" align=center|1|style="background:#F2F2F2;" align=center|Qualifying cancelled no bonus point awarded|-|style="background:Orange;" align=center colspan=2|Rookie|}|}|} Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes. Teams' championship Pos Team Points 1 Carlin 413 2 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports w/ Curb-Agajanian 384 3 Belardi Auto Racing 322 4 Andretti Autosport 281 5 Juncos Racing 275 6 Team Pelfrey 135 See also 2016 IndyCar Series season 2016 Pro Mazda Championship season 2016 U.S. F2000 National Championship External links

Notes and References

1. Malsher, David. Andretti signs Stoneman for Indy Lights, Motorsport.com, February 24, 2016, Retrieved 2016-02-24
2. News: Andretti promotes Kellett to Indy Lights. Valentin. Khorounzhiy. Motorsport.com. September 22, 2015. November 3, 2015.
3. Malsher, David. Blackstock staying at Andretti Autosport, leads opening Lights test, Motorsport.com, November 21, 2015, Retrieved 2015-11-25
4. Khorounzhiy, Valentin. Veach returns to Indy Lights with Belardi, Motorsport.com, November 25, 2015, Retrieved 2015-11-25
5. News: Belardi Auto Racing confirms Felix Rosenqvist for Indy Lights. Indy Lights. February 22, 2016. February 23, 2016. June 23, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200623021303/https://www.indylights.com/news/belardi-auto-racing-confirms-felix-rosenqvist-for-indy-lights. dead.
6. News: Carlin aims for IndyCar after launching 2015 Indy Lights programme. James. Roberts. Autosport. Haymarket Publications. December 1, 2014. December 1, 2014.
7. News: Felix Serralles teams up with Carlin for second Indy Lights year. Allen. Peter. Paddock Scout. January 7, 2016. January 7, 2016.
8. News: Ed Jones commits to a second season of Indy Lights with Carlin. Peter. Allen. Paddock Scout. October 19, 2015. November 3, 2015.
9. News: Carlin sign Alberico for 2016 Indy Lights Series. Carlin. January 25, 2016. January 25, 2016. June 25, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200625234937/http://www.carlin.co.uk/news/indy-lights/carlin-sign-al-lights-series/. dead.
10. News: Canadian Zachary Claman DeMelo joins Juncos Racing for 2016 Indy Lights campaign. Juncos Racing. December 15, 2015. December 15, 2015. December 22, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222112943/http://www.juncosracing.com/canadian-zachary-claman-demelo-joins-juncos-racing-for-2016-indy-lights-campaign/. dead.
11. News: Kyle Kaiser sticks with Juncos for 2016 Indy Lights season. Peter. Allen. Paddock Scout. October 29, 2015. November 3, 2015.
12. News: RC Enerson to compete with SPM in 2016. October 30, 2015. November 6, 2015. SPM IndyCar. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. February 7, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160207173939/http://www.spmindycar.com/rc-enerson-to-compete-with-spm-in-2016/. dead.
13. News: Indy Lights Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Lucas School of Racing Entry List. March 3, 2016. March 9, 2016. Indy Lights. Andersen Promotions. June 26, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200626020237/https://www.indylights.com/docs/default-source/schedule/indy-lights-entry-list8c2d0e2f8d4765b8b2f6ff0000cf2672.pdf?sfvrsn=0. dead.
14. News: Santiago Urrutia a la IndyLights. January 27, 2016. January 27, 2016. Velocidad Total. Velocidad Total. es. Santiago Urrutia goes up to IndyLights.
15. News: Team Pelfrey expands to Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires. October 26, 2015. November 6, 2015. Indy Lights. Andersen Promotions. November 17, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151117032216/http://indylights.com/news/team-pelfrey-expands-to-indy-lights-presented-by-cooper-tires. dead.
16. News: Piedrahita signs with Team Pelfrey for 2016 IndyLights season. February 18, 2016. February 18, 2016. Team Pelfrey Indy Lights. Team Pelfrey.
17. News: Pelfrey calls up Rayhall for Lights finale. Khorounzhiy. Valentin. September 6, 2016. September 6, 2016. motorsport.com. Motorsport.com. November 4, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161104224635/http://www.motorsport.com/indylights/news/pelfrey-calls-up-rayhall-for-lights-finale-816309/. dead.
18. Web site: Hargrove, Pelfrey, plan Phoenix, Barber in working towards full season. 24 March 2016.
19. News: Garett Grist to make Indy Lights debut with Team Pelfrey. June 14, 2016. June 14, 2016. Indy Lights. Andersen Promotions.
20. News: 2016 Mazda Road to Indy schedules announced. October 27, 2015. November 3, 2015. IndyLights. March 1, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160301054357/http://www.indylights.com/news/2016-mazda-road-to-indy-schedules-announced. dead.
21. News: Golen. Jimmy. Scheduled IndyCar race on streets of Boston cancelled. April 29, 2016. Associated Press. Associated Press. AP Sports. April 29, 2016. Boston. https://web.archive.org/web/20160501111634/http://racing.ap.org/article/scheduled-indycar-race-streets-boston-canceled. May 1, 2016. dead.
22. News: IndyCar returning to Waktins Glen International for Labor Day weekend. May 14, 2016. IndyCar.com. May 13, 2016.