Firestone Indy Lights
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| Firestone Indy Lights | |
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 2008 Indy Lights season |
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| Category | Open-wheel cars |
| Country or region |  United States |
| Inaugural season | 2002 |
| Drivers | 28 |
| Teams | 17[1] |
| Constructors | Dallara |
| Drivers' champion |  Alex Lloyd |
| Teams' champion | Sam Schmidt Motorsports |
| Official website | www.IndyCar.com/Pro |
Firestone Indy Lights is a developmental racing series sanctioned by the Indy Racing League. Previously, another series named Indy Lights filled the same role for CART and ran from 1986 to 1990 as the American Racing Series and Dayton Indy Lights from 1991 to 2001. The IRL-sanctioned current series was founded in 2002 as the Infiniti Pro Series as a way to introduce new talent to the IRL and coincided with Infiniti's departure from the IRL's premier IndyCar Series.
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[edit] Original series (1986 to 2001)
The original Indy Lights series was an open-wheeled racing series that acted as a developmental circuit for CART from 1986 to 2001. it was founded in 1986 as the American Racing Series (ARS). The series was renamed Indy Lights in 1991. The CART-sanctioned series became widely popular and secured the title sponsorship of first Firestone (the series's exclusive tire supplier) then Firestone's subsidiary Dayton Tires.
The Indy Lights schedule closely followed that of the CART series, with the noteworthy exception of Indianapolis. The series typically had a gap of up to a month while the primary CART teams raced at the Indy 500. The races were usually held the morning of the CART series races, as an undercard, support event. In many early years, the Indy Lights series skipped superspeedway races such as Michigan, but eventually it found its way to race there.
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, CART was suffering from financial problems and it canceled the minor league after the 2001 season. By this time the Toyota Atlantic series was equally effective in providing CART with new drivers. The Atlantics effectively became CART's primary feeder system. Later, it officially became Champ Car World Series' in-house feeder championship. The series' championship winners include two CART champions, two IndyCar Series champions, seven CCWS race-winners and two Formula One drivers.
A spec-series, CART Indy Lights used March chassis (essentially a modified 85B Formula 3000 chassis, renamed to Wildcat) from 1986 to 1992. Lola provided chassis from 1993 to 2001. Buick V6 engines were used for its entire existence.
[edit] Current series (2002 to present)
The current series was founded by the Indy Racing League and began racing in 2002, the year after the original series' demise. Prior to the series' inception the IRL had no in-house developmental league. It is a spec series using a modified 3.5L version of the V8 engine used in the Infiniti Q45 combined with Dallara chassis producing 420 horsepower. The series initially struggled to attract drivers and some races have had fewer than 10 entrants. However, with the introduction of a number of road-course races to the schedule in 2005, many of America's top prospects like Marco Andretti and Phil Giebler were attracted to the series to run part-time schedules on the road courses. In 2006, a boost in prize money even further increased car counts to 16 or more, with an even six ovals, six road course mix, with selected races being double races, and a stand-alone race (independent of the IndyCar Series) on the USGP weekend.
The series was called the Menards Infiniti Pro Series until 2006 when both Menards and Nissan dropped their sponsorship of the series. It was then known as the Indy Pro Series. 2007 car counts improved further with 20 or more cars in every race. On March 26, 2008; the series announced a changing of names. The historical records and proprietary information of Champ Car were acquired by the IRL. The series then became known as Firestone Indy Lights. The name reflects the heritage of the orignal Indy Lights series.
The centerpiece of the Indy Lights schedule is the Firestone Freedom 100, contested at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the Friday prior to the Indianapolis 500. The series also held a support race for the U.S. Grand Prix, the Liberty Challenge, from 2005 to 2007. It was the series' only event that is not a support race to an IndyCar event.
On September 9, 2007, during the Chicagoland 100, Logan Gomez beat Alex Lloyd by 0.0005 seconds (approximately 1.65 inches, or 42.0 mm, at 188 mph) which reflects the closest recognized finish in the over century-long history of organized automobile racing throughout the world.[2] In 2008, the margin was established by the Guinness Book of World Records as the closest finish ever in a car race.[3]
[edit] Drivers
[edit] Indy Lights Champions
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[edit] Current drivers
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[edit] IPS Graduates who have competed in the IndyCar Series
- Marco Andretti
Jaime Camara- Ed Carpenter
- P. J. Chesson
- Paul Dana
- A. J. Foyt IV
- Phil Giebler
- Jay Howard
- Alex Lloyd
Arie Luyendyk, Jr.- Thiago Medeiros
Hideki Mutoh
Marty Roth- Jeff Simmons
- Mark Taylor
[edit] Notable other CART ARS/Indy Lights alumni
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Taken from the official 2007 entry list at http://www.indycar.com/pro/drivers
- ^ "To the fourth degree", IndyCar.com, 2007-09-13. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
- ^ "Closest finish recognized as world record", IndyCar.com, 2008-03-04. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
[edit] External links
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