2012 Indy Lights season
Firestone Indy Lights
Season
Races12
Start dateMarch 24
End dateSeptember 15
Awards
Drivers' championFrance Tristan Vautier
Teams' championUnited States Sam Schmidt Motorsports
Rookie of the YearFrance Tristan Vautier
← 2011
2013 →

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 Brazil Victor Carbone[3] All
7 United Kingdom Oliver Webb[4] All
11 Argentina Esteban Guerrieri[5] All
77 France Tristan Vautier[6] All
Team Moore Racing 2 Colombia Gustavo Yacamán[7] All
22 Canada David Ostella[8] All
Andretti Autosport
AFS Racing 		26 Colombia Carlos Muñoz[9] All
27 Colombia Sebastián Saavedra All
Bryan Herta Autosport 28 United States Troy Castaneda[9] 1–2
United States Nick Andries[10] 3
Norway Anders Krohn[N 1] 4, 7
Juncos Racing[11] 86 Brazil João Victor Horto 1–2, 4
Venezuela Bruno Palli 12
United States Chase Austin 7
87 4
Team E 17 United States Brandon Wagner 4
Belardi Auto Racing 4 Venezuela Jorge Goncalvez[12] All
9 Israel Alon Day[13] 1–7
Republic of Ireland Peter Dempsey[14] 8–12
19 United States Mike Larrison[15] 4, 6–7, 12
Brooks Associates Racing 8 United Kingdom Alex Jones 3
Hong Kong Adderly Fong 11
Fan Force United 24 India Armaan Ebrahim[16] 1–5
United States Bryan Clauson[17] 6–7
United Kingdom Stefan Wilson 12
42 United States Emerson Newton-John[18] 4, 11
Younessi Racing 15 Republic of Ireland Peter Dempsey[19] 4–5
16 United States Rodin Younessi[20] 1, 5
Jeffrey Mark Motorsport 76 Mexico Juan Pablo Garcia[N 2] All
Hillenburg Motorsports 20 United States 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 United States St. Petersburg 100 Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida
2 April 1 United States Grand Prix of Alabama Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham, Alabama
3 April 15 United States Grand Prix of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California
4 May 25 United States Firestone Freedom 100 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana
5 June 2 United States Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix Belle Isle Detroit, Michigan
6 June 15 United States Firestone Indy Lights 100 Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin
7 June 22 United States Sukup 100 Iowa Speedway Newton, Iowa
8 July 7 Canada Toronto 100 Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario
9 July 21 Canada Edmonton 100 Edmonton City Centre Airport Edmonton, Alberta
10 August 5 Canada Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières Circuit Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières, Quebec
11 September 1 United States Grand Prix of Baltimore Streets of Baltimore Baltimore, Maryland
12 September 15 United States 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 United States St. Petersburg France Tristan Vautier France Tristan Vautier France Tristan Vautier France Tristan Vautier United States Sam Schmidt Motorsports
2 United States Barber Colombia Sebastián Saavedra Colombia Sebastián Saavedra Colombia Sebastián Saavedra Colombia Sebastián Saavedra United States Andretti Autosport
3 United States Long Beach Colombia Sebastián Saavedra Brazil Victor Carbone Argentina Esteban Guerrieri Argentina Esteban Guerrieri United States Sam Schmidt Motorsports
4 United States Indianapolis Colombia Gustavo Yacamán Brazil João Victor Horto Brazil Victor Carbone Argentina Esteban Guerrieri United States Sam Schmidt Motorsports
5 United States Belle Isle United Kingdom Oliver Webb Colombia Gustavo Yacamán United Kingdom Oliver Webb Colombia Gustavo Yacamán United States Team Moore Racing
6 United States Milwaukee France Tristan Vautier France Tristan Vautier France Tristan Vautier France Tristan Vautier United States Sam Schmidt Motorsports
7 United States Iowa France Tristan Vautier Argentina Esteban Guerrieri France Tristan Vautier Argentina Esteban Guerrieri United States Sam Schmidt Motorsports
8 Canada Toronto Brazil Victor Carbone Colombia Gustavo Yacamán Colombia Gustavo Yacamán Colombia Gustavo Yacamán United States Team Moore Racing
9 Canada Edmonton Colombia Carlos Muñoz Argentina Esteban Guerrieri Colombia Carlos Muñoz Colombia Carlos Muñoz United States Andretti Autosport
10 Canada Trois-Rivières France Tristan Vautier France Tristan Vautier France Tristan Vautier France Tristan Vautier United States Sam Schmidt Motorsports
11 United States Baltimore France Tristan Vautier Colombia Sebastián Saavedra France Tristan Vautier France Tristan Vautier United States Sam Schmidt Motorsports
12 United States Fontana Colombia Sebastián Saavedra Canada David Ostella Colombia Carlos Muñoz Colombia Carlos Muñoz United States Andretti Autosport

