2012 Indy Lights season

2012 Indy Lights season
Firestone Indy Lights
Season
Races	12
Start date	March 24
End date	September 15
Awards
Drivers' champion	Tristan Vautier
Teams' champion	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
Rookie of the Year	Tristan Vautier
Chronology
Previous season	Next season
2011	2013

The 2012 Indy Lights season is a season of open wheel motor racing. It is 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

• All drivers will compete in Firestone Firehawk–shod Dallara chassis.

Team	No.	Drivers	Sponsor(s)	Rounds
Sam Schmidt Motorsports	3	Victor Carbone[3]	MAVTV / NevoNi	All
	7	Oliver Webb[4] (R)	Lucas Oil	All
	11	Esteban Guerrieri[5]	Pistas Argentinas / Ironbox	All
	77	Tristan Vautier[6] (R)	Mazda Road to Indy / Braille Lithium Battery / Metro Elevator	All
Team Moore Racing	2	Gustavo Yacamán[7]	Tuvacol / Crepes & Waffles / Xtreme Coil Drilling	All
	22	David Ostella[8]	Global Precast / Xtreme Coil Drilling	All
Andretti Autosport AFS Racing	26	Carlos Muñoz[9] (R)	Automatic Fire Sprinklers / Dially-Ser	All
	27	Sebastián Saavedra	Automatic Fire Sprinklers	All
Bryan Herta Autosport	28	Troy Castaneda[9] (R)	Forsythe / EMC / Barracuda Networks	1–2
		Nick Andries[10] (R)	Barracuda Networks / TBolt	3
		Anders Krohn[N 1]	i-TEC Well Solutions	4, 7
Juncos Racing[11]	86	João Victor Horto (R)	KONY 2012	1–2, 4
		Bruno Palli (R)	Team Viso Venezuela	12
		Chase Austin (R)	Starting Grid, Inc.	7
	87			4
Team E	17	Brandon Wagner		4
Belardi Auto Racing	4	Jorge Goncalvez[12]	TruFuel / Royal Oak Charcoal	All
	9	Alon Day[13] (R)	Liberty Engineering	1–7
		Peter Dempsey[14]	TruFuel	8–12
	19	Mike Larrison[15] (R)	TruFuel / Royal Oak Charcoal / Royal Purple	4, 6–7, 12
Brooks Associates Racing	8	Alex Jones (R)	Race 2 Energy Independence	1, 3
		Adderly Fong (R)		11
Fan Force United	24	Armaan Ebrahim[16] (R)	JK Tyres / AMG	1–5
		Bryan Clauson[17]		6–7
		Stefan Wilson	Jacked Up Energy Drink	12
	42	Emerson Newton-John[18] (R)	Graystone Consulting / Pink & Blue for Two	4, 11
Younessi Racing	15	Peter Dempsey[19]		4–5
	16	Rodin Younessi[20] (R)		1, 5
Jeffrey Mark Motorsport	76	Juan Pablo Garcia[N 2]	Freightliner / Mygale	All
Hillenburg Motorsports	20	Darryl Wills (R)	Tequila Distinguido	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 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 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 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 12 6 11 8 8 7 DNS 147 13 Armaan Ebrahim 8 12 12 13 10 97 14 Mike Larrison 9 13 11 9 80 15 João Victor Horto 13 7 7 69 16 Darryl Wills 10 11 15 54 17 Chase Austin 10 8 44 18 Bryan Clauson 10 10 40 19 Troy Castaneda 9 15 37 20 Anders Krohn 19 9 34 21 Rodin Younessi 16 12 32 22 Emerson Newton-John 17 12 31 23 Stefan Wilson 6 28 24 Bruno Palli 7 26 25 Adderly Fong 8 24 26 Nick Andries 13 17 27 Alex Jones DNP 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). 16 September 2012. 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. 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. 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 (Spanish)
8. Ostella Joins Team Moore in Firestone Indy Lights Series, David Ostella PR, January 2, 2012, Retrieved January 2, 2012
9. Muñoz, Castenada Join Indy Lights for St. Pete, "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”
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. 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. 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, 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. Retrieved February 17, 2012.