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]

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 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

References

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  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.