Driver standings

Pos Driver STP
United States 		BAR
United States 		LBH
United States 		INDY
United States 		DET
United States 		MIL
United States 		IOW
United States 		TOR
Canada 		EDM
Canada 		TRO
Canada 		BAL
United States 		FON
United States 		Pts
1 France Tristan Vautier  RY  1* 2 3 3 5 1* 4* 11 6 1* 1* 4 461
2 Argentina Esteban Guerrieri 2 3 1* 1 7 3 1 6 3 4 3 3 453
3 Colombia Gustavo Yacamán 6 4 10 4 1 8 2 1* 7 2 2 11 394
4 Colombia Sebastián Saavedra 3 1* 2 5 6 2 13 2 2 9 10 14 383
5 Colombia Carlos Muñoz  R  14 14 5 2 2 5 7 10 1* 3 11 1* 377
6 Brazil Victor Carbone 5 5 4 6* 4 6 3 3 8 8 DNS 5 340
7 United Kingdom Oliver Webb  R  4 13 6 15 3* 12 12 5 4 5 6 8 310
8 Canada David Ostella 15 9 8 18 13 4 5 7 10 6 4 2 298
9 Mexico Juan Pablo Garcia 7 8 7 11 9 11 14 8 9 10 9 10 260
10 Venezuela Jorge Goncalvez 11 10 9 12 DNS 9 6 9 11 7 7 13 247
11 Republic of Ireland Peter Dempsey 14 11 4 5 11 5 12 164
12 Israel Alon Day  R  12 6 11 8 8 7 DNS 147
13 India Armaan Ebrahim  R  8 12 12 13 10 97
14 United States Mike Larrison  R  9 13 11 9 80
15 Brazil João Victor Horto  R  13 7 7 69
16 United States Darryl Wills  R  10 11 15 54
17 United States Chase Austin  R  10 8 44
18 United States Bryan Clauson 10 10 40
19 United States Troy Castaneda  R  9 15 37
20 Norway Anders Krohn 19 9 34
21 United States Rodin Younessi  R  16 12 32
22 United States Emerson Newton-John  R  17 12 31
23 United Kingdom Stefan Wilson 6 28
24 Venezuela Bruno Palli  R  7 26
25 Hong Kong Adderly Fong  R  8 24
26 United States Nick Andries  R  13 17
27 United Kingdom Alex Jones  R  14 16
28 United States Brandon Wagner 16 14
Pos Driver STP
United States 		BAR
United States 		LBH
United States 		INDY
United States 		DET
United States 		MIL
United States 		IOW
United States 		TOR
Canada 		EDM
Canada 		TRO
Canada 		BAL
United States 		FON
United States 		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

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.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ "Vautier claims championship by 8 points over Guerrieri". indycar.com. IndyCar. 16 September 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-09-18. Retrieved 16 September 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 2012-01-03. 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 2012-01-25. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  13. ^ driver makes history”[permanent dead link] (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 2012-07-02. 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 2012-01-09. 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 2012-02-19. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
